Guitar Warm Up Exercises And Why They Matter
Dec 26, 2009 Guitar Articles
Posted by
Paul Gian
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
