How Much Warm Up Do You Really Need ? Options

[Ben Higgins]

Here's a good video interview with John Petrucci. About 15 minutes in he talks about the stamina involved in playing a live show. The ironic thing is that most of us focus our practise time on lead guitar techniques. During band practise or live shows, we're going to be spending the least amount of time on lead playing and most of it on rhythm.

http://www.iguitarmag.com/magazine-edition...i_interviewmp4/

In case the video link doesn't work, you can find it the latest issue of Guitar Interactive http://www.iguitarmag.com/

He also talks about warming up before shows and how there doesn't seem to be a consistent way of ensuring a good night of playing. For a long time I've believed that our psychological approach when going to the guitar has a lot to do with whether we feel like we can 'do it' or not. I was pleased to see that John also comes to this conclusion too.

The reason I think this way is because I've gone through different periods of effectiveness and non effectiveness in my playing over the years. During the times where I believed that I needed to go through a specific routine for X amount of time, my playing would feel non confident, hesitant, unsure, weak. Physically I would feel like I was not as capable. I had psychologically set a scene and my hands followed it up. In short, I think that believing we need such a massive and extensive warm up is undermining our actual abilities.

I remember seeing some people saying things like if they didn't warm up for 1 hour 30 mins that would not be able to play. They said these things with such conviction too. It wasn't "If I don't warm up for 1hr 30 mins I might not feel ready" it was ".. I won't be able to play." Notice how definitive that statement is. That kind of thinking sets a definite negative outcome on a situation.

Ask yourself if you think that would improve your guitar session or make it less effective ?

I might be divisive in saying this but I'll say it anyway. If you think you've got to warm up for an hour or more just to play guitar then something's wrong. Somewhere along the line, you've either done something or experienced some sort of disappointing event in order to sap your confidence in your abilities to the point where you believe you have to go through some obsessively long compulsive ritual in order for things to 'go right'.

This is not hyperbole or conjecture. I know it to be true because I've lived it.

Warm up is really just about blood flow. And mindset. If you've got those two things happening then you're ready.

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