Senior Instructor at Halifax Guitar Lessons
Everyone is busy and if you are trying to learn how to play guitar you will only have a fixed amount of time to practice.
So, you definitely want to make the most of that time and squeeze every minute you can. Because of this most people never bother warming up and thinking that they will progress faster without it.
Mind you a lot of people do not even realize they should warmup so would not even think to skip it anyway because it is not an option!
Here are 3 reasons why you should always warmup before you practice playing your guitar
1. Prepares You Physically
What most people forget about playing guitar is that it is a physical activity and that it requires many muscles and tendons to do it.
You use your hands and fingers every day and you rarely have to think about how much strain there is on them so it’s normal to forget this.
The reality is that learning how to play guitar causes stress and strain on muscles and tendons in ways they are not used to.
So, like any other physical activity like sports, you should warm them up properly before you engage them fully.
This will help you get more done during your practice and it will also protect you from injury which could keep your from playing guitar.
2. Prepares You Mentally
Warming up not only helps you prepare for practicing guitar physically, it also helps you mentally.
When you warmup it should be done slowly enough to play everything as accurately as possible and allow your fingers to move freely and without strain and tension.
Every time you take your time and perform something properly you feel good psychologically and put yourself in a success mindset and if you structure your warmup properly you will be more likely to have success when you start your actual guitar practice.
How you think during your practice affects your practice a lot more than you likely realize. A proper warmup helps you get into the optimal state of mind and then you can get the most out of your practice.
3. You Make More Progress
As mentioned most people skip the warmup, if they even know about it, thinking they will progress faster.
But this is backwards. Here is the cool thing about warming up that I never understood until I was taught properly by my mentor.
If you are not properly warmed up you will be more likely to rush through your practice and do things incorrectly. This will put you in a negative mindset which leads to more mistakes and more frustration. This set you up for failure.
However, if you warmup properly, you will be ready physically and mentally and be in a more positive state of mind. This sets you up for success.
This alone will help you get more out of your practice than just about anything else.
How To Properly Warmup On Guitar So You Make More Progress
Learning how to use your warmup time properly is the key to faster progress on guitar. You only have so much time to practice so as I mentioned already you want to get every minute out of it that you can.
When I first started warming up I just did random finger exercises to get them moving and looking only at the physical aspect. That’s what most guitar players also do if they actually warmup.
This is certainly a good thing but the problem is that it does not do anything to improve your guitar playing and it is going to pretty boring to boot.
Your guitar practice warmup routine should accomplish much more than that or else that time will mostly be wasted and I would not blame you for skipping it.
The key to proper warmup is to practice something you find challenging, but doing it very slowly, and making sure your mind is fully engaged throughout the process.
This will accomplish all of the things mentioned in this article. You have to be patient and slow and engaged. That is the key. Do not overlook this!