Guitar Warm Up Exercises

I used to give little thought to stretching and warm up exercises on guitar. Rather, I would just pick up my guitar and play, with little concern for loosening things up in my hands, arms and body.  I would just play until (sometimes) my fingers, arms, neck and back would hurt. I might stretch or rub a tight muscle if necessary. But I usually didn't think too much about it. While this worked for a while, eventually I started to feel more aches, pains, tingles and tension. So I began to really see the value of stretching, warming up and doing seemingly mundane exercises repetitively on a frequent basis. Below are some things that I have picked up from various sources over 30 years of playing guitar. I try to do these on a regular basis -and I try to have my guitar students do these regularly too.  In addition to helping build better technique, doing these things often helps address areas of tension and allows one to relax more in their playing.

Stretching

It’s not a bad idea to stretch a little before, throughout and after playing. It loosens up the tendons and muscles, increases blood flow and helps to minimize injury and strain. Additionally, a light walk or cardio before playing helps to minimize inflammation and clears the head.

Stretch your wrists by holding one arm straight out in front of you and using the other hand to bend the wrist gently towards your body -your fingers should be pointing down to the floor. Breathe deeply for about 8-10 seconds. Next, while continuing to hold your arm out straight in front of you, bend wrist up and back towards you -your fingers should be pointing up toward the ceiling. Drop your arms down to your sides and shake your hands and arms out. Repeat stretches on the other side. Never force anything and stop if you feel any sharp or sudden pain or discomfort. Also doing some standing arm circles in both directions to help loosen the shoulders is helpful too. Also try to manually stretch the fingers apart with the thumb and fingers of the other hand. Additionally, the neck can take on a lot of tension during play, so doing some gentle neck stretches and/ or shoulder shrugs is a good idea too. Take frequent breaks to do these stretches during long practice sessions, rehearsals, recording sessions or performances. These also work great for people who sit in front of a computer a lot.

All Fingers, All Frets

Slowly ascend the fretboard with one finger per fret,

(1= index, 2= middle, 3= ring, 4= pinky fingers).
*All exercises should approached with proper technique using all four fingers whenever applicable.

Starting on the low 6th string (E), play frets 1-2-3-4 with all four fingers on all six
strings. On the last note, slide up a half-step with the fourth finger and descend on frets 5-4-3-2 with fingers 4-3-2-1. On the the last note of this cycle, slide up another half-step with the index finger on the 6th string and ascend again with fingers 1-4. This time you should be on frets 3-4-5-6. Continue this cycle up the neck until you run out of frets. Try to play each note cleanly and evenly using alternate picking (down/up) if using a pick. If using the fingers, use your thumb for the low strings and index and middle fingers for other strings. For an extra warm up, you can descend back down the neck the same way you came up.

Permutations

This exercise is similar to the one above, but it involves using a different order of fingers to develop more individual control and strength with each digit. For example fingers 2-3-1-4, or 3-4-1-2, or 4-1-2-3. There are many variations to try, so challenge yourself by exploring different combinations. You can play them up and down the guitar neck or in one specific playing position. Alternatively you can play in one position and then up an octave (8va), or for example 3rd fret, 7th fret and 12th fret. To vary things even further, you can incorporate different rhythms for the right-hand such as quarter notes, 8th notes, triplets, 16th notes, etc.

Major and Minor Scales

Using a metronome, practice the major and minor scales up and down in one playing position. Set the metronome to a tempo that you can play with comfortably without playing ahead or behind the beat. Once that becomes comfortable, go up one half-step after each completed cycle of a scale in a particular key (G, G#, A, A#, B, C, etc). Start with quarter notes, then try 8th notes with straight and shuffle rhythms, triplets and 16th’s. You can vary things by either changing notes for every beat or by staying on a particular note for 2, 3 or 4 beats before continuing up or down the scales. Once you get comfortable with one way of doing things try challenging yourself with a faster tempo or different rhythm options. For intermediate to advanced players, try using different time signatures like 3/4, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8, or asymmetrical time signatures like 5/4 or 7/8. Try and do things that are uncomfortable in order to broaden your ability and test your comfort zones. Also try using the three-notes per string (stretched out) versions of both major and minor scales.  Or try the same approach with the seven mode patterns.

