Warm Ups - 3 Of My Favourites

Morning morning.

 So then, I'd like to pose a short question to you, before you play guitar (or any instrument) do you ever warm up? Have a quick think. You see you wouldn't go into a football/tennis/rugby/whatever training session without doing at least a short warm up would you? The idea behind it is not only to get your muscles warmed up and prepared but also to get hand-to-eye co-ordination up to speed and generally get the brain into the mindset of playing the game. Well my friends music is no different.

If anything warming up in music is more crucial than in sport. Ok fair enough you're not going to tear or pull a muscle (or at least I hope you won't!) playing guitar. But the point is that until you've been playing for a short while your body isn't going to be used moving both hands quickly, in particular your left hand. I spoke to the drummer from Embrace - a British pop band if you don't know them (and yes this is a bit of a name drop) and he said that if he didn't warm up before playing he wouldn't play his best stuff until he was halfway through a set. Warming up then is key. This is generally what bands do backstage at gigs, aside from drink and ,potentially, smoke heavily. So then, here are my 3 favourite warm ups, 2 for the left hand and 1 for the right hand.

1. The Spider (left hand) - this is designed to get all 4 of your fingers on the left hand moving in tandem. Particularly if you're playing metal or hard rock or anything of that calibre, this is a great warm up.  Method - You're going to walk your fingers over the fretboard and up the strings. So start on the low E string, first finger at the first fret. Individually pick 1,2,3,4 moving up a fret with a different finger every time - you get a walking action moving across your 4 fingers. Then when you're at fret 4, move down a string and up a fret, 2,3,4,5, etc etc until you get to the high E string. When you're there start going down but carry on working up the fretboard. So once your on the high E string your pinky finger should be on the 9th fret. Then go down so on the B it would be 7,8,9,10 and so on finishing on the low E with your pink on the 14th fret. 
2. Jumping 3s (left hand) - you're probably only going to want to do this with your 1st and 3rd finger. This is a useful lick as well if you can get it nice and quick but start with doing it at a fairly slow speed. Method - pluck the low E string and then hammer on fret 3 and then fret 5. And that is pretty much it, its very simple but you can develop it tonnes. So you could work your way up the strings in that shape. I like to play the pattern and alternate between the E and the A string, getting it really quick. Its cool to play it backwards as well so pluck the open string then fret 5 then 3. Simple as that, but its about building up speed. 
3. Right Hand, Right Cramp (right hand - duh look at the name) - you definitely  need a metronome for this one. Its worth doing all exercises to a click. I actually do this as a drum exercise as well so if you're a drummer you can apply this too. Mute the strings with your right hand and put a click on at a tempo of about 100bpm, we're going to be playing semiquavers (16th notes for those across the pond) so choose a wise speed! Start by playing crotchets for 2 bars, then quavers, then triplets and then semiquavers. If you're feeling adventurous then you could go up to sextuplets or even demi-semi quavers (32nd notes). Tips - play it with alternate picking, otherwise you may die. And keep on going till you start to feel a bit of cramp coming on - hence the name! 

Warming up is crucial good people, and you'd be surprised how much better you play as a result. Only needs to be for 5 minutes max, and then get playing! Hope these tips help, post any questions below. 

Peace, Linus