Day 6 - My Hands Are As Cold As Your Beer?

This afternoon I had a tiny window of time to rock out on my guitar before chauffeuring a child to a lesson, so I sat down and immediately began playing a song.  Horrifically.  How could it be that I played this poorly when last night I noticed some improvement?

Perhaps my hands were as cold as a well chilled Dos Equis.  Maybe not cold as in "cold as beer" temperature, but cold as in not properly warmed up.  The muscles and tendons in my hands were shocked into movement; they hadn't had time to loosen and prepare for the vigorous activity of strumming.  (Well perhaps not super vigorous, but you get the idea.)

So sorry, but you will have to read on to understand the "cold as beer" reference and enjoy a video performance by Phil X.

It occurred to me that a WARM UP may be essential.  At least for a shitty guitarist like me.

When I was following the JustinGuitar beginner course I would usually do my practice according to his weekly lesson plan - which included a warm up. I noticed that my playing improved after stretching my fingers and doing some simple scales. With that in mind, I'm not sure why I sat down today and expected to rock out a song perfectly, especially since I have changed the way I hold the pick less than a week ago. 

 

A warm up can make those first chords sound awesome!

 

(Warning, feminist rant ahead:  When I was searching for images of a woman's hands playing guitar for this post - rather than try to photograph my own hands which are badly in need of a manicure - it was amazing to me the photos that pop up for keywords "girl and guitar."  I am a woman, yet it never occurred to me to pose topless with my guitar between my legs.  Perhaps I am missing something?  Or kneel down before it with my mouth open and ready.... you get the idea.  Seriously??  Rant over.)

 

 

Warming up makes total sense - athletes warm up.

When I raced 5k's and half marathons, I would jog slowly to loosen my muscles and then do some speed repeats shortly before the starting gun. Those races always went better than those where I was rushed and did not have time to warm up my muscles.  If you go from zero to race pace without a warm up you can expect some serious muscular backlash.

But what about guitar?

I would assume that most guitarists have a warm up routine of some sort??  Perhaps I need to develop my own official routine, although when I start making rules and absolutes my inner teenager has a tendency to rebel.

I did a little online searching and found a great article with some simple warm ups.  It is located HERE.  Thankfully the exercises are written in tab. I can't read sheet music but I can (slowly and painfully) dissect tabs. 

 

A proper warm up may prevent injury.

In my quick and informal research, I came across articles and forums that discuss repetitive injuries caused by guitar playing - many of which may have been prevented by a proper warm up. A forum post on guitar noise.com had some great finger stretching and limbering exercises.  

I'll try anything once.

 

 

(Except posing topless with my guitar.)  So before I began my real practice session this evening, I did the finger stretching and hand warm ups above.  I also began playing some of the warm up tabs very slowly.  I stopped when I reached the "intervalic guitar scales."   I'm not gonna lie - the word "intervalic" scared me, lol.  Enough warm up for one session.   

 

On to the actual practice.

 

Focus #1:  strumming.

I once again focused on my strumming with the proper pick hold.  I played for several minutes muting the strings, more to prevent my ears from exploding than anything else.  Relaxing my right hand is a serious problem.  As I wrote once before, "concentrating" on "relaxing" is a very weird proposition.  It's like when the gynecologist tells you to relax.  Yeah right.  (My apologies to any male readers, but we've already discussed nudity and sexual acts sooooo...)

 

Relaxing difficulties aside, I noticed more improvement tonight.  I don't know if my proper warm up is the reason, or that I am getting more familiar with holding the pick in this manner.  Regardless, I am happy with the improvement. 

 

 Focus #2:  soft and gentle.

I practiced several strum patterns, and concentrated on trying to play them softly; letting my pick glide gently over the strings.  I have a tendency to strike the strings hard.  That must be the inner rock goddess in me, lol.

 

Focus #3:  sloooooow the fuck down.

I don't know what possesses me to play a song at tempo or faster.  Huh?  I have real difficulty slowing down.  I mean, Freebird at warp speed?  I am pretty sure this means I'll have to spend some time with my metronome.  That will be a blast.

 

 

Incidentally this blog post title was inspired by Phil X's song I Wish My Beer was as Cold as Your Heart.  Sounds like a good country song, no?