Warm up tips: PART I

TwilightOdyssey

Darkness on the edge of Tone
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! :evil:

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. :)
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

I do have the original guitar pro files. The jpeg's are exports from GP4. I don't know if the file will be small enough, but I can certainly try to attach it.
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

Twilight=Forum Shaman

Thanks, bro-beaths the hell out of 25 jumping jacks :smack:
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

Hey TO.

Thanx for taking the time to do this mate. If there's 1 area where I need help, it's what to practise when I pick my guitar up :D

Craig
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

TO, that's fairly close to one of the things I do. I don't do it at neary 205 bpm, however... maybe more like 105 bpm... but like you said, accuracy before speed. I have noticed that speed has changed quite a bit over the last year without even thinking much about it.

I've also noticed it slower for me to ascend than to descend. Never figured out why.

Also, Matt's warm-up tip: Warm up. I mean, put your hands under warm running water, wash them with soap - make it sort of a religious experience. Don't play unclean.
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

i did the 1st warmup 1 finger per fret ever since i got the adrian smith guitar.com video, but it's a bit diferent than that, still, very very cool ben =)
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

Davey said:
i did the 1st warmup 1 finger per fret ever since i got the adrian smith guitar.com video, but it's a bit diferent than that, still, very very cool ben =)
They get progressively more interesting after the 1st one ... Gotta make sure you have the basics down first, tho!
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

Thanks TO, got em, will try this in the next few days... this should help a self-taught wanker :D
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

Brow said:
Thanx for taking the time to do this mate. If there's 1 area where I need help, it's what to practise when I pick my guitar up :D
Yeah thanks, they are really good TO.

They stop me picking up the guitar and then thinking "umm, where to start..."
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

thx man that's great! I play it similiar! But I'm a bit a lazy guy and don't do it every day!
It's often the first warm up riff you learn, but i got it teached wrong so I hated it a long time and never played it till I became a bit older and learned how important warming up is.
Th acents are very important to get some sound of this.... I sometimes play it this way:

Code:
|-----------------------------------------1-2-3-4-|
|---------------------------------2-3-4-5---------|
|-------------------------2-3-4-5-----------------|
|-----------------3-4-5-6-------------------------|
|---------4-5-6-7---------------------------------|
|-5-6-7-8-----------------------------------------|
so you have the whole chromatical scale....
 
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Re: Warm up tips: PART I

Marcel said:
thx man that's great! I play it similiar! But I'm a bit a lazy guy and don't do it every day!
It's often the first warm up riff you learn, but i got it teached wrong so I hated it a long time and never played it till I became a bit older and learned how important warming up is.
Th acents are very important to get some sound of this.... I sometimes play it this way:

Code:
|-----------------------------------------1-2-3-4-|
|---------------------------------2-3-4-5---------|
|-------------------------2-3-4-5-----------------|
|-----------------3-4-5-6-------------------------|
|---------4-5-6-7---------------------------------|
|-5-6-7-8-----------------------------------------|
so you have the whole chromatical scale....

Thats the first exercise I have ever learned 15 years ago before any chords!!!
A buddy of mine told me to do that and the alternate picking was a MUST not to cheat. Man I can sure fly all over the neck too! People are like how do you do that? PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. There was a scale similiar to that I learned from Vai. Starting on Low E

1234
2341
3412
4123
1234
3412

Keeps it fresh. Again Start on Up, Down, U,D
For all you guys who want to shred.
 
Re: Warm up tips: PART I

Good info, HD, but putting the cart before the horse. This is Part 1 of 12 or something like that ... you have to start someplace.
 
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