2 Chromatic Exercises to Get Your Fingers Warmed Up
Every guitarist knows it’s tough to play when you are not warmed up. You pick up the guitar, start playing away, but your hands are stiff, your timing is off, and you feel like things are not in the right way. So, in this lesson you will learn 2 exercises that will help your fingers warmed up and ready to play.
Chromatic Exercises
In case you have never heard the term “chromatic” as it applies to music, it means notes that are a semitone (1/2 step) away from each other. On the guitar this translates to notes that are one fret apart. You can learn more about semitones and chromatic scale in the “Level – 02” of this Guitar Lesson part.
For each of the exercises you will want to use an alternating picking pattern that means down up down up pattern.
Exercise - 01
The first exercise is very simple starting from 1st fret of your guitar. Play the first note of lower “E String” by your 1st finger and
then play the second note by your 2nd finger and similarly third and fourth note by your 3rd and 4th finger. This is called “Chromatic Playing.” Do this playing serially in “A”, “D”, “G”, “B” and higher “E” string.
In the higher “E” string after playing last note by your 4th finger, shift your 4th finger to fifth fret of higher “E” string and do the exercise from down to up. That means, play the strings like 4-3-2-1 up to lower “E” string. You should finish the playing in the 2nd fret of lower “E” string.
After that, shift your first finger from 2nd fret to 3rd fret of lower string and do the same chromatic
exercise from up to down like 1-2-3-4.
Repeat this exercise pattern up to 12th fret.
Note that, in the picture “Green colored” finger position represents the first note while “Red colored” finger position represents the finishing note of each pattern.
Do this exercise every day, if possible, to overcome the stiffness of your finger.
Exercise - 02
This warmup also starts from the 1st fret of lower “E” string. First play the 1st string of lower “E” string by your 1st finger and then chromatically play the other notes by your 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger. Do the same exercise described in “Exercise – 01”. But this time do the exercise up to “D” string.
After playing the 4th note of “D” string by your 4th finger shift your 4th finger to the 5th fret of “D” string and play 4-3-2-1 pattern in the same string where your 1st finger finishes at the 2nd fret of “D” string this time. Then again shift your 1st finger from the 2nd fret to 3rd fret of “D” string and start the same chromatic exercise as “Exercise – 01”. You should finish the pattern in the 6th fret of higher “E” string.
Again shift your 4th finger from 6th fret to 7th fret and begin the similar chromatic exercise upward. This time you should finish the pattern in the 4th fret of “D” string. Shift your 1st finger from 4th fret to 3rd fret; then start the similar pattern 4-3-2-1 from 5th fret of “D” string by your 4th finger.
You should finish the pattern in 2nd fret of lower “E” string this time. Then shift your 1st finger from 2nd fret to 1st fret.
Do this exercise regularly to improve your control over the strings.