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Warm up tips: PART I
As promised, here is my first installment of warmup exercises.
Sorry I had to break up the tab into so many sections; the file attachment size is very low here!
There are two major sections to this exercise:
Section 1 - Finger Gymnastic #1
Section 2 - Major Scale, Position 1
Finger Gymnastic #1
This is a great warm up exercise, in a series of about a dozen or so that I do each day as part of my practice routine. It takes me about 25 minutes or so to run through all of them. I string all of them together and play em back to back. It is also a great pre-show warmup, becuase it helps you focus, and more importantly, you don't need to hear what you're doing. So, when you're warming up in the back of a club, just before you get on stage, you know you're going to be in good form when you get up there.
As with all of the exercises I'm going to be sharing, make sure accuracy precedes speed. Start with a metronome set at about 130bpm and play the entire ascending/descending/diagnal phrase. If you can play it faster, then bump it up to where it's comfortable for you. I usually play it at about 200bpm.
This exercise follows the finger per fret rule. That is, your left hand position stays the same regardless of what string you're playing, until you move up or down to the next fret over.
The fingering for the 1st exercise is 1-2-3-4 ascending, and 4-3-2-1 descending. You want to play it as strict alternate picking, as indicated in the attached jpeg.
Notice that there is an accent on the first note of each measure. You pick this note a bit harder than the rest in order to create dynamics. It is also a great introduction to alternate time signatures, because the only thing you need know about odd time sigs is where the accents fall. So, these are played 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, etc etc ...
You ascend and descend chromatically, as the jpeg will demonstrate.
Major Scale Position 1
This is the first position of the major scale. It is played with the finger per fret rule, with one position shift for the last couple of notes. If you want to play this scale on another fret, then you substitute the open string with a first finger bar.
Play the scale ascending and descending. Don't let any notes ring out.
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I hope you enjoy the exercises and get some kind of benefit out of them.
Sorry I had to break up the tab into so many sections; the file attachment size is very low here!
There are two major sections to this exercise:
Section 1 - Finger Gymnastic #1
Section 2 - Major Scale, Position 1
Finger Gymnastic #1
This is a great warm up exercise, in a series of about a dozen or so that I do each day as part of my practice routine. It takes me about 25 minutes or so to run through all of them. I string all of them together and play em back to back. It is also a great pre-show warmup, becuase it helps you focus, and more importantly, you don't need to hear what you're doing. So, when you're warming up in the back of a club, just before you get on stage, you know you're going to be in good form when you get up there.
As with all of the exercises I'm going to be sharing, make sure accuracy precedes speed. Start with a metronome set at about 130bpm and play the entire ascending/descending/diagnal phrase. If you can play it faster, then bump it up to where it's comfortable for you. I usually play it at about 200bpm.
This exercise follows the finger per fret rule. That is, your left hand position stays the same regardless of what string you're playing, until you move up or down to the next fret over.
The fingering for the 1st exercise is 1-2-3-4 ascending, and 4-3-2-1 descending. You want to play it as strict alternate picking, as indicated in the attached jpeg.
Notice that there is an accent on the first note of each measure. You pick this note a bit harder than the rest in order to create dynamics. It is also a great introduction to alternate time signatures, because the only thing you need know about odd time sigs is where the accents fall. So, these are played 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, etc etc ...
You ascend and descend chromatically, as the jpeg will demonstrate.
Major Scale Position 1
This is the first position of the major scale. It is played with the finger per fret rule, with one position shift for the last couple of notes. If you want to play this scale on another fret, then you substitute the open string with a first finger bar.
Play the scale ascending and descending. Don't let any notes ring out.
-------------------------------------
I hope you enjoy the exercises and get some kind of benefit out of them.
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