Ways to Warm Up Before Playing Guitar

Stretching your fingers is a good way to warm up.

Warming up before playing the guitar prepares you to play better, and also minimizes the risk of wrist or finger injuries. In addition to doing basic physical warm-ups before you pick up your guitar, you should also do several warm-up exercises on the instrument itself.

Stretching

Before you even get your guitar out of its case, you should stretch your fingers and your wrists. Bend your fingers as far as you can in all directions without inducing pain, and then flex them to get any kinks out. Stretch and shake both wrists as well. Stretching properly will keep you from cramping up when playing the guitar.

Warm-Up Exercises

The best guitar warm-ups are done with a guitar in your hands. Running through scales (chromatic, major, minor, etc.) will warm up both your picking hand and your fretting hand. Start very slowly and build speed as you play through these various scales. Then, do string skipping exercises in order to get your picking hand ready to do some serious work. Warming up by playing several different picking rhythms is also helpful.

References

• The Guitar Suite: Guitar Warm Up

Resources

• Jazz Guitar: Guitar Technique & Warm Up