Are you finding yourself with aches, pains and strains after practices and performances?
The best guitar warm-up exercises will protect your hands and fingers from injury. This can be something guitarists are prone to. But by easing yourself into more complex riffs, runs, licks and chords you’ll keep yourself in tip-top condition.
Ensure you’re always fit to play by reading this article on preparation technique.
The best guitar warm-up exercises
It’s the most underrated part of playing the guitar but perhaps one of the most crucial elements. Doing guitar exercises as a warm-up may seem obvious. But will help warm up the muscles in your hands and rest of the body, preventing injury.
It can help you become a faster guitar player and be potentially more flexible for your performance thus not putting yourself under unnecessary pressure when coming to perform on stage.
What happens if you don’t warm up before playing the guitar?
So why do we complete guitar exercises for warm-ups? There’s a condition called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which alongside some other health problems can cause pain and even stop you from playing. Some musicians also suffer from RSI (repetitive strain injury). These can be avoided by warming up the muscles and ligaments.
Let’s compare a guitar player to a sports player.
A football player won’t go into a game without doing a few laps of the pitch and some shooting practice because otherwise, the muscles wouldn’t be ready. This theory applies for guitar exercises for musicians as well. A guitar player without a warm-up could put a lot of strain on cold muscles and tendons.
Guitar warm-up exercises and stretches
Firstly, let your hands adjust to the temperature of the room naturally before starting any guitar exercises. Try and play in warm places because your hands won’t move as well if they are cold. And your muscles and tendons won’t be as flexible. Protect your hands and fingers from cold conditions with gloves and if necessary, hand warmers.
Guitar stretches
In order to avoid any potential injury, start your guitar exercises with some gentle stretches. Below are some examples but remember you are trying to gently stretch, don’t be too harsh. It is also worth noting that although your hands and forearms are doing a lot of the work, your shoulders and back take the weight of the guitar, so warm them up with some stretches and rolls as well.
Guitar finger exercises
Your fingers will of course play the biggest part in your playing. Here are some exercises to target them specifically:
- Clench your fists into a ball
- Stretch your palms out
- Stretch your fingers as wide and open as you can then release
- Interlink your fingers and stretch outwards
- Gently bend your wrists outwards, then circle them
- Press back on the underside of your fingers gently, so you feel a nice stretch down the underside of the wrist.
Guitar scales
After stretching, the next step in warming up with guitar exercises is to play something musical. Some simple scales won’t necessarily improve you as a guitarist but will get the blood flowing into your fingers. Go up and down a straightforward scale, slowly and cleanly.
The chromatic scale is another good place to start, although slightly more complex. Here’s how to do it.
Guitar exercises for beginners
If you’re a beginner, you need to learn to walk before you can run. If you take on songs and exercises that are too challenging for you, you may strain yourself. This is because your hands and fingers are unused to the pace. Here are some more beginners exercises that will work well for you.
Intermediate guitar exercises
Once you’ve increased your knowledge base, you can move onto some slightly more advanced work.
Here’s one to speed up and smooth your runs: Try an ascending scale sequence on A minor natural, using a three-note per string pattern. Then descending back down, picking the first note of each triplet and hitting on the other two notes. Reverse this again to ascend, but with pull-offs.
If you play rhythm guitar, you can experiment with moving between open chords. Work through each of the chord shapes one by one. See if you can put the shape down all at once. Bar chord shapes are really good for this. You can still do this one if you’re a beginner, just using fewer chords (basically any that you know).
YouTube guitar warm-ups
Taking local guitar lessons in Southampton is the best way to learn. Sessions will include warm-ups and warm-downs. But if this isn’t possible, there’s much you can glean from online tutorials. YouTube is the best place to start. It’s a mine of information. Have a watch of a few different teacher’s videos to find someone whose vibe you like and who has lessons for your stage and experience. It’s also important to be able to understand what they mean when they give instruction, so choose someone who’s clear and unambiguous in their delivery.
What are the best guitar exercises?
Those exercises that work on your weak spots, will be the most beneficial for you as an individual. But generally speaking, look to incorporate the triple S, that is stretches, scales and songs.
It’s important even after your guitar warm-up exercises that you keep yourself flexible. So take a break every twenty minutes or so throughout your practice. Have a shake of your arms and fingers for between thirty seconds and a minute. There may be periods when you need to have a complete break from playing too, especially if you’re a professional working musician. Then you can come back fully refreshed.
Related Questions
Is playing guitar good exercise?
It depends on how you play it. If you sit still and just move your fingers, you’re certainly not going to be exerting yourself enough for a significant workout. But if you leap around the stage, dance and move in the way many rock musicians do, then you’ll get your heart rate up.
How do you move your fingers fast on guitar?
Of course, it’s only through practice that you’ll get faster. But a shortcut tip is to keep your fingers close to the strings. This will mean you don’t have so far to go and you can move a shorter distance in less time.
How long should you warm-up before playing the guitar?
Guitar exercises are only as good as the amount of time you take completing it. Some professional musicians spend up to an hour on guitar exercises to reach maximum speed and stretching ability. But for most, five to ten minutes is good. If you’re running short on time, simply squeeze a tennis ball.