Warm Up Before You Play!

Hi I’m Vi Wickam, and this another Quick Tip!

Warm up before you play.

Now, you may think, “I’ve been playing for years, I don’t need to warm up to play. I already know how to play those simple scales and simple bowing exercises. Why should I have to warm up?!”

Well… you do. Because your body needs to warm up.

Now, I recommend you warm up your body first with some exercises and stretches before you warm up your instrument.

So, I do some simple things like I swing my arms… Now, I don’t usually have my instrument in my arms while I do this. And I shrug my shoulders… I have a whole series of those kind of body warm up exercises in my eBook, called Fast Fiddle Fitness.

And the idea of that it’s to avoid overuse injuries and avoid hurting your body.

You don’t want to hurt your body. You don’t want to be out of commission because you didn’t warm up. I don’t want you to be hurt and out of commission because you didn’t warm up.

So, do some warm-ups and stretches to your body.

Stretch your arms, stretch your shoulders, you know, loosen them up.

Loosen up your back, your neck, even loosen up your legs. Hang down and touch your toes if you can. Or touch your shins or your knees, if that’s as far as you can stretch.

But wiggle around, loosen up your body first and get your body warmed up.

Then, do a few exercises. Spend 5-10 minutes doing some bowing, or fingering exercises. If you’re on guitar- that would be picking exercises and fingering exercises. If you’re on piano- that would be some scales.

It doesn’t matter what your instrument is, work up some things, and do some technical exercises after you’ve warmed up your body.

And really listen, don’t do stuff that’s super strenuous. We’re warming up our fingers, we’re warming up our ears, we’re listening, and we’re getting in the mode of practicing.

If you prepare your body and your mind to be receptive to the learning after you’ve done that, you’re gonna be in better shape to learn things quicker, and you’re going to have a more effective practice session.

So, what are you all going to do every time you practice?!

If you want to get better faster, you’re going to warm up.

Have a great week!