Guitar Warm-ups for Fingers and Mind

Success in learning guitar comes down to this: strapping it on and playing. Half the battle is just getting started each day. Most students are familiar with warming up –  doing careful exercises for both hands, simple fingerstrokes or slow and precise scales and arpeggios. The blood flows to your arms, hands and fingers and you limber and loosen you muscles and joints. It’s also helpful to engage in 5 minutes of cardio exercises before practice, such as a brisk walk, to begin moving blood and oxygen to the small capillaries. That 5 minutes can also serve as a buffer or break for a busy mind that’s been racing all day. Releasing your cares, slowing down, and settling and focusing the mind are essential to effective practice. Sometimes we don’t practice because we believe we can’t switch from chasing the thoughts running through our heads to being still. We need a way to break this pattern at will. The 5 minute walk in which we begin to let go of everyday cares can help. Or 5 to 10 minutes just listening to music before playing – I often use this to change the subject running through my mind and get inspired by music. Then, as I sit down to warm up and calibrate my fingers, I move my focus to my breath, posture, and to feel and the sound of my guitar. Inevitably my concentration breaks, and I’m pulled away – to an email that needs returning, or an awkward conversation with a friend. It’s essential not to act on these. Don’t go to the computer or pick up the phone. Keep playing, re-focusing the mind on touch and sound, on sensation. The more you come back and relax into the present and, the more stable your mind becomes, until you enter a state of immersion and flow. © 2012 Brenna Method