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Thread: Warm Up Excercises

  1. #1
    Forum Member mojo's Avatar
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    Warm Up Excercises

    What are your favorite warm up excercises. Please bear in mind, I am relatively new to the guitar, so the level of difficulty is pertinent.

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    Forum Member Southbound's Avatar
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    Re: Warm Up Excercises

    Sometimes before I play I'll watch a concert dvd. Seeing SRV or Zeppelin play always gets me in the mood. Then I sometimes do a scale or two two get my fingers moving. Then jam over a blues album or something.
    "The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon."

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    Forum Member chaz498's Avatar
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    Re: Warm Up Excercises

    Chromatic scales are a great way to warm up, but a tad boring...
    "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained as stupidity"

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    Forum Member sinner's Avatar
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    Re: Warm Up Excercises

    Here's a neat little warm-up exercise and no theory required, just a little fretboard knowledge to understand my description. It's great for building finger strength, coordination skills, individual finger dexterity, precision, and develope right hand double picking skills. Do it very slowly and clean, then build up your speed to do as fast as you can but still clean.

    Just begin anywhere on the 6th String (High E), the first fret if you like, or higher up the neck for easier stretches. The numbers below are the Finger to use, number 1 being the index finger and 4 the pinky. (Pardon me if I'm being overly simple here, not trying to offend anyone--actually I don't know how to write out real tab on a computer!). Go up the neck 1-2-3-4 one fret at a time (half-steps), then do the same on the next string till you reach the 6th String (Low E) then go back down. Remember to be aware of your picking hand too--double picking, nice and clean.

    6th String--1-2-3-4---------------------------------------
    5th String--1-2-3-4---------------------------------------
    4th String--1-2-3-4---------------------------------------
    3rd String--1-2-3-4--------------------------------------
    2nd String--1-2-3-4--------------------------------------
    1st String--1-2-3-4---------------------------------------

    Next Level: just working the 1, 2 fingers...

    6th String--1-2------------
    5th String--1-2------------
    4th String--1-2------------
    3rd String--1-2------------
    2nd String--1-2------------
    1st String--1-2------------

    then: the 2nd & 3rd finger workout

    -----------2-3-----------
    -----------2-3-----------
    -----------2-3----------
    -----------2-3----------
    -----------2-3----------
    -----------2-3----------

    then: 3rd & 4th (pinky) workout:

    -----------3-4----------
    -----------3-4---------
    -----------3-4---------
    -----------3-4--------
    -----------3-4--------
    -----------3-4---------

    That's a good one to build up the independence & strength of the 3rd & 4th fingers. There are many levels to this excercise, I won't try to write them out till I learn how to do it on a computer better--but you get the idea, just up each fret, Chromatic notes all in a row, up the strings, working each finger. You can do your own combinations with this exercise, grouping fingers differently, working the weaker fingers to build strength.

    Have fun, I'll check back here to see how you're doing so don't slack off--the Woodshed is fun! (I'll also try to type this sheet out better next time!)

  5. #5
    Forum Member mojo's Avatar
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    Re: Warm Up Excercises

    Thanks for all of your suggestions,

    I will put them to good use. Sinner I already do the chromatic scale and will start integrating the rest of your suggestions in to my normal warm up routine. I definitely think a wider variety of finger movements will produce results.

    I realized after I created the thread that it would be helpfull to all of you to have a better idea of where I am currently at in the learning process, so I'll let her rip.

    4 1/2 months since my first lesson.

    The school I take lessons at start people off utilizing Mel Bay's Mastering The Guitar 1A book. To date I have been assigned and completed 56 pages of it. That places me right at The C Scale, The A note, High E string 5th fret and fingering chords and playing them as individual notes.

    In conjuction with Bay's book additional assignments have covered the following territory: The Chords, Em, Am, D, A, C, E, F, G, Dm, Bb, B7, C7, D7, A7, E7, F7, Gm and A, D, E powercords. I can play all of these clean individually and almost all clean in transitioning from one chord to another. Furthermore, I have been introduced to I, IV, V progressions and can play them clean most of the time. In addition, I have recently started Major and minor Bar Chords: F, G, A, B, C, D, E and can play them clean through B at the seventh fret. Beyond the 7th fret, I will need to modify my finger placement from standard, as I have very large hands and fat digits.

    I am proficent in the following scales A and E pentatonic and the C scale. I just started working on C major scale today.
    The school I attend believes in a good grounding in both theory and practical application so you can post both Tablature and Standard Musical Notation I can read both.

    So far I have cut my teeth on about 8 songs which I can play with varying degrees of proficiency. That's about it in a nut shell.
    Last edited by mojo; 06-25-2005 at 11:38 PM.

  6. #6
    Forum Member sinner's Avatar
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    Re: Warm Up Excercises

    That's sounds great, mojo--and lots of fun too! My teacher tells me "playing guitar is like Kung Fu--repeat the action, repeat the action--then forget everything you know and just play--Man, that's freedom!"

    He also says learning is like a pyramid, working on all sides separately, developing your coordination, theory, performance--then suddenly they all come together. It's a wonderful jouney!

  7. #7
    Forum Member mojo's Avatar
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    Re: Warm Up Excercises

    sinner,
    Your Instructor sure does have it pegged pretty well. The guys I hang out with talk about the journey as well and so far it 's been pretty remarkable, with a whole host of emotions peekin' through at various times. I would'nt trade the experience for the world...

    Since this is a thread for rudimentary warm ups and the scope seems to be creeping in to a much broader catagory I was thinking of creating another thread chronicling my development as a musician, starting with my previous post, then detailing my sucesses as well as my trials and tribulations. Do you think that would go over well? Of course I would want the TFF to opine in for instruction, comments and criticism. Whadya think?

  8. #8
    Forum Member sinner's Avatar
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    Re: Warm Up Excercises

    I think it's all connected: you can warm up your fingers, warm up your brain, and even warm up your emotions--it's all part of being a musician, and any one part of that equation will be sorely missed if left out. When practicing, you are still addressing the whole person--maybe this view is very zen-like and is of course just my opinion--so Yes indeed, I think a chornicle of your journey is a good idea--I'd love to check in and see what's happening.

    The joy for me is when, at certain points of the journey, I see how it all comes together--like a flash you see it--and take a giant step forward!

  9. #9
    Forum Member mojo's Avatar
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    Re: Warm Up Excercises

    I'll start cobbling something together straight away...moj

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