Warming up at a gig

**MarkRhodes** · 05-05-2014, 09:08 PM

How much time do you need?
Where do you do it?
What do you focus on?

**mr. beaumont** · 05-05-2014, 09:22 PM

Most of my gigs are solo, so...

I do a chromatic thing, 1234 on one string, 4321 on the next, then after all 6 strings I do 2345, etc...

Then I play through a quick chord melody of something medium up...last time I played out it was "midnight mood."

Then I run changes over something with lots of chords, like joy spring...by then I'm usually limbered up.

Whole thing takes 2 minutes or so. Where depends on the place and if people are paying attention...always "unplugged."

Sometimes the warm up is the first song

EDIT: For giggles I timed my "warm up"...a lot longer than 2 minutes!

More like 5/6...

**Patrick2** · 05-05-2014, 10:38 PM

I've never done a jazz gig. Not sure if I ever will. But, the jury's still out on that one. White heat was the most significant band I was ever a part of. When we first got to a gig and felt like we needed to warm up a bit . . it was always with a mellow tune. Freddy Hubbard's "First Light" is one of the tunes that comes to mind. We all got a chance to blow in that one. But, we always featured our horn player. He favored his flugelhorn in that tune. It usually lasted about 10 to 12 minutes. By the time we ended the tune, we were all pretty much ready.

**monk** · 05-05-2014, 11:31 PM

A couple of times through the chromatic scales and major/relative minor triad arpeggios through the cycle of fourths that I learned from the Johnny Smith book way back when. Everything very slowly. Focusing on synchronizing RH & LH.

**Petimar** · 05-06-2014, 12:28 AM

A series of right and left hand exercises to get warm. Sometimes you don't have time and just have to go.

**randalljazz** · 05-06-2014, 05:34 AM

an elaborate set of finger stretches that i do driving to the gig.

first tune is always one i can play in my sleep.

get there early.

**paulkogut** · 05-06-2014, 11:31 AM

I've been incredibly fortunate to work with the great Chicago bassist Kelly Sill. He's pointed out that there's an energy that builds up in an audience before a performance, and any audible riffing/practicing/warming up before the downbeat can dissipate this energy, the most grievous sin being noodling on the opening lick of the first tune on the setlist. So my process of warming up has developed with this in mind (Jim Hall addresses a similar concept in Exploring Jazz Guitar, he calls the audience's anticipation and sense of possibility the "Magic Meeting")

I try to get the bulk of my physical warming up done at home or the hotel room. I don't like to do a lot of blowing through tunes before a gig, I might run the heads in and out, maybe voicelead through a few choruses with whole and half notes, do some scale/finger pattern gymnastics and/or slowly read some Bach pieces. If there's time, going for a a walk, checking out a park or museum is always nice.

In a perfect world, we get to the club early and the group can soundcheck before anyone gets there. If not, I've developed a few tricks to get things to gel without benefit of soundcheck. If I can literally get my hands on a cup of coffee, I'll carry that around for a bit once I'm done setting up the gear. I turn my amp up louder than I think I'll need and back it off with a volume pedal, which leaves me somewhere to go. Then I like to start the set with a tune that has a pedal up front, to let everyone get used to everyone and build things up gradually. If I'm playing with bass instead of B3, I choose a tune where the bassist can pedal and open string, giving him or her a free hand to adjust the amp if necessary.

Here's a clip of my arrangement of In Your Own Sweet Way, that I came up with all this in mind. I do a 16 bar intro, 8 bars of G7sus, 8 of Ab7sus, so the first 8 gives the bassist an open string if necessary. I play the body of the tune as per usual, then on the outro, I go from Ab7sus up to A7sus. Here I'll usually ramp up the energy with some fuzztone, the key center giving me multiple options of open strings and harmonics if I need a free hand to dial in any knobs.

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PK

www.paulkogut.com

**mr. beaumont** · 05-06-2014, 11:37 AM

Great post Paul.

**wizard3739** · 05-06-2014, 12:11 PM

Nice version of one of my favorite songs, thanks Paul.

wiz

**coolvinny** · 05-06-2014, 12:18 PM

I usually just run through a solo Bach piece that I have memorized, with my volume all the way down. I don't try to make a big deal out of warming up. If I was playing solo I'd probably take a different approach, but in a combo situation I would normally just "underplay" in the first tune until I felt settled.