Major and Minor Scales with Thirds

Play the scales by ascending and descending with the third interval of each note within the scale. For example: in the key of C major, play a C note then an E, then a D and an F, then E and G, F and A, F and B, A and C, B and D, etc. Play both octave ranges across the neck. For minor scales use the same approach only make sure to use the minor 3rd, 6th and 7th intervals, (flat 3rd, 6th and 7th respectively). Experiment with different tempos, rhythmic subdivisions and time signatures. Again, like above, you can apply this to modes with some modifications as needed.

String Skipping

 String skipping is basically just what it sounds like.  You are simply skipping over the adjacent string in favor of the one next to it. String skipping can be an effective technique for many different applications and will certainly help players develop a deeper understanding of the fretboard inside and out. It can be applied to all scales and modes but one of the most economical approaches to using string skipping is with three notes per string scalar patterns of the major and minor scales -or with the modes. By using these options things seem less awkward and tend to flow better. Also try string skipping with pentatonic and hexatonic (“Blues scale”) patterns too.

Pentatonic Coils   

Using the five interconnected pentatonic patterns, try going up in groups of 3, 4 and 5. Think in terms of  8th notes. triplets, 16th notes and quintuplets, or more. Set the metronome to a slow beat per minute setting (60 BPM to the quarter note or thereabouts) and work your way up from there. Use alternate picking. Note: 16th note coils at 120 BPM is fairly difficult, so be patient and build your way up. *See note on pentatonics below.

Pentatonics: Three Up, One Back

Starting on pattern one of the pentatonic scales, work your way up the scale by going from the 6th string to the 4th string, then go back to the 5th string and go up to the 3rd string, go back to the 4th string and work your way up to the 2nd string, then go back to the 3rd string and proceed to the 1st string. Reverse the process to descend the scale. Repeat this process for all 5 patterns of the pentatonic scales.

Another option is to go up one pentatonic scale pattern with the three up, one back approach and return on the next adjoining pattern. For example: ascend with pattern 1, descend with pattern 2, ascend with pattern 3, descend with 4, ascend with 5, descend with number one an octave higher.

Doubling, Tripling, and More

Doubling, tripling or playing more on  each of the scale notes on each string can be a useful and effective way to approach scales or modes. Similar to string skipping, when approaching diatonic scales, the three notes per string patterns tend to be less clunky and flow more easily.  Try using alternate picking. Or try playing upside down -start with an upstroke and then a down stroke.

Arpeggios

Arpeggios are essentially chord voicings that have been broken up into individual melodic notes. The most common arpeggios are major, minor, major 7th, minor 7th, diminished, and diminished 7th. However you can essentially make an arpeggio out of any chord really. Investigate doing arpeggios in one octave range (from 6th to 4th strings) or two (6th to 1st strings). Try using arpeggios with a variety of different rhythms and approaches. Groups of three and four; 8th notes, 16th notes and triplets; coils, and doubling are all effective ways to explore arpeggios of all types. Another option is to do an arpeggio chromatically up and down the neck. Commit arpeggio shapes to memory starting on both the 6th and 5th strings at least.

A Note On Pentatonics

There is often some divergence in regard to how the 5 patterns of the pentatonic scales are numbered. Moreover, it depends on if you are interpreting the pentatonic as major or minor.
The most ubiquitous of these is arguably the pentatonic minor that follows the fingering
formula :1-4, 1-3, 1-3, 1-3, 1-4, 1-4, starting on the 6th string. For our purposes this should be understood to be minor pentatonic pattern #1. Major pentatonic pattern #1 is as follows: 2-4, 1-4, 1-4, 1-3, 2-4, 2-4. However (and this is where things can get sticky) major pentatonic pattern #1 is the same formula as minor pentatonic pattern #2. Minor pentatonic #1 links to minor pentatonic #2 via the top notes of the pattern. That is to say, the higher notes of #1 are the lower notes of #2. All pentatonic patterns share notes in this way. They fit together like puzzle pieces.

Conclusion
This is by no means an exhaustive list of all possible warm up exercises. However, the above list should help to build your technique, stamina, rhythm and theory. Additionally, if practiced regularly the above exercises should open doors for you creatively and help you stay as relaxed as possible while playing.
Keep your ears open, often these exercises can yield interesting riff ideas or ideas for new songs. Don’t be afraid to try these with different effects such as delay, distortion, reverb or tremolo, you never know what you might discover!