Warm-Up Exercises
Contents
Petrucci Chords
The goal here is to make chord shapes that involve each of the four fingers on each of 4 adjacent frets, like you are playing a chromatic scale on a single string:
-3-4-5-6- i m r p
So each finger is assigned a fret, and will always be on that fret throughout the exercise. Then play the mirror, where the fingers that were on low strings are now on the high strings and vice versa. For example:
-4--1---...---3--2- -3--2---...---1--4- -2--3---...---4--1- -1--4---...---2--3-
Here's the complete list or chords and mirrors:
| Index as Root |
|-|-|-|p| |-|-|r|-| |-|m|-|-| |i|-|-|-| |
|-|-|r|-| |-|-|-|p| |-|m|-|-| |i|-|-|-| |
|-|-|-|p| |-|m|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |i|-|-|-| |
|-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |-|-|r|-| |i|-|-|-| |
|-|m|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |-|-|-|p| |i|-|-|-| |
|-|-|r|-| |-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |i|-|-|-| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mirror w pinky as root |
|p|-|-|-| |-|m|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |-|-|-|p| |
|-|r|-|-| |p|-|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |-|-|-|p| |
|p|-|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |
|-|-|r|-| |i|-|-|-| |-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |
|-|-|r|-| |-|m|-|-| |i|-|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |
|-|m|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |i|-|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |
| Middle as root |
|-|-|-|p| |-|-|r|-| |i|-|-|-| |-|m|-|-| |
|-|-|r|-| |-|-|-|p| |i|-|-|-| |-|m|-|-| |
|-|-|-|p| |i|-|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |-|m|-|-| |
|i|-|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |-|-|r|-| |-|m|-|-| |
|-|-|r|-| |i|-|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |-|m|-|-| |
|i|-|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |-|-|-|p| |-|m|-|-| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mirror w ring as root |
|i|-|-|-| |-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |-|-|r|-| |
|-|m|-|-| |i|-|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |-|-|r|-| |
|i|-|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |-|m|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |
|-|-|-|p| |i|-|-|-| |-|m|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |
|-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|p| |i|-|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |
|-|-|-|p| |-|m|-|-| |i|-|-|-| |-|-|r|-| |
Many of these are NOT easy to finger. And alternating between a chord and its mirror will be difficult at first. That's kind of the point of this exercise. It forces the muscles in your hands to make not only difficult shapes but also difficult transitions. You shouldn't have any real focus on speed - the point is to get your hand comfortable in making the shapes and being able to make the transitions clean. If you want John Petrucci do it, you'll want to give up playing guitar altogether. But we don't get to see his early years, where this was (probably) difficult even for him.
The best way to start on this isn't to try to go through each shape (and its mirror), but pick a shape and alternate between it and the mirror several times, even moving across strings. For example if we pick the first shape, we'd play like this:
E--------------7--4--------------------7--4-- B--------7--4--6--5--7--4--------7--4--6--5-- G--7--4--6--5--5--6--6--5--7--4--6--5--5--6-- D--6--5--5--6--4--7--5--6--6--5--5--6--4--7-- A--5--6--4--7--------4--7--5--6--4--7-------- E--4--7--------------------4--7--------------
Then move onto the next easiest shape for you and repeat. At first, this is its own technique exercise. Once you're more comfortable and can make advanced chord shapes, this becomes a warm up; but it doesn't mean you'll play through all 12 examples (w/ their 12 mirrors). You may only play through 2-4 of them at first. Only a very advanced player that's going to be playing an intense gig would want to do the complete set.
If you play the example tab for all 12 sets of chords and mirrors, you'd be playing 12 sets of 14 chords = 168 chords. That's one hell of a warm up!
Chromatic Scale
This exercise is great for many reasons. First, it gets your left and right hands to sync up. It warms up the right hand with alternate picking. It warms up the left with equal emphasis on all the fingers, small stretches, and small position shifts.
E------------------------------------------1-2-3-4- B----------------------------------2-3-4-6--------- G--------------------------2-3-4-5----------------- D------------------3-4-5-6------------------------- A----------4-5-6-7--------------------------------- E--5-6-7-8-----------------------------------------
E--4-3-2-1----------------------------------------- B----------5-4-3-2--------------------------------- G------------------5-4-3-2------------------------- D--------------------------6-5-4-3----------------- A----------------------------------7-6-5-4--------- E------------------------------------------8-7-6-5-
E--------------------------------------------------4-5-6-7/8- B----------------------------------------4-5-6-7/8----------- G--------------------------------4-5-6-7--------------------- D----------------------4-5-6-7/8----------------------------- A------------4-5-6-7/8--------------------------------------- E--4-5-6-7/8-------------------------------------------------
E--8-7-6-5\4------------------------------------------------- B------------8-7-6-5\4--------------------------------------- G----------------------7-6-5-4------------------------------- D------------------------------8-7-6-5\4--------------------- A----------------------------------------8-7-6-5\4----------- E--------------------------------------------------8-7-6-5\4-
When moving between strings, be sure to retain strict alternate picking. In the first set, there's always an even number of notes per string. So if we start the first note on a downstroke, each string should all start similarly on a downstroke. Practice the exercise starting on a downstroke as well as on an upstroke.
In the second exercise, there are usually 5 notes per string, meaning we will alternate starting each string on down and upstrokes. This helps us practice both "inside" and "outside" picking.
The main thing to watch in both sets is to try to get a consistent note duration and tone as you play across strings. You have to make sure not to pick up your pinky too quickly, but you also have to curl it enough not to prevent touching it against the next string to prevent muting that note. You also have to make sure you always fretting right behind the fret to get a clean sound. If you are fretting those pinky notes in the middle of the frets instead, you will notice the tone is off.
Similarly, when you are doing positional shifts on the same string, you have to make the shifts quick and land it right behind the fret.
Rhythm
Finger-Stretching
-12-11-11-11-11-10-10-10-10-...2-1-1-1-1- -13-13-12-12-12-12-11-11-11-...3-3-2-2-2- -14-14-14-13-13-13-13-12-12-...4-4-4-3-3- -15-15-15-15-14-14-14-14-13-...5-5-5-5-4-
This exercise is great, because as you descend down each fret at a time, the exercise gets more and more difficult. It forces you to stretch between each pair of adjacent fingers.
This will get insanely difficult quickly. Don't push yourself into injury - if you feel intense pain, stop immediately. Don't try to get through it quickly either. Hold each chord and let your fingers muscles accept the stretch.
-17-12-16-11-15-10-...-10-5-9-4-8-3 p i p i p i p i p i p i
This follows the same premise of getting more and more difficult as you descend, but is focused on more traditional stretches between index and pinky. The same guidelines apply as above.