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Location: Chicago | I've noticed that most guitar players, when they sit down to play or practice, will usually start with one of a few standard things: a favorite chord pattern, song, riff.... whatever. For example, I'll inevitably do something in A minor (a simple Latin groove or familiar line). What do YOU warm up with? What is the first (automatic) thing you tend to play before the hands warm up and brain wakes up? |
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Location: Connersville, Indiana | http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9428541 Cry For Help Hey Doug this is what I have warmed up with for over 16 years, then one day during a blizzard I was playing the acoustic parts which is a lot of string changes and slideing up and donw the neck plucking voicings with two of three fingers at a time, warming up and I started to sing " A lone in these walls don't dare go outside" and thats how the song began. Up until my pinky went numb I still used it, now I play Johnny B Good both rhythm and lead at the same time almost. Play the rhythm then jump to a small lead break then back and forth through out the song. Some day I'll be able to play Cry for Help again. Great question. |
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Location: Connersville, Indiana | Sorry Greg, Not Doug, I just got off the phone with him. Oooooops
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Location: Chicago | No worries, Kat. LOL! |
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Location: Connersville, Indiana | 
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Location: Chicago | No, but seriously: Most of us have an "autopilot" warmup that we just crank out as the "first thing." For a long time, I noticed that my partner Jeff Burns would always play a snippet of "Perpetual Emotion" by Al D. At a gig it was nice, because it caught your attention and generated interest.... |
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Location: Connersville, Indiana | I guess I misunderstood, the acoustic guitar of what is now Cry for Help, is what I used to warm up at home prior to rehearsing. But at a gig, I always started playing Slow Ride. Like Jeff's playing it really got the crowd fired up for the show. |
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Posts: 59
| I tend to go with a guitar boogie to get the left hand working... Dust in the Wind to get the right hand working, and then something like Country Roads to get the strumming and chord-change rhythm wound up.
The boogie was the first thing I learned - perhaps that's why it tends to come first.
Carl |
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Location: Flahdaw | Usually little fingerpicking ditties....D with bass line progressions, fingerpicking blues in E, Am blues progressions working into leads up the neck. I'm usually ready to go in 3 minutes |
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Location: Vermont USA | I have a chord progression I like Maj7 to a Minor7 and so on. |
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Location: Connersville, Indiana | BobG, Real nice video, I'm going to try that a little. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7222
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Warm Up... I guess sound-check is actually my warm-up. As I play electric there are so many variables that are essentially out of my control regarding sound so that's what I "noodle" on first. I also have a handful of riffs that I use to test a guitar for both feel and sound. If playing these riffs aren't easy or they don't sound as they should, then that's not a guitar for me. By time I have the sound worked out... I'm warmed up.
I will never forget the 1st time I played my 10-string. I was checking the "clean" tones and did a riff for one of my tunes that has always been a challenge to get to "sound" right. The chords are easy enough, simple even, but the sound always had chorus and the difference between too much and too little was always a fine line because the chords are so simple. After playing the tune of nearly 6 years (an original my and and I wrote), I finally heard the sound from the guitar that was in my head. It's not that it needed a Chorus all those years, it needed a 10-string guitar. It was probably the most awesome feeling ever. It was so distinct that the rest of the band recognized that something was "right" all of a sudden. Apparently it was "the sound" that we all heard in our heads, but not out the amps all those years. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Great question, Greg! For me it's usually the "chord or chords of the day." Or, more likely, the chord or chords that has/have me by the brain for now...with "now" being a period stretching anywhere from a day to several months.
As you mention, Am is a favorite...if I'm not currently in the grip of a "chord of the day," then Am is the usual default. But I've gone through "phases" for lots of 'em, Am with C, Bm with D, Dm (another favorite) with F, A with D, E with Am+F, G and F, Em (at 2nd, 3rd or 7th frets) and recently Gm and Cm (sitting so nicely on the third fret together as they do!). Not a lot of sharps and flats, and have avoided Fm, out of a fear of having to start a "warm-up" with THAT particular barred minor. Too much work too early in the session! Not a lot of B, for the same barre chord reason.
So, it varies according to the chord obsession in place at the time... |
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Location: Newington, CT | Oops...I forgot: the current "chord of the day" is Em at the third fret... |
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Location: Flahdaw | Whew....thanks |
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Location: Newington, CT | I know, I know...close call! |
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Location: Northwest Arkansas | "Long Train Running" or "Free Ride". That'll warm ya up. Sometimes "Sweet Melissa". I almost play acoustic exclusively. I have the 2 Celebrities and my Custom Legend. The Celebs are tuned open. One to "D" and the other to "G". Saves me a lot of broken strings tuning back and forth. If I have the open "G" guitar on, I'll do part of "Slat Key Soquel Rag" or "Slippery St. Paul". Both by the Doobies. Those tunes are GREAT to warm-up with. Almost like playing a banjo. |
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Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | Warming up, I play a really fast version of Jerry Reed's The Claw.
Of course I only know the first 4 notes of it........ |
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Warming up--what do you fall back on?