**Patrick2** · 05-06-2014, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by coolvinny

I usually just run through a solo Bach piece that I have memorized, with my volume all the way down. I don't try to make a big deal out of warming up. If I was playing solo I'd probably take a different approach, but in a combo situation I would normally just "underplay" in the first tune until I felt settled.

That's pretty much the approach I've taken . . (not the Bach thing . . the only way I could play Bach would be on a turn table, lolol) . . but the "underplay. However, haven't there been times when you just hit the first tune already *hot* . . or got that settled in feeling during the course of and within the first tune?

**teok** · 05-06-2014, 02:02 PM

I've been having some hand issues lately so I've been focusing more on warmup. One thing that helps is soaking my hands in some warm water and and just wiggling my fingers to stimulate blood flow and get them loose. Another thing that helps tremendously is doing a few stretches to loosen up my neck and shoulders which really keeps my hands and arms relaxed. It's all connected and it's amazing how much more loose and comfortable it feels to play after just a few seconds of stretching the upper body. I think this DVD is a must have for any guitarist. I can't recommend it highly enough. Amazon.com: Healthy Hands, Wrists & Forearms: Martin Gray, Ron James: Amazon Instant Video

**MarkRhodes** · 05-06-2014, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by teok

I've been having some hand issues lately so I've been focusing more on warmup. One thing that helps is soaking my hands in some warm water and and just wiggling my fingers to stimulate blood flow and get them loose.

I think this is a great idea. Medical workers are taught to wash their hands longer than people generally do. One way to say it is "fifteen seconds" while another way to say is "sing / hum 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' twice" while scrubbing. Doctors and nurses are primarily concerned with germs but that same rigorous scrubbing is good for musicians. It gets the blood flowing in the hands. Warm water is better than cold for this, but cold is better than none.

Also, to clean under your nails, you place the nails of one hand in the palm of the other hand and rub them back and forth. This will get dirt out from under the nails and stimulate the finger tips.

**nickyboy** · 05-06-2014, 03:28 PM

Drumming with your hands bongo style on a table I find helps.
Honestly! :-)

**henryrobinett** · 05-06-2014, 04:21 PM

Nice post and playing Paul!

For me there are two different categories. If I've been a good boy and have been doing my 2-3 hours of practice a day consistently, I don't need much of a warm up. In fact I really don't NEED a warm up at all. I might play through some changes to get a level or a feel for the room at low volume. I really just need to communicate with the guitar, room, other musicians, space.

But if I've been a bad boy, which hasn't been for a while - or due to life situations, travel etc, where I haven't been able to practice or play for a couple of days or more, I'll either play through a bunch of tunes or heads in the house/hotel/backstage/green room, for a half hour. If it's more severe I'll do some chromatic exercises and a left hand exercise I call "The Spider."

**ecj** · 05-06-2014, 05:17 PM

For guitar, I've found that if I warm myself up earlier in the day, I don't really need a warmup. So, for my regular solo gigs, I warm up at home for about 30 minutes, then head to the gig, plug in and play. When I don't have that option (morning gigs), I try to get there early and run through a couple tunes quietly in the corner. This can be a problem. I really don't like going to a gig without having played guitar for a bit earlier that day.

First tune is always something super comfortable at a very relaxed tempo. Then I gradually increase the intensity of the tunes over the set until I'm warm.

My big problem isn't guitar, which I feel like is pretty easy to warm up on, but voice. You can't really quietly warm up your voice, so warming up at the site isn't really feasible unless it's a green-room kind of situation. I try to put my tunes in keys that I can sing easily without warming up, but there are definitely tunes that I have to put later in the set to make sure I'm ready for them. I have about a 15 min vocal warmup that takes care of things when I can do it. In the worst possible scenario, I can kind of hum under my breath and get things loose, but it's pretty weird to do in the midst of other people.

**jtizzle** · 05-06-2014, 11:50 PM

Dinner...

**eddy b.** · 05-07-2014, 01:11 PM

I do some simple arm,hand and finger stretches while driving to the gig. Then once I'm all set up and all the gear is working etc. I do a string skipping excercise and a single string chromatic excercise both very very slow , with volume off, the excercise are done to get both hands in sync with one another..