3 Warmups I’ve Been Using Lately — Curious What Others Practice

[DanJazzJourney]

I’ve been refining my pre-practice routine recently and these three have been sticking:
• 2-note diatonic 3rds through the circle of fourths
• Long 3-octave arpeggios (major, minor, dominant)
• 3-note diatonic 3rds (stacked thirds moving stepwise)

Nothing revolutionary — just trying to tighten up time, articulation and fretboard awareness before working on tunes.
Curious what others here are using as a daily warmup?

I recorded a short demo of how I’m running them here if anyone’s interested:

[James W]

I always begin my guitar practice session of the day (after about 15 minutes of sight-singing) with an exercise involving slurs for the left hand which I took from Pumping Nylon, and then another left hand exercise from that book. Once the left hand is warmed up I do the right hand - tremolo on each string, semiquavers at 160 BPM. Then a bit more for the right hand, an etude on one string I got from Chris Brooks' book on alternate picking.

After that I usually do scale work for an hour - hexatonic, chromatically embellished seventh chord arpeggios and linear thirds each preceded with a semitone pickup note, then shell voicings in position and triads played as chords up and down the neck and on different string sets and both inversions, then an interval through the scale ascending and descending and alternating ascending and descending, then linear triads ascending and descending and alternating between these two, then finally seventh chord arpeggios ascending and descending and alternating between the two.

If I don't have time in the morning for that scale regimen then I will practice a bop head or two instead. And some Bach.

[AllanAllen]

A quick note, 3 note diatonic 3rds are commonly called triads. Just to simplify your description.

My routine is similar. I'm working on 3 note per string melodic minor fingerings, I have 2 down so far. Run them through the circle of 4ths with various patterns.

I'm dipping into Barry Harris stuff so I'll do Maj6 arpeggio inversions with diminished arps in between.

The main difference here is I do this stuff after I'm finished practicing, while I'm watching TV. Just casual guitar in hand stuff.

I'll also do this alternating triad thing. Example: D Ab D... up then back down really similar to your 3 octave arpeggio exercise.

Practice is more about repertoire memorization for me.

[Strat-itis]

I had programmed myself to practice functionally shaped exercises to bridge to music better. Now that I play vibraphone, shape is more intuitive and pure scales are the hardest technically. So I'm back just practicing scales lol. But I still practice scales that fit the bluesy tonality I try to play with. Blues scale and 8 note dorian + tritone primarily. Plus dominant scales, major scales, spike scales, and tonic minor scales.

I also realized that I may as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone and practice rhythms while doing the scales. Do the scales in 8th notes, triplets, and 16th notes.

[pauln]

As usual my process is backwards from the typical methods.

First, it is both your hands and your musical mind that need to be warmed up. The beginning of a practice should warm up both. To me, the first 15 minutes should be slow and deliberate.
I don't do exercises*; the only creatures in nature that do exercises are new butterflies and baby birds, and then only enough to get their wings to work for the first time. I instead front load this time with examination and exploration of new things. This seems to be a natural way to engage the hands and mind, nice and easy, and very slow and deliberate in finding how to play ideas I've gathered since last practice... all very gentle and thoughtful.
As both my hands and mind warm up I feel it - like taking a walk and after a little while feeling the urge to change to running.
If you put this kind of thing near the last of your practice (working slowly and thinking closely) when your hands and mind are all warmed up for speed of execution with internalized control, it just seems like a mismatch of preparation for the task.

* Wes said he never practiced anything he wouldn't play in a tune

[Mick-7]

the only creatures in nature that do exercises are new butterflies and baby birds

"Butterfly flight preparation involves immediate post-emergence wing expansion and strengthening, followed by daily thermoregulation through basking in sunlight to reach a required body temperature. Butterflies require open, sunny, and calm environments for take-off."

I don't know about wing (finger?) expansion and strengthening, but I share their their preflight environment preference.

