Guitar Warm Up Exercises

Every professional guitarist starts a session the same way: by warming up.

Whether you’re playing a gig or recital, planning a monstrous practice session, or preparing to impress your friends at home with your killer chops, a precursory limbering up session is mandatory. A thorough warm-up will help bring your playing to peak level and prevent hand injuries

Warm up exercises that can help you to gain fluency, speed and accuracy on the guitar neck. It's a good idea to do some of these exercises every day. Don't do them too long at a time, it's better to exercise regularly (daily) for a short time.

Here are a few methods we recommend to get your hands and fingers warmed up!

You gain the most out of these exercises if you use a metronome. Start slow and built up the speed. Don't force yourself into a tempo that you're not ready for. Make sure your arms and wrists are relaxed. Failing to do so may result in a RSI like tendinitis (wrist inflammation).

Warm Up Exercise

This first exercise helps to develop your fluency, speed and left hand-right hand coordination. Start slow and build up the speed. Use fingers 1, 2, 3 and 4 of your left hand, don't skip the little finger. Use a pick and do alternate picking. The exercise doesn't stop at the end of the tabs, continue for the rest of the neck. Be RELAXED!

The next exercise trains your individual fingers. First do the exercise with fingers 1 and 2. Next round use fingers 2 and 3. Then use fingers 3 and 4. Do the exercise up to the 12th fret and for those of you who can't get enough of it, back from the 12th to the first. And remember: RELAX!

String Skipping Exercises

The following set of exercises train your picking abilities.

This is one of bass player John Patitucci!

The next exercise uses the G major scale. When you reach the last note on the tab, don't stop, but go back.

As you progress, more exercises can be added to this mix. Warm up exercises are very important and not doing them regularly can cause long term damage. Make sure your instructor or Music School is certified and professional. 

BlueTimbre is a Music Company with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in Whitefield, Bangalore, India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

Source: 

http://www.jazzguitar.be/guitar_technique.html
http://www.guitarplayer.com/lessons/1014/warm-up-time-11-exercises-that-will-help-you-play-even-better/53942

5 Tips for creating a Melody from a Chord Progression

Many songwriters start by creating chords and then create a melody as they strum on the chord changes. But most people or texts that teach song writing deal with how to add chords to an existing melody. Or sadly the song writers seem to forget about the most important element – the melody – and concentrate far too much on instrument selection, production effects, lyrics and so on. The melody simply becomes an almost random selection of notes at worst, or a very dull and 'obvious' melody line at best. Without a strong melody line, a song is rarely going to make it on to someone’s iTunes playlist!

So the question is: how do you take this progression you’ve created and come up with a melody that works with it? In this article, we have come with a few tops that will help you to do this, and it works well even if you don’t have a strong music theory background.

There are two main dangers to creating a melody after the chords:

1.     The melody often uses lots of arpeggios (chord-based leaps), making it a bit boring and predictable.

2.     The melody may use the same note over and over again, ignoring the importance of a high point.

So be sure that your melody has shape – an enticing contour that propels the song forward.

Here are some tips that can help you come up with a melody:

1.     Understand the Interaction between the Chord and Melody – For example if the chord that is being played is C Major, then, the melody note to feature should either be C, E or G (the triad that makes up the C Major chord). If the chord being played was G Major, then the melody note to feature should be either G, B, or D.

2.     Make Use of Other Notes in the Scale - work out what key signature your song is in, and then ensure you only use notes from that scale. This will ensure you don't get any 'clashing sounds' that are unpleasant to the ear.

3.     Play the progression many times - so that it becomes very predictable to you.

4.     If this is a verse melody you’re creating, consider using higher pitches once you pass the midpoint of the melody. In other words, you want the higher points of this melody to occur near the end of the verse, preparing the chorus. You’ll also want to have a point in your verse that seems to be a high point, a climactic moment. Chorus melodies should usually be placed higher than verse melodies. So, do the same procedure to come up with your chorus melody, again paying attention to the need for a climactic point. Once you’ve done this step, you should have a mainly stepwise verse and chorus melody.

5.     While stepwise melodies are good, you’ll want to have one or two leaps upward to inject some energy into your melody. This works well after the midpoint of each melody. Leaps make melodies more memorable, but too many actually have the opposite effect, so be careful.

Summary

As you create your verse and chorus melodies, you’ll usually find that they start to acquire a life of their own. In other words, once a melody starts to unfold, there will seem to be a logical way for it to continue. Use your instincts, and go with your gut. As you play your progression, don’t forget about harmonic rhythm. That’s very important. Harmonic rhythm is the regularity of your chord changes, and you’ll want that to be fairly constant. Chords that change according to a regular rhythmic pattern is a crucial part of setting up your song’s groove.

BlueTimbre is a Music hub with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. BlueTimbre management team comes with a decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

Sources:

https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/seven-steps-to-writing-memorable-melodies-part-1--audio-6527

http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/2010/06/04/youve-got-a-chord-progression-how-do-you-create-a-melody/

Before You Play

• Having a good instrument (either an acoustic or electric guitar) is important. Ask your teacher if you want advice on what instrument/brand/model to purchase.
• Know the parts of your guitar; the head, body and neck. Make sure all the strings are there before play.
• Use a comfortable stool or a chair (without arm rests) that has no hindrances.
• Hold your guitar correctly – sit up straight, hold the guitar against your stomach and chest, make sure the thinnest string (No.1) is closest to the ground and the thickest string (No.6) is closest to the ceiling.
• Make sure your guitar is tuned properly to EADGBE (top to bottom) – an easy way to remember it is Every Amateur Does Get Better Eventually or Elephants and Donkeys Grow Big Ears! You can use an electric tuner, tuner apps or a piano/keyboard to tune your guitar correctly.
• Make sure you use a pick (or plectrum) – Hold the pick by grasping it perpendicular to your fist between your index finger and your thumb.
• Make sure you have a notepad and pen/pencil handy in order to make quick notes or jot down ideas/questions.

Starting to Play 

• Don’t hold the guitar or pick too tight as this can cause discomfort and problems while playing.
• Read the music before you begin so that you know what is to be played.
• Use a metronome is important as this will help you play the exercise or song in the intended tempo. You can begin slowly and pick up the speed once you are more confident with the song.
• Practice the warm up exercises, scales and songs that your guitar teacher has asked you to.
• Play for shorter durations on a regular basis to get your fretting hand used to the finger pain. Regular play will create calluses on your fingertips and reduce the pain.

Remember, it is better to practice 20 minutes everyday than for 2 hours once a week.

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