How much do you warm up (if at all)

Dirty_Frank

I can't just start playing with out warming up a bit. My fingers are tense and don't move the way (or as fast) as I want them to. After playing for about 30 minutes I take off though. Last night I took some serious time to just play guitar and after about 4 hours I was tackling Van Halen leads like I used to be able to do in highschool. It was awesome.

Since I've gone off to school, I rarely have much time to play and practice. I wish I could go back two years when that's all I did. I was a much better player then, and it was pretty sweet.

exhausted

i never play out so i don't really have a warm up routine per se. crack my knuckles and get at it i guess is all i do.

but i feel like i've been playing with mittens on for the last year. terribly frustrating. i was never that great but it seems i'm getting worse lately.

Dirty_Frank

exhausted wrote:

i never play out so i don't really have a warm up routine per se. crack my knuckles and get at it i guess is all i do.

but i feel like i've been playing with mittens on for the last year. terribly frustrating. i was never that great but it seems i'm getting worse lately.

I've had that problem sometimes too. I've found that it's not really that you're getting worse, but rather that you're just about ready to take it up a notch. It's more that you're sick of hearing what you're playing, and it sounds bad to your ears. One day it will just click, and bingo, you've toppled whatever it is that is holding you back. You've become better, and you can play stuff that you never could before.

I don't know about you, but that happens to me. It's always the same.

For example, I got so sick of playing the same damn pentatonic wanking shit that I used to do. I took about a week off of playing, listened to a lot of Stevie, Miles, and Floyd and then it just clicked.

MetalGod75

whenever i do a gig i always stretch my fingers back on my fretting hand and bend my wrist.i saw this on john petrucci's video he said it gets the blood flowing.seems to work for me.

justam

When I don't have much time--at the very least I do all my scales and arpeggios which takes 10 minutes. (I just go through them all chromatically in a very relaxed way at a very fast pace and it warms up my hands and arms, etc. This also helps me get familiar with the piano I'll be playing on.)

When I'm at home practicing, I do all those plus about twenty minutes of etude pieces.

I think it's very important to keep yourself flexible and fit so you don't injure yourself.

enharmonic

Having switched to keys for the past 5 months, I am quite rusty. I really need to devote mor etime to becoming a better guitar player.

I warm up vocals for about 15 minutes before i do any heavy lifting with the vox.

who's_pearljam?

I stretch my fingers, wrists and arms, and do some scales or fretboard workouts if I'm doing a serious practice at home.
Now that I have some years behind me I gotta do that. My fingers are getting a little stiffer, and it takes longer to get them going now.

When I used to play on stage, I did scales and warm ups and just and maybe ran through the opening song lead or chords before we went out, depending who I was playing with.

brain of c

i prefer cold ethyl.........and her skeleton kiss, of course.