[DanJazzJourney]

I always begin my guitar practice session of the day (after about 15 minutes of sight-singing) with an exercise involving slurs for the left hand which I took from Pumping Nylon, and then another left hand exercise from that book. Once the left hand is warmed up I do the right hand - tremolo on each string, semiquavers at 160 BPM. Then a bit more for the right hand, an etude on one string I got from Chris Brooks' book on alternate picking.

After that I usually do scale work for an hour - hexatonic, chromatically embellished seventh chord arpeggios and linear thirds each preceded with a semitone pickup note, then shell voicings in position and triads played as chords up and down the neck and on different string sets and both inversions, then an interval through the scale ascending and descending and alternating ascending and descending, then linear triads ascending and descending and alternating between these two, then finally seventh chord arpeggios ascending and descending and alternating between the two.

If I don't have time in the morning for that scale regimen then I will practice a bop head or two instead. And some Bach.

Wow that an awesome routine. I will take notes and implement some of these Thanks

[DanJazzJourney]

A quick note, 3 note diatonic 3rds are commonly called triads. Just to simplify your description.

My routine is similar. I'm working on 3 note per string melodic minor fingerings, I have 2 down so far. Run them through the circle of 4ths with various patterns.

I'm dipping into Barry Harris stuff so I'll do Maj6 arpeggio inversions with diminished arps in between.

The main difference here is I do this stuff after I'm finished practicing, while I'm watching TV. Just casual guitar in hand stuff.

I'll also do this alternating triad thing. Example: D Ab D... up then back down really similar to your 3 octave arpeggio exercise.

Practice is more about repertoire memorization for me.

My god I had a temporary mental laps and couldnt think of the term "Triad" thanks. Yeah I've done these whilst watching TV if Im not feeling a full practice session.

[DanJazzJourney]

As usual my process is backwards from the typical methods.

First, it is both your hands and your musical mind that need to be warmed up. The beginning of a practice should warm up both. To me, the first 15 minutes should be slow and deliberate.
I don't do exercises*; the only creatures in nature that do exercises are new butterflies and baby birds, and then only enough to get their wings to work for the first time. I instead front load this time with examination and exploration of new things. This seems to be a natural way to engage the hands and mind, nice and easy, and very slow and deliberate in finding how to play ideas I've gathered since last practice... all very gentle and thoughtful.
As both my hands and mind warm up I feel it - like taking a walk and after a little while feeling the urge to change to running.
If you put this kind of thing near the last of your practice (working slowly and thinking closely) when your hands and mind are all warmed up for speed of execution with internalized control, it just seems like a mismatch of preparation for the task.

* Wes said he never practiced anything he wouldn't play in a tune

Wow that's a really cool outlook. It make sense.

[Onlyserious]

I spend 5 minutes playing every note on the neck, naming it out loud, as suggested in a Frank Vignola video from years back.

But my real warmup involves sight reading. After a lifetime of being embarrassed to be a poor reader, a couple years ago I committed to get 'er done and really work at it--evert day. I might not have committed to it, but Sight Reading Factory has really worked for me--a couple clicks and away I go... No messing with paper material, metronome as needed, everything fresh at appropriate challenging tempos, variable speeds, etc. I usually do 15 minutes of rhythm-only reading and 15 minutes each of two different keys starting in different positions. Really works for me as a warm up and a confidence booster.

[emanresu]

My first thing to do is to put on a swingy drum loop 100-140bpm. Crank up the bass drum there.
Then strum power chords in various stupid ways. Have to feel the thumping feeling to start in my chest.
Then can move on to those little finger acrobatics - while trying to hold the groove alive.

[DanJazzJourney]

I spend 5 minutes playing every note on the neck, naming it out loud, as suggested in a Frank Vignola video from years back.

But my real warmup involves sight reading. After a lifetime of being embarrassed to be a poor reader, a couple years ago I committed to get 'er done and really work at it--evert day. I might not have committed to it, but Sight Reading Factory has really worked for me--a couple clicks and away I go... No messing with paper material, metronome as needed, everything fresh at appropriate challenging tempos, variable speeds, etc. I usually do 15 minutes of rhythm-only reading and 15 minutes each of two different keys starting in different positions. Really works for me as a warm up and a confidence booster.

