Pre-playing warm-ups

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six

six

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hey there

there's a lot of exercises called "warm-ups" out there, and most of them are done by actually playing random stuff slowly. now what I am looking for are kind of "physical" exercises that prepare your muscles and tendons for the forthcoming exertions.

do you guys do things like that at all before even touching the guitar, and if so: what exactly do you do (besides boozing up :p )?
 
I play the solo to "Love Gun" over and over getting faster with each pass. :)
 
I crack my fingers and then start sweeping as many arpeggios as possible starting slow and building up (even though I only have one sweep in the whole set). Definitely helps to get muscle memory going and to loosen up the fingers.
 
sometimes i have to literally warm up ie: get a pair of socks on, rub my hands together, run in place.

i get cold easily in the winter.

sometimes i do a little stretch or rub my hands. take your right hand and pull back on your left. should stretch out the left inner forearm. push down to stretch out outer forearm. do it to the right too.
 
I go play on a battered old acoustic with high action and a massive neck for about an hour. After that, everything on an electric feels stupidly easy. Don't know if you'd call that warming up, but it seems to help.
 
legionserial said:
I go play on a battered old acoustic with high action and a massive neck for about an hour. After that, everything on an electric feels stupidly easy. Don't know if you'd call that warming up, but it seems to help.
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Thats a good idea. I guess the same idea maybe could work with a bass too.
 
John Petrucci has a book with some awesome warm up excercises. They are meant to stretch and synchronise your hands.
 
I could actually use some good warm-ups, even at rehealsals. Going from -20celsius outside to rehealsalplace at plus 5 celsius, and start the set at 230bpm deathmetal on bass.... :eek:

after one or two songs my pick-fingers and forearms ache, it gets worse, and passes right when the set is over! :D
 
dudes, most of you overlooked the "pre-playing" aspect. i was really looking for things one could do before even touching the guitar.
i think playing for one hour on an acoustic starting with cold muscles will kill them soon.
that's like "ok, i'll start with pushing these 300 pounds now, then the 100 pounds will be peanuts." ;)
 
six said:
i think playing for one hour on an acoustic starting with cold muscles will kill them soon.
that's like "ok, i'll start with pushing these 300 pounds now, then the 100 pounds will be peanuts." ;)
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It's not like i sit there shredding on it or force anything, just casually play a few chords or whatever. More about warming up until my hand is used to the big neck and the high action.
 
I can't remember which vid it was but John P had a little time where he talked about stretching and some light self/hand massage to get the blood flowing before picking up the instrument.

When I'm gigging (which hasn't been much lately :( ) I'll do some pushups, a little bit of jogging in place, some side twists/bends just to get up to tempurature, get the circulation moving up a notch then on to some hand, finger and wrist stretching then go into playing scales, then chromatic chords then into my set stuff.
 
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