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http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~desmith/guitar/site/e-mail.htm

Dansm's Warm-Up Exercises for Acoustic

Guitar
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Welcome to Dansm's Warm-Up Exercises! I have started thinking about warm-up
exercises lately, and subsequently searched the web for various ideas regarding warm-up.
Here is a compilation of the exercises I found. I have designed them specifically for
fingerpicking guitarists. Use these both as warm-up exercises and as practice exercises to
improve your playing.
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Why Warm Up?


Why warm up, you ask? Well, there are basically three reasons for spending some
time warming up before you jump into your songs. First, your fingers and hands
need to be loosened up before you begin playing more difficult guitar parts. If you
do not stretch out your hand muscles, you risk serious injury and possibly an end to
your guitar-playing days. Would you consider running 2 miles without stretching?
Then you shouldn't play guitar without stretching either. For more information on
guitar-related injuries, see Dansm's Guide to Hand Care. Second, playing guitar
requires adequate circulation in your hands. Warming up with these exercises
ensures that you get enough blood flowing into your finger and hand muscles before
you begin playing. This also prevents cold hands, which are the worst thing that can
happen to a guitarist. Third, warming up familiarizes your hand with the motions it
will have to make while you are playing songs. Therefore, if you are going to play a
song or a solo, your hand is already prepared for the motions you have to make
because it has already done them while warming up.



I would suggest spending at least 4 or 5 minutes on these exercises before playing a
song. This will allow plenty of time for your hands to get used to playing and for
circulation to improve. If you don't want to spend this much time, at least run
 through one or two of the exercises before starting to play. Your hands will thank
you for it.
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These exercises were originally invented with the flatpicking guitarist in
mind. However, I don't ever play with a pick and therefore wanted to
modify these exercises to somehow accomodate fingerpicking. Each
exercise will have a suggestion on which fingers to use on which strings, so
make sure you note these before you start playing the exercises.
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Scales: The Ultimate Warm-Up


My first suggestion for warm-ups is scales. If you don't know them already, scales
will improve your playing immensely. I have a page on guitar scales that will teach
you most of the scales you need to know. Once you know them, run through several
(perhaps the seven modes of the major scale) as a warm-up exercise. This is a great
way to repeat them every day without getting sick of them. This is a great way to
make warm-up a learning experience as well.
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Warm-Up Exercise #1


This exercise is a simple introduction and a very good warm-up. The basic pattern
looks like this:




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Continue by moving up to one fret until you get up to the twelfth fret. For example,
the next pattern would be 3 4 5 6 on all strings, then 7 6 5 4 back down. When you
 play each string, use the picking finger shown to the right of that string, and use all
four fingers in your fretting hand.

Warm-Up Exercise #2


The second exercise is very quick, and is great if you are looking for a short but
effective warm-up:




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Use the fingers shown to the right of each string.

Warm-Up Exercise #3


The next exercise is basically a variation of exercise 1. This exercise is great for
improving finger dexterity in your fretting hand. Shown below are 24 combinations
of possible patterns for exercise 1. Play each one on each string once, going up and
back down. You should actually just choose a few to do, since doing them all would
take forever. Just pick three or four each day and zip through them. Another option
is to move these up the fretboard like you did with #1: take them to the twelfth fret
and then come back down.

1-2-3- dans 2-1-3- dans 1 3-1-2- dans 1 4-1-2-

1) 7)
4 m 4 m 3) 4 m 9) 3

1-2-4- dans 2-4-3- dans 1 3-1-4- dans 2 4-1-3-

2) 8)
3 m 1 m 4) 2 m 0) 2

1-3-4- dans 2-3-1- dans 1 3-2-1- dans 2 4-2-1-

3) 9)
2 m 4 m 5) 4 m 1) 3
 1-3-2- dans 1 2-3-4- dans 1 3-2-4- dans 2 4-2-3-
4)
4 m 0) 1 m 6) 1 m 2) 1

1-4-3- dans 1 2-1-4- dans 1 3-4-1- dans 2 4-3-1-

5)
2 m 1) 3 m 7) 2 m 3) 2

1-4-2- dans 1 2-4-1- dans 1 3-4-2- dans 2 4-3-2-

6)
3 m 2) 3 m 8) 1 m 4) 1

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For example, the fifteenth example would look something like this:




Warm-Up Exercise #4


Here's an exercise that will stretch out your fingers as you warm up. Play this one
up all six strings and back down (I only have the first half notated here):



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Use the fingers shown to the right of each string.

Warm-Up Exercise #5


This exercise is a variation on #4 that will stretch out different fingers. Again, play
this up all six strings and back down (I only have the first half notated):




Warm-Up Exercise #6


This exercise is designed to confuse your hands. Well, not really, but once you
master it this one will really help your finger-hand-eye coordination. Play this up all
six strings and back down (I only have the first part notated here):

 


Warm-Up Exercise #7


This exercise is based on the G major scale. Basically, you jump up a third, then you
come down a second. Click here for the shape of the G major scale. You can and
should try this in other keys by changing where you play the pattern.




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For fingerpickers: use the fingers shown below each note to pick that note.

T=thumb, I=index, M=middle, R=ring

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That's it for warm-ups for now. Remember that these are also very good practice
exercises, so work on them and try to understand what you are doing in terms of the
notes you are playing. Have fun, and enjoy these exercises!

Keep playin'