Guitar Warm Up Exercises And Why They Matter
Dec 26, 2009 Guitar Articles
As dry as this section might sound, I strongly urge you to follow along with these guitar warm-up exercises! No matter how much of a ‘hassle’ it seems like to warm up before you play, let me assure you that the ‘hassle’ is worth it.
Your hands are also instruments and affect the quality of sounds you’re able to squeeze instruments and affect the quality of sounds you’re able to squeeze from your guitar!
Have you ever noticed how two different people can play the same guitar, and each person seems to pull a different ‘tone’ from it? Have you ever wondered why someone like Eddie Van Halen can pick up a cheap guitar with rusty strings, and still sound fantastic?
It all has to do with your touchtouchtouchtouch. Some players have a light touch, others tend to dig in harder Real magic comes from skillfully doing both.
Any succession of notes – in a solo, for example – can be made far more interesting and emotive when you have control over the dynamics of soft/hard, quiet/loud, etc..
Now, in order to have dynamic control while still playing at the speed you want to play at, you must have both strength and flexibility in your hands and fingers.
The point is to gain utmost control over what’s know as your “fine motor movements” – aka, the small movements you make to do things like hold a pen, sew a button…and play guitar.
What gets in the way of the type of control is fatigue and cramping. Both of these handicaps result from a failure to build strength and flexibility.
The weaker you are, the harder you tend to grip the neck, and your hand seizes up. The tighter your muscles, the harder it is to reach notes just a few frets up from one position to another.
If that’s not incentive enough to do these warm-ups, I don’t know what is! So, let’s go ahead and get started with some hand and finger stretching exercises in this guitar lesson.
Tags: guitar warm up, guitarist warm up. guitar warm up exercises, warm up exercises for guitarist
Correct Guitar Positioning
Dec 17, 2009 Guitar Articles
How to Play Guitar Correctly? Here are more guitar tips to help you out.
If you find that your hands become fatigued even after performing your warm ups, there’s a good chance that your technique is to blame.
A little fatigue is normal when building strength in your hands and fingers, but serious cramps point to a problem. Let’s start, then, by discussing the correct way to hold the neck when fretting notes.
The main thing you need to pay attention to is where you’re resting your thumb. Your thumb should rest gently on the back of the neck, and be centeredcenteredcenteredcenteredcenteredcentered. The mistake most new guitarists make is in allowing their thumb to wrap around to the opposite side of the neck.
The reason your thumb should rest on the back of the neck is so that it acts as a support for your hand and fingers while you fret the notes. You should press the strings with your fingertips, such that your fingers are perpendicular to the neck.
Tags: Correct Guitar Positioning, guitar position, guitar positioning, how to place the guitar, place guitar correctly
How To Tune the Guitar
Dec 12, 2009 Guitar Articles
Your guitar, and the music you make on it, will sound best when your guitar is perfectly in tune. Although there are many other possible tunings for a guitar (e.g. ‘drop tuning’, ‘open D’, “Hawaiin’, etc..) we are going to focus on “standard tuning.”
There are a number of ways to go about tuning your guitar. You can use a piano or keyboard, a tuning fork or an electronic, hand-held tuner.
There are even online guitar tuners that you can use to tune up while sitting at your computer. The online guitar tuner allows you to click on a button to play an audio loop of each note to use as a reference.
Try clicking on the button for the low E. You should hear the same note played over and over.
As your reference note plays, begin striking the 6thth String (low E) on your guitar.
If the string is out of tune, you should be able to hear it. The note coming from your guitar may sound “sharp” (higher) or “flat” (lower) than the note coming from your reference.
While holding your guitar in your lap in playing position, reach up and turn the first tuning knob in either a counter-clockwise direction to raise the pitch, or a clockwise position to lower the pitch.
Keep adjusting as needed until the note from your guitar and the note playing from your reference sound in perfect unison. If you like, you can use the online tuner to tune all six strings.
These sorts of tools can be life-savers if you don’t have perfect pitch. I do recommend, however, that you at least attempt to learn how to tune your guitar “by ear.” You never know when you might be on stage, and need to do a quick tune-up without the aid of one of these devices.
Tags: guitar tuning, guitar tuning lesson, How To Tune the Guitar, tune the guitar
Guitar Warm Up Exercises
Dec 2, 2009 Guitar Articles
Learn to Play Guitar – Fundamentals
Exercise #1: Fan Stretch Exercise
This exercise is designed to stretch your palm as well as the small muscles between each of your fingers.
1. Lay both hands ‘palms down’ and resting on a flat surface.
2. ‘Fan out’ your fingers as far as they’ll go until you feel some resistance. Don’t try to force them any farther at this point.
3. Relax your fingers back into resting position.
4. Go at an easy, almost gentle pace as you repeat this motion 5 times, one hand at a time, then repeat for both hands simultaneously a total of 10 times.
Exercise #2: Palm Stretch Exercise
This exercise stretches your palm muscles as well as muscles and tendons running along the underside of your forearm.
1. Grasp the fingers of your left hand by placing the fingers of your right hand flat across them at a 90 degree angle. The thumb on your right hand should ‘hook’ underneath your left pinky.
2. Slowly and gently press downwards with your right hand until you feel your muscles stretching all the way into your forearm.
3. Allow your fingers to raise back up.
4. Repeat this ’stretch and release’ procedure 5 times.
3. Repeat this procedure again using your left hand on your right hand.
Exercise #3: Forearm Stretch Exercise
This exercise targets the muscles and tendons running along the top of your forearm. These are the key culprits in carpal tunnel, so you might even want to do this exercise outside of warming up for guitar practice if you type on a computer frequently.
1. Extend your whole arm out in front of you so that it is parallel with the floor.
2. Keep your wrist relaxed and allow your hand to dangle.
3. With your free hand, reach around and gently grasp the top of the other hand.
4. Press in, towards your body, until you feel the muscles in your forearm begin to stretch. Hold this position for a few seconds, then release.
5. Repeat on each arm 5 times.
Exercise #4: Independent Finger Stretches
This exercise is similar in form to the palm stretch, but the goal is to stretch out your tendons a bit more, along with the muscles at the base of your fingers.
1. Rest your left hand in your lap, palm-up.
2. Use the thumb, forefinger and middle finger of you right hand to grasp the ‘pinky’ finger of your left hand.
3. Gently push downwards until you feel the stretch.
4. Release and move on, repeating the procedure for each finger on your left hand, including your thumb.
5. Repeat the procedure on your right hand.
6. Do these stretches 4 to 6 times on each hand, alternating between left and right (e.g. stretch all fingers on the left, then all fingers on the right, then back to the left).
Tags: finger exercises for guitar, guitar finger exercises, guitar warm up exercises, warm up fingers for guitar
