Kickstart Practicing: Beginner's Guide to Guitar Warm-Up Routine

Often I use the idea of interstate driving to help illustrate the process of a practice session. The analogy goes for both the physical and mental side of playing. When getting onto the interstate you need to gradually build speed to reach the optimal speed. The guitar is similar in that we cannot just sit down and begin effective practice without “ramping up” to the speed of practice. As this applies to both mental and physical aspects, this post will focus mainly on the physical warming up we must do when practicing or playing. This guide for a guitar warm-up routine will help to prevent injuries, improve your dexterity and accuracy, and as a byproduct get your mind ready to focus on playing.

Table of Contents

Step 1: Get the Hands Moving Before Stretching

When sitting down to play, it is important to stretch the muscles of the hands and wrist before spending an hour putting them through their paces. However, stretching cold muscles is a big “no-no,” just as it is in physical exercise. Therefore, begin your practice session by getting your hands moving.

Individual string playing with the right hand. Play each string four to eight times moving from the sixth to the first and returning. You can do these with alternating fingers for fingerstyle players or with alternate picking for pick players. Do this as many times as needed to begin to feel loose.
Play a chromatic scale pattern (below) with the left hand only. Begin in the second position and put your fingers down like you are playing a chromatic scale pattern. This will loosen up the left hand in multiple directions. Repeat as necessary until you begin to feel like the left hand is getting warm.

guitar warm-up routine image chromatic scale — Chromatic Scale

Step 2: Stretches

Wrist Stretches – Hold your left hand out in front of you, palm facing up like you are holding a serving tray. Then grab your fingers with your right hand and gently pull downward on the fingers. You will feel the wrist stretching. Hold this for about 30 seconds. Then, stretch out your left arm straight in front of you with your palm facing down. Grab your fingers and pull them back toward your body with your right hand. Hold this for 30 seconds. Repeat this on the right side.
Finger stretches – These look very similar to the previous wrist stretches but differ in their focus. Again, hold your left hand out in front of you, palm facing up like you are holding a serving tray. Reach under the fingers with your right hand and gently pull down on the index finger. You will feel a much deeper stretch through the muscles of the forearm. Repeat this for each of the fingers holding them for 30 seconds. Next, move your left hand into a position like you are doing a biceps curl. Gently grab the index finger again with your right hand and let the left-hand drop towards the floor to feel a stretch. Don’t pull the left hand down too far. Only enough to feel the stretch. Repeat for 30 seconds on all other fingers.

Step 3: Picking Coordination Exercises

Now it’s time to combine the two hands for coordination. I use an exercise that I call Right-Hand/Left-Hand Coordination (below). The goal is to begin slowly and build up speed with each repeat of the entire exercise. If you play with a pick, then you should always use alternate picking. If you play fingerstyle, then you should use different alternating finger patterns (i/m, i/a, m/a). This exercise really gets the fingers ready for the practice session ahead.

guitar warm-up routine image rh lh coordination — RH/LH Coordination

Step 4: Playing Scales

For most players, scales are used mainly for technical work. That’s why they work so well in a guitar warm-up routine. They are a great way to improve your finger dexterity and accuracy. Start with simple open-position scales. Then move on to closed position two and three-octave scales. For most, using pentatonic scales will also suffice for warm-ups. However, major and minor scales will build more dexterity and position shifts into your fingers.

If you are unsure of where to begin, then check out these resources for some direction.

Step 5: Playing Some Simple Songs

Once you’ve warmed up, start playing some simple songs. This applies to both fingerstyle and pick-style players. The caution here is to take it easy as your hands warm up. If you are playing fingerstyle, then take slower tempos and choose songs that have easy movements without difficulties like barre chords and stretches. If you play with a pick, then do some simple strumming songs with open chords and easy movements. Remember, this is about warming up not actually practicing yet. This will help you to get your mind and body ready for more challenging playing.

Step 6: Start Practicing

You’ve taken about 10 or 15 minutes here to get your mind and body in a state that is conducive to a good practice session. Now it’s time to begin working while your mind is fresh. Begin with the most difficult mental part of practice first. Your mind is fresh and you want to take advantage of it for problem-solving. As you continue to play, your focus will wane. This is a time for reviewing problems you have already solved but need to continue their progress and for older repertoire that may not need as much mental attention.

Conclusion

Warming up before playing guitar is a simple way to improve your playing and prevent injuries. Make sure to take some time to warm up before each practice session or performance. Or initial analogy of getting onto the interstate ends with flowing with the traffic and winding down as we exit off the interstate. I can dig into those at a later date. For now, know that trying to jump into practicing without a guitar warm-up routine warming up is like dropping a car in the middle of a fast-moving interstate. It just won’t work. You have to “ramp up” for any practice session you begin. Always kickstart your practice with a good guitar warm-up routine.

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Kickstart Your Practice: Beginner’s Guide to Guitar Warm-Up Routine