That's really cool. I checked out Sight Reading Factory. Thanks

[Christian Miller]

Usually play a few bop heads


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[rpjazzguitar]

The only thing that I do that I'd call an exercise is running two octave arpeggios in 4 places on the neck, with a 5th place with one octave. 7, m7, m6, maj7, minmaj7, sometimes a 6. But I don't do it everytime before I practice.

Last night I ran melodic minor scales in 12 keys all on the B string only - starting from the open B or C. I do things like that to drill my knowledge of the notes, by name, in the scales I use.

[befiddled]

I like to run arpeggios or scales in eighth notes, whilst playing over a progression. The routine is to begin in a position (caged), on a chord tone and ascend or descend in time until the harmony changes at which point one seamlessly makes the change to the next chord/arp/scale and continues in the established direction until another change in harmony or direction occurs and continue on. If I have enough mental energy available, I like to play through the five positions. Also, there’s lots of variations on this - not that I’m particularly fluid with them but they exist.

[GuyBoden]

(This is position 5 of five CAGED type positions, tuned in 4ths)

I play phrases within the type of scale shown above, I play a different key a each day, every morning.

I like patterns with colours.

[Rodney Gene]

(This is position 5 of five CAGED type positions, tuned in 4ths)

I play phrases within the type of scale shown above, I play a different key a each day, every morning.

I like patterns with colours.

That is interesting. Do you always keep your instruments tuned in 4ths? Did you (or do you) learn tunes or write that way, or is it just a occasional thing?

[GuyBoden]

That is interesting. Do you always keep your instruments tuned in 4ths? Did you (or do you) learn tunes or write that way, or is it just a occasional thing?

I changed to 4th tuning about 18+ years ago, I was hoping (praying) that Guitar playing would be much easier and my life would be a sumptuous bed of roses.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case, but it's too late to change back to standard tuning now, I'm too old and I've invested too much time into 4th tuning.

[charlieparker]

I always begin my guitar practice session of the day (after about 15 minutes of sight-singing)

What material are you sight-singing?

[James W]

What material are you sight-singing?

I have a few different books - several, in fact.

The one I'm using at the moment which I'm going through for a second time is Solfege, Ear Training, Rhythm, Dictation and Music Theory by Marta Arkossy Ghezzo. It's good but I find it slightly steep in terms of how challenging the exercises get. But it is useful, particularly the modal and atonal/serial exercises towards the end, and the appendix which include exercises for different clefs. Another one is Progressive Sight Singing by Carol Krueger, which is less steep in how it progresses, so it's more beginner friendly. And the other two are Modus Vetus and Modus Novus both by Lars Edlund. The former deals with major/minor tonality and features in addition to sight-singing material, figured bass and keyboard exercises, and includes lots of material from mainstream classical repertoire. The latter, Modus Novus, deals with atonal music and I am fairly certain that I have not gone through it in its entirety!

Anyway, the important thing is to do a little bit of this stuff every day...

[Christian Miller]

I have a few different books - several, in fact.

The one I'm using at the moment which I'm going through for a second time is Solfege, Ear Training, Rhythm, Dictation and Music Theory by Marta Arkossy Ghezzo. It's good but I find it slightly steep in terms of how challenging the exercises get. But it is useful, particularly the modal and atonal/serial exercises towards the end, and the appendix which include exercises for different clefs. Another one is Progressive Sight Singing by Carol Krueger, which is less steep in how it progresses, so it's more beginner friendly. And the other two are Modus Vetus and Modus Novus both by Lars Edlund. The former deals with major/minor tonality and features in addition to sight-singing material, figured bass and keyboard exercises, and includes lots of material from mainstream classical repertoire. The latter, Modus Novus, deals with atonal music and I am fairly certain that I have not gone through it in its entirety!

