Essential Warm Up Exercises for any Musicians

Whether you are a vocalist or a brass player, warming up is essential for an efficient practice session or a professional level of performance. As mentioned in our previous blog post on health and wellness of musicians, playing a musical instrument is indeed a physical activity that require us to warm up and cool down.

Warm ups are often underestimated, albeit important for ensuring we as musicians are not injuring ourselves unintentionally when playing for an extensive amount of time. Moreover, warm ups can help to improve your tone and enhance your overall performance. Warming up involves more than just wiggling your fingers around and playing a couple of notes. Below are 3 things musicians can do to warm up:

 

1. Stretching
– Start with larger muscle groups such as chest and back
– Gently stretch your neck and shrug your shouldners
– Extend your arms and stretch out your elbows
– Warm up your wrists, extending your fingertips and alternate between palms up and palms down

 

2. Scales and Arpeggios
– Practice scales slowly to warm up the fingers, ensuring an even tone
– Play scales and arpeggios in the key of the pieces you are going to play to familiarize with the key signatures
– Pay special attention to the intonation and tempo

 

3. Long Notes
– Hold long notes and pay attention to the tone and your breath / bowing
– Slowly crescendo and decrescendo throughout the long note for better control

 

The above are not supposed to and are not intended to substitute for proper medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding any medical condition. Not withstanding the medical knowledge, please do not hesitat to offer

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