Quick Warm Up Exercise

stratman3142

What exercise to do you use for a quick warm up? This is mine below. It's as much as exercise for the brain as for the left and right hands and helps get things into quickly into sync. I've notated it for the 1st string, but I play it on all six strings at the fifth fret. I also use it as an exercise for legato. I think it covers every possible left hand finger combination on one string in minimum time.

After I've warmed up a bit, I stretch the first and second left hand fingers to span two frets.

http://i.imgur.com/ITQyH5A.png

viz

Fingering exercise, each finger on consecutive frets. 1234, 2341, 3412, 4123. Then 1324, 3241, 2413, 4132. Then 1423, 4231, 2314, 3142. Then 4321, 3214, 2143, 1432. Etc. On the same string, or moving up (and down) the strings 4nps, or moving up (or down) frets, or moving up (and down) strings AND frets. But start on one string, one position.

Roland

The last of @viz' examples, which I think is Joe Satriani's warm up

mike_l

I use, from low-high and back, at whichever frets you like (I use 5/6/7/8)

finger 1-2

then 3-4

then 1-3

then 2-4

then 1-4

then 2-3

with a metronome set at 50-60 BPM. No faster, as it's for warming your hands and getting them working together, not Olympic sprinting.

The in to 3 note/string scales, right up and down the neck.

Barney

I dont really warm up i just start playing and slowly build up speed like a old car..

Alnico

I play 'Brown sugar'.

I am going to try a few of these here examples though, especially the OP and @viz 's ideas.

viz

@alnico I made a tiny video about it before, just for the 1234, 1432 (or 4321), and 1324 set. I was supposed to be getting ready to go to a wedding so I had to cut the video short.

stratman3142

@viz. Thanks for posting the video. You look very smart btw

@mike_I. It looks like your pattern is the same as the starting pattern in each of the groups posted by viz.
I agree about playing them slowly (at least at first). In fact, for legato I find them harder to play slowly than if I take a run at them.

If I get time I'm going to transcribed and post these suggestions. Watch this space, but don't hold your breath.

viz

Lol thanks! The 1234 2341 3412 4123 stuff is all from Steve Vai's 30 hour workout, page 78, figure 2. http://speedpicking.com/downloads/Steve_Vai_30_Hour_Workout.pdf 

Though he just does the group starting with 1234:

1234: 1234 2341 3412 4123

not the other 5 groups:

1243: 1243 2341 3412 4123
1324: 1324 3241 2413 4132
1342: 1342 3421 4213 2134
1423: 1423 4231 2314 3142 (yours I believe @stratman3142)
1432: 1432 4321 3214 2143

I quite like doing all 6 groups because they make the fingers work really independently from each other. Also, as you can see. he recommends moving across strings and/or up frets as you're doing each 4-note phrase, which I didn't show in my odd little clip.

mike_l

stratman3142 said:

@viz. Thanks for posting the video. You look very smart btw

@mike_I. It looks like your pattern is the same as the starting pattern in each of the groups posted by viz.
I agree about playing them slowly (at least at first). In fact, for legato I find them harder to play slowly than if I take a run at them.

If I get time I'm going to transcribed and post these suggestions. Watch this space, but don't hold your breath.

Similar, whereas viz uses all 4 fingers together, I'll do 2 at a time.

Either way is good.

Alnico

@viz
Thanks, I will spend some time with that in a week or two when the house move is over and we're settled in.

viz

Yes, probably getting the living quarters sorted is higher on the agenda than going twiddly twiddly - good luck

Alnico

viz said:

Yes, probably getting the living quarters sorted is higher on the agenda than going twiddly twiddly - good luck

Thank You.