Warm-Up Exercises

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.

Scales

Practicing various ascending and descending scales (be sure to play through the transitions from ascending to descending and descending to ascending) is always a good idea, especially the scales and positions you are likely to perform. You can find a giant reference of all the common scales here, and full scale maps across the entire fretboard for the major and minor scales here.

Arpeggios

Just like scales, arpeggios are good exercise - focus on the ones you'll tend to use. Or at least the ones that give you fingers a good work out. There is reference for all the CAGED major and minor triads. It should be somewhat simple to alter these to fit other chord types, which are referenced here. For example, adding the minor 7th of dominant major/minor chords.

Rhythm

The best way to warm-up for rhythm is to play to a metronome or a good drummer. The first thing to get down is consistency, so all your notes fall on the beats and have equal duration. Metallica used to warm up by simply chugging palm mutes on the open low E string for a good 5-10 minutes. It seems simple until you try it.

    1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n  1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n  x100
    pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm pm
E-|:0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-:|

Practice on at least 4 different speeds, with an extreme slow and a fast speed that is close to your maximum. Practice with all downstrokes, all upstrokes, and strict alternate picking. Obviously, the straight down or upstroke exercises will require a slower speed than the alternate picking. Also try different strings.

This same exercise works for strummed chords, although you'll likely need to reduce the relative speeds. Start by keeping the left hand constant, holding the same chord throughout.

Playing the same note or chord over and over is easy to get a consistent rhythm. Trying to keep that rhythm with runs or riffs or chord changes is another story. Once you establish a good right hand using the above exercise, you have to lock it in. Don't ever let your right hand wait to catch up with the left. If the left hand is slow to fret the notes, play them uncleanly. Throwing off your rhythm might sound ok playing in the bedroom but becomes painfully obvious in a band or recording context. Even playing solo, hearing it played back that inconsistent rhythm sounds pretty terrible. Unclean playing is also noticeably bad, but sounds less amateur. And its easy to get in the habit of sacrificing rhythm to attain synchronicity, which then becomes difficult to break. The other way around is going to be more noticeable to you and annoying and forces you to make the left hand sync to the right hand.

The kind of playing to get a good warm-up for rhythm will depend on the individual and the type of playing you perform. If you are a rhythm player, it may make sense to alternate between two strings or power chords or full chord changes. If you are a lead player, playing various scales ascending and descending, as well as arpeggios or advanced techniques like tapping and sweeps makes more sense.

The key thing is when you're jamming or playing along to your favorite song or trying to record a part, you may notice some riffs or chord changes or rhythms that seem impossible to nail. Make a mental or written log of these things, identify the specific parts of the licks or riffs or changes are giving you trouble, and try to break down why it's difficult. This will let you develop your own exercises that consist nearly entirely of such. It's helpful to alternate between sections of these parts and just chugging on single notes or a static chords like above.

Another thing to practice is throwing in accents. Start by putting accents on the beats:

    1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n  1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n 
    >     >     >     >     >     >     >     >  
E-|:0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-:|

    1  tr lt 2  tr lt 3  tr lt 4  tr lt
    >        >        >        >
E-|:0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--:|

    1  u  n  u  2  u  n  u  3  u  n  u  4  u  n  u
    >           >           >           >
E-|:0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-:|

    1 t l n t l 2 t l n t l 3 t l n t l 4 t l n t l
    >           >           >           >
E-|:0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-:|

The faster the tempo, the harder it is to work those accents in. But they really help you keep a consistent rhythm - you know every 2, 3, 4, or 6 notes you should be making an accented downstroke on the beat. It's easy to hear when and in which direction your rhythm is falling off and make the correction. A consistent rhythm demands control and accents demand more control than static dynamics. That makes this a great warm-up.

Then you try trickier accent patterns, where accents alternate between downstrokes and upstrokes.

    1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n  1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n 
    >        >        >     >        >        >
E-|:0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-:|

    1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n  1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n 
    >        >        >        >        >     >
E-|:0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-:|

    1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n  1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n 
    >        >        >        >     >     >     >
E-|:0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-:|

    1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n  1  n  2  n  3  n  4  n 
    >  >     >  >     >     >  >     >  >     >
E-|:0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-:|

Finger-Stretching

Similar to the Petrucci Chords exercise above, we make a chord shape with each finger on adjacent frets. Each time you strum the chord, you move one of the fingers down one fret.

-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, which really helps limber up your hands to make complex chord shapes and work through exotic scales all over the fretboard.

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.