Warm ups are important for a guitarist!

[Silicon Valley Tom]

I have been playing guitar for over 70 years and have not had any problems with my hands due to the guitar. I may be lucky! I have had sports injuries but that is not the topic of this discussion.

I like to recommend doing a few basic exercises with the guitar before starting a "session", be it practice or performance. Determine what works for you and how long the warm up should last. I use a five minute warm up and find that it works for me. Get your fingers moving and your head oriented with music and forget the outside world! After the warm up, I like to get into new material, and then play whatever I like for as long as I want. Above all have fun! It is nice to have a sense of direction. If you are into Blues, follow Griff.

Tom

 

[sdbrit68]

Mine is a little different, I soak my hands in warm water, dry them off and use a heating pad on them, then stretch and spider exercise

 

[PapaBear]

That's it! That's what I forgot to do in Grand Rapids, I didn't warm up for guitar or singing!

 

[MarkWalker218]

Agree, I always start a practice session or before a jam by doing the chromatic scale 0,1,2,3,4 feet on each string up and down for a few minutes and then running through all the pentatonic shapes in C and one other key for several minutes. Gets my fingers moving and my head thinking about the notes and shapes.

 

[PapaRaptor]

That's it! That's what I forgot to do in Grand Rapids, I didn't warm up for guitar or singing!

As well as you pulled it off, I can't imagine how good you would have been if you warmed up!

 

[JPsuff]

My warmup is simple and is basically like a two-string walk up.
It starts a full step below the root on the sixth string then goes to the middle of box one and ends with some "rock bends" in the house pattern of box 2.
I go up into it and then back down out of it several times, usually with a variety of Dorian half-steps sprinkled in, until I can do it smoothly and then I'm ready.