KW Guitar Tip # 16, Warming Up With Long Tones

I just had one of those nightmares right before I woke up in this morning and  it was about me teaching the worse lesson ever.  As I was trying to teach this student, we could hear voices from other people in the room: her parents, other teachers, other guitarists, her brother.  In the midst of all that, I was attempting to think what was best to help her play guitar better.

I realized what was going on and thought the very best thing to do was long tones to warm up. This would help her to relax and get rid of all those other contrary voices.

Rules, rules, rules…..

There are so many different ways of doing things that we can become so limited in thinking there is only one  magic way.  While trying to play the guitar our brain starts to ruminate with shoulds , oughts and must do’s, rather than focusing on the sounds and the music.

To help settle your mind before playing for the day,  try practicing long tones.  Pick any scale, set the metronome to 60 and play each note for a long 4 beats, even 8 beats if you can.  This will:

1. Settle your physical body into your instrument.

2. Alert your mind that you are switching gears to your musical side.

3. Activates your parasympathetic nervous system to relax both mentally and physically.

So what happens when you try this and a couple of notes in, you find your mind racing?

I will be the first to admit this exercise is not easy, but practice this for weeks and you will find yourself a better guitar player who has more focus.

What happens if you don’t know any scales?

Then simply fingering 1,2,3,4 ascending and descending is enough.

What happens if your technique doesn’t allow you to play so slowly?

Then there is something about your hand position that is not allowing you the freedom to expand and learn.  Best to find an accomplished guitar teacher(lots in this area)  or search back to previous KW Guitar Society posts for ideas about technique.

Stay Tuned,

Stephen Zurakowsky

Artistic Director