Great Warm Up Exercises To Increase Guitar Playing Speed Development During Your Practice Time

Ever wonder what a good warm up exercise for speed really looks like?

If you’re like most guitarist, you probably warm up by playing stuff like chromatic scales that stay in the same position and move across all 6 strings.

Chances are:

This isn’t really working for you to help you get tangible results.

Good news is, there really ARE excellent warm up exercises out there that help you improve your playing speed by making your guitar practice more effective.

…And you’re about to learn some right now!

Sound good?

Okay, let’s get started:

Guitar Speed Warmup Exercise #1: Use Shorter Versions Of Your Practice Items

Break down practice items into smaller parts before you start working on them during your main practice session.

This warms up your hands and prepares you mentally to get the best results possible from the things you are working on.

Contrast this with working on random licks or exercises, and it’s easy to see how this approach is far superior.

Watch this video to see an excellent way to practice notes in smaller chunks:

Note: You don’t always need to use this “bursts” approach. Practicing slowly on things like vibrato, bends or simply slower phrases is also great to warm up your hands before getting into faster material.

Guitar Speed Warmup Exercise #2: Practice Things You Will Actually Use

This is similar to point #1, but slightly different. The warmup items you use before you practice are most effective and beneficial when they are things you actually play in everyday playing.

For example:

·         Scales

·         Arpeggios

·         Licks from songs you play

·         Chord progressions you use

You have much more incentive to warm up with these things than to use random practice items that have no purpose otherwise.

Note: Practicing things you normally don’t work on -but know you should be working on- is great for warmups as well. Warmups usually only last 5-10 minutes, so this is a great time to work on much needed practice items that you normally wouldn’t focus on as much.

For example, fretboard memorization, finding chord inversions, phrasing, etc.

Guitar Speed Warmup Exercise #3: Practice Things You Already Know In Creative Ways

Using the items you’ve already mastered in a creative way helps activate your mind to get better results from your guitar practice.

Already know how to play a 5-string A minor arpeggio pattern?

Here is a sweep picking arpeggio that has been broken into 3-note sequences:

Practicing like this instead of simply playing one-note-at-a-time makes for a more creative warmup that also makes playing the arpeggio like normal feel easier.

You could also break this arpeggio sequence into just a few smaller sections, such as only playing the first 3-9 notes. It’s up to you how to approach this.

Guitar Speed Warmup Exercise #4: Integrate Different Skills Together

Using warmup exercises that integrate multiple skills together is a killer way to activate your creative mind, improve your ability to smoothly use skills in a musical manner and warm up your hands all at once.

Check out this video to learn how practicing items that improve your skills in multiple areas is incredibly effective:

Examples of this could include:

·         Combing scales with arpeggios in a single fretboard position

·         Playing a short guitar phrase over and over while adding variation using things like vibrato, bends, tremolo picking or legato

·         Playing short chord progressions while using a few notes in between each chord to tie them together in a more musically expressive manner

Now that you know some effective warm up exercise concepts, it’s time to learn how to double your guitar speed by practicing less.

How is this done?

Find out by downloading this free guitar speed resource.