Warm-up exercises are the foundation for a good practice session.  Your warm-up habits will dictate the quality of your practice, thus disciplining your technique and increasing your ability.  Keeping that in mind, let’s get started on some pre-warm up rituals.

Before you even pick up the guitar, you want to make sure that your body and mind are at ease.  Tense or distracted practice will do nothing but increase your chance of developing bad habits.  You can start by taking some deep breaths, and relaxing your shoulders and arms.  You may want to stretch your fingers out by placing a golf ball in between your joints.

Once you are relaxed and stretched, make sure that your guitar is in tune.  If you need help tuning your guitar, please refer to Lesson 1: Introduction & Tuning Your Guitar.  Now that you’re all tuned up, its time to learn some warm-up exercises.

Chromatic Scale

One of the best warm-up exercises to practice is the chromatic scale.  This scale is built by playing every tone on the neck, increasing by a half-step with each picking stroke.  It involves stretching and changing positions, which will help build speed and strength. 

Let’s begin by placing our first finger on the 5^th fret of the low E string.  Pick the 5^th fret, then the 6^th fret with your second finger, the 7^th fret with your third finger, and the 8^th fret with your pinky.  Once you play the 8^th fret on the low E, move down one string to the A string, and backwards one fret towards the headstock.  If this is done correctly, your first finger will now be on the 4^th fret of the A string.  We move back a fret so as not to repeat the last tone we just played.

Now, with your first finger, play the 4^th fret of the A string, the 5^th fret with your second finger, 6^th fret with your third finger, and 7^th fret with your pinky. When you land the note with your pinky, push down extra hard on the fretboard.  This will build some extra strength.  After playing the four consecutive notes on the A string, repeat the process by moving down to the D string, and back one fret.  This time, your first finger will be starting on the 3^rd fret.

After the D string, move down to the G string and back one fret again (starting on the 2^nd fret).  When you have completed the G string, move down to the B string, but DO NOT move backwards a fret.  It is important to understand that the G and B strings are tuned differently from each other than all the other strings.  Therefore, moving back a fret would cause you to skip a note.  So, start the B string with your first finger on the 2^nd fret and play four consecutive tones.

Once you have played the B string, you can move down to the high E string and back one fret again.  Play the 1^st AND 2^nd frets with your first finger, then play up until your pinky lands on the 5^th fret, thus completing the chromatic scale. 

Reversing the Scale

Now, reverse the process by going back down the scale the exact same way you went up, starting every string with your pinky instead of first finger.  Do not play the scale faster than you’re able to; this will only cause sloppy errors.  The key is to be precise and accurate.  When the chromatic scale is played correctly at a normal tempo, it will sound like this:

Practice Assignment

Run through the chromatic scale at least 5-10 times, or until your hand becomes tired.  Each note should be stroked using alternate picking (both down and up strokes).  Don’t get into the habit of only picking downwards; you will lose a lot of speed potential.  You should also be practicing your warm-up exercises with a metronome, in order to keep time.  If you don’t have a metronome, tap your foot.

When you have practiced the scale a few times, start to work your picking hand into the mix by playing each note twice, and then three times (triplets).  This will help increase your picking speed allowing you to play faster, more colorful solos.

Next, let's learn another warm-up exercise: the Diagonal Minor Pentatonic Scale.