Warming Up Etc, How I do it Options

[Chris Evans]

ok, reading through the forum today and the hot topic that seems to crop up a fair bit is wrist/finger injuries etc, so I got to thinking and asked myself the question how do I warm up? I`m geniunly gutted for you guys that have suffered from these kinds of injuries, I have been very lucky and never had a problem of this kind which leads me on to my answer, yes ... I do warm up, its a very slow routine and kind of a ritual before I allow myself to venture into the lesson I`m currently working on (several at the mo!)

Over the last month I`ve developed a different warm up that I believe personally has helped me in two ways, it warms me up and forces me to play techniques slower, 2 areas that I`m really concentrating on at the moment is alternate picking and sweeping, so when Muris`s Paul Gilbert lesson was launched I had a crack at it pretty much straight away, it highlighted for me areas I`m weak in, (this is where I must apologise to Muris as I used the backing from his PG lesson to develop this warm up for myself), I added a backing guitar for starters just to give it a different feel to the lesson and then I got to work, it took me a day or so to piece this together and I warm up with it using the same routine before I sit down to lessons.

Its pretty basic and I probably play this for approx 20 mins with scales to metronome in between depending on how I feel, I loop the backing and carry on over and over again the same thing it sounds boring but its not, I do vary it, at the moment I really want to practice my sweeping so I put in a few different sweep patterns from a GMC lesson, I recorded this earlier when I was warming up

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this is the 100 backing, although towards the end of my warm up I notch it up to 125bpm and usually have a good old jam to it
this was tonights end of warm up jam theres some of the PG lesson it coz thats one I`m still working on at the mo, so was building myself up to it ya gotta have some fun!

[attachment=2842:attachment]

So thats how I do it, how do you do it?

[David.C.Bond]

Interesting post. Warmup is very important to a) have a productive practice avoid injuries, so this is definately a worthwhile thread.

I tend to start warming up my left hand by first doing some scalic excercises (ALWAYS with a metronome!).

After about 5 mins I switch over to the right hand, doing some thrash style gallop riffs working my way up from about 170bpm to about 220bpm, making sure my wrist is RELAXED!

Again after 5 mins or so I switch back to the left hand and do some legato exercises (based on scales, with the metronome).

I then like to run through a complete song (with backing track or metronome) that I enjoy and play well, just to get me in a positive mood before I start practicing.

Thats how I do it, usually takes 15-20 mins.

David

[Chris Evans]

I then like to run through a complete song (with backing track or metronome) that I enjoy and play well, just to get me in a positive mood before I start practicing.

Yea I think thats important before you start, thats why I always have a bit of a blow out jam and yea maybe play along with a couple of fav tracks to get me in the mood.

[Andrew Cockburn]

Thats how I do it, usually takes 15-20 mins.

David

Like the sound of that - get some technique practice into the warmup and kill 2 birds with one stone

[David.C.Bond]

Like the sound of that - get some technique practice into the warmup and kill 2 birds with one stone

Indeed, and some scale work in there for fretboard knowledge.
Ya gotta play it smart!

[Chris Evans]

Anyone else wanna add? I`d like to hear your warm ups too, be good to share some ideas I think

[Muris Varajic]

I don't do warm up that often cause I play all the time indeed,
tho I'm glad my BT is useful mate

[Chris Evans]

I don't do warm up that often cause I play all the time indeed,
tho I'm glad my BT is useful mate

Yes I`m finding at the moment that I dont need so long to warm up coz I`m playing so much these last few months does get me in the mood tho, I like the exercises, and yea *cough* sorry it was a good BT to improvise over

This post has been edited by Smells: Dec 8 2007, 05:18 PM

[Muris Varajic]

Be my guest

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Nice warm up exercises. Keep up the good work

[Pavel]

i don't warm-up actually. I start practicing exercises straight away at low BPM's and that's basically my warm-up.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

When i know i have 2+ hours practise session coming up, or some gigging I definately warm up (5 minutes without the guitar - similar to petruccis warming up, and 10 with the guitar minutes).

Before I really didn`t do that, but when my index finger felt like someone stuck a nidle in it about 6 months ago I always warm up.

[Chris Evans]

When i know i have 2+ hours practise session coming up, or some gigging I definately warm up (5 minutes without the guitar - similar to petruccis warming up, and 10 with the guitar minutes).

Before I really didn`t do that, but when my index finger felt like someone stuck a nidle in it about 6 months ago I always warm up.

Yea the rehearsal thing is a toughy for me, we usually rehearse on a Friday, so I pack the car up with my gear in the morning head off to work then go straight from work, trouble is when I get there either peeps are set up and waiting and your pretty much straight in, I hate that

[Jenkinson]

I do the same basic warmup as Pavel. I start @ 80 BPM and play the chromatic scale ascending from 1st position all the way up my fretboard. Then I play the 7 Modes, each one running from 1st position until I run out of frets. That usually gets my hands pretty loose.. or tight, whichever way you want to look at it. Then I increase the metronome by 5bpm until I hit my current cap which is 105bpm. This is how I warmup to play electric guitar. My warmups for classical and acousitc are much different, involving alot of finger independance exercises, and legato.

[David.C.Bond]

Yea the rehearsal thing is a toughy for me, we usually rehearse on a Friday, so I pack the car up with my gear in the morning head off to work then go straight from work, trouble is when I get there either peeps are set up and waiting and your pretty much straight in, I hate that

Yeah I once did a gig where I came straight from work and when I got there my band was already on stage waiting for me! I hated not having a chance to warm up, and it definately affected my playing.

This post has been edited by David.C.Bond: Dec 8 2007, 11:12 PM