Anyway, the important thing is to do a little bit of this stuff every day...

I should probably practice that. Those Edlund books are high rated. My inclination would always be to work on actual music, which it sounds like those books contain. Exercises are great if they are well written, which is a big if. I hate having to read through dreck. Life is short, let's have good music.

My ear work mostly operates the other way. I transcribe a lot of music - not necessarily whole things, but chunks here and there. It's my main way of interacting with music, although I also read a fair amount of stuff too, classical, jazz etc. It makes sense to complete that triangle between score, sound, playing.

If I hear something cool, I work it out. But this is mostly on the guitar, which to me at least is totally different from functional ear training etc. But increasingly, I'm writing things down for my channel. I didn't use to do this much, and I think this is really good thing to do, actually, it makes you listen to thing again and again in a way that I probably wouldn't if I was just playing it back.

The biggest challenges I usually encounter in transcription to score are rhythmic. I do find more modern players etc harder to transcribe though because their musical language is usually less familiar to me. It's also a bigger room'... it seems that today, a composer or improviser's musical language is more personal and less linked to an overreaching common practice.

[Christian Miller]

Anyway that's a bit tangential.

It's a rather embarrassing fact that it took me quite a long time to realise that I should spend a while playing my instrument. It does in fact get better over the course of the session. I am not, it turns out, a brain in a jar.

Warm up's per se - I've never really done them. But I have got better at not expecting peak performance the first time I pick up a guitar that day... A lot of it is getting used to the instrument and the acoustic. I play quite a few different guitars with very different scale lengths, neck widths and shapes, string spacings and set ups in the course of my playing life, so if I have a gig coming up on the Maccaferri, for example, I'll need to spend some time before the gig getting used to playing the thing. So I'll just play that for everything I'm practicing that day, regardless of what it is.

[James W]

I should probably practice that. Those Edlund books are high rated. My inclination would always be to work on actual music, which it sounds like those books contain. Exercises are great if they are well written, which is a big if. I hate having to read through dreck. Life is short, let's have good music.

True, but actual music often isn't simple. I'm not sure what level Forumista CharlieParker is at, but my attitude is when approaching these is not so much how good the music sounds which is a secondary concern, but rather whether or not I can audiate it/sing it accurately. So initially a beginner might just want to be able to sing the first four notes of the major scale in various combinations etc.

My ear work mostly operates the other way. I transcribe a lot of music - not necessarily whole things, but chunks here and there. It's my main way of interacting with music, although I also read a fair amount of stuff too, classical, jazz etc. It makes sense to complete that triangle between score, sound, playing.

Cool. I too spend more time transcribing than I do practising sight-singing...

If I hear something cool, I work it out. But this is mostly on the guitar, which to me at least is totally different from functional ear training etc. But increasingly, I'm writing things down for my channel. I didn't use to do this much, and I think this is really good thing to do, actually, it makes you listen to thing again and again in a way that I probably wouldn't if I was just playing it back.

The biggest challenges I usually encounter in transcription to score are rhythmic. I do find more modern players etc harder to transcribe though because their musical language is usually less familiar to me. It's also a bigger room'... a composer or improviser's musical language is more personal and less linked to an overreaching common practice.

I'm more of the opposite right now. I'm figuring out Adam Rogers' solo on 'Introspection' without writing it down (I did write down the head and some of his solo quite some time ago, and although that is somewhere, I haven't consulted it when I recently resumed figuring it out) and also of course learning to play it and memorise it as I go along. Having said that, when figuring out Coltrane's 'Mars' I definitely need to write that down, for obvious reasons! But I haven't done much of that in a while, I ought to get back into it... of course, that is one thing where the rhythmic aspect is very loose so the notation is quite a relative depiction...

[AllanAllen]

I’m going to step up my game here. I’m tired of halfway knowing all this basic stuff.

https://modernguitarharmony.com/wp-c...ce_Routine.pdf