Here are some warm-up exercises specifically geared towards intermediate fingerstyle guitarists, although beginners can use them too.
By now, I'm sure you've heard that taking a few minutes to warm up can prevent injury and also improve your playing.
It's like stretching before a workout; it prepares your muscles for action and helps you perform at your best. When you warm up, you're essentially rolling out the red carpet for a whole host of benefits.
But I prefer to think of a warm-up as something that goes beyond just letting all that oxygen-rich blood rush in. In my opinion, it's about priming for peak performance.
Because as an intermediate player, you're going to want something that warms up the mind as well as the body.
So, these are the best warm ups for fingerstyle players who want to go beyond simple exercises.
What Are The Benefits Of Warming Up?
First of all, a good warm up is like greasing the hinges on a creaky door.
After warming up, everything moves more smoothly and you've reduced the risk of pain and sprain.
But I would say that the top benefit of warming up is to increase concentration. A good warm up should flip a switch in your brain, signaling that it's time to focus and get into the zone.
This means doing actions that get your muscles primed and ready for action, but also put you in the right mental state.
This is where so many warm up guides miss the mark: they focus on the physical aspect, making you do repetitive movements to limber up, like preheating the oven before you bake a cake.
A good warm up should make you concentrate and shouldn't be about doing routine, obvious finger movements. It's just plain lazy.
What Are Some Exercises For Intermediate Guitar Players To Warm Up?
Now that we're ready to get into the groove and perform at our best, here are 4 awesome warm up exercises for fingerstyle guitarists.
1. Contrary Motion
First up: my top pick for intermediate guitarists to warm up is playing scales slowly and in contrary motion.
I absolutely love this finger independence exercise, which is like a dance between your fingers of both the plucking and fretting hands.
Contrary motion occurs when two musical lines move in opposite directions, one ascending and the other descending, and they meet in the middle. Picture two rivers flowing in different directions but meeting at the same destination.
When you're practicing contrary motion on the guitar, you'll play notes that approach and move away from each other on adjacent strings. This technique not only sounds beautiful but also helps to improve your finger coordination and mental capacity.
Oh, and play very slowly, making each finger movement slow and deliberate, and return to a neutral position after each note.
2. Scales & More Scales
Want to feel like a well-oiled machine ready to tackle anything? Look no further than guitar scales, preferably played fingerstyle.
Scales are a great warm-up exercise, but don't just play any old scale pattern and call it a day.
What I recommend is to choose a particular major scale, such as the G Major scale, and use the three-note-per-string pattern that gets you primed and ready to rock.
Now, here's the kicker: go ahead and play the chordal scale, but name the chords that you are playing as you pluck them. That's right, you're warming up your brain with a little music theory at the same time as you're getting your finger picking muscles loosened up.
But if you've done all that and you're still scratching your head wondering if you're warmed up, try playing slur scales. Check out these 5 slur scales you can use in your next guitar warm up.
3. Single-String Spider Exercises
The spider exercise is a common suggestion for a warm up exercise, and when you've nailed it, it's like feeling the engine purr smoothly when you start up your car.
However, although it's a great exercise, as you can see I've put spider exercises as the last one on my list.
That's because I much prefer spider exercises as a means to focus on proper finger positioning and synchronization, rather than just a way to loosen up your fingers and get them ready for action
4. Arpeggios
Arpeggios are like the bread and butter of guitar warm-ups. They help to limber up your fingers and wrists.
For your warm up, practice an arpeggio pattern that contains sixteenth notes and involves shifting after every beat.
But I'm not a fan of doing arpeggios as a warm up, because they are repetitive and only focus on one type of movement. They are excellent for practicing playing without looking at your hands, however.
How Long Should I Warm Up For?
How long you should warm up depends on what your objective is. When you're trying to learn a new song on a deadline, your warm up doesn't have to be that long.
But if you're just looking to maintain your current skill level and you're not sure what to practice, take 10 to 15 minutes to focus on simple exercises, scales, or arpeggios to get your fingers moving.
If you are stuck at your current level and not sure what to practice next, my online course Play Fingerstyle Guitar Now! has a graded selection of songs you can learn to up your game.
Finally, don't bother trying to make your playing feel effortless and fluid before leaving your warm up phase and moving on to something else.
For me, effortless guitar comes only after playing for at least 30-45 minutes.
