Jazz Guitarist Matt Warnock recently posted this picture on his Facebook page (here and, no, I really don't look like the guy in the picture, yet). Matt was asking his followers if they had "Any big practice plans for the weekend." A few of them responded asking for suggestions. I can only pass on what my guitar teacher, Roy Plumb, suggested as a warm up exercise other than 2112 By Rush.
Warm Up Exercises by George Pasdirtz
The idea here is to play the ascending 1-3-2-4 pattern on each string and the descending 4-2-3-1 backwards on the same strings after which you move up a fret and repeat the entire pattern until you've reached the 12th fret (hit the "play" button above the score to here the exercise). As your finger strength, dexterity and technique improve you can, when reaching the 12th fret, do everything in reverse back down to the 1st fret. Another option is to make the shift up a fret when your fourth finger reaches the E-string (on the high E-string, 1-3-2-4 shift 4-2-3-1, etc.).
After this, you should be warmed up and ready to play. And, weirdly enough, I find myself using some of these patterns as scales (for short periods) in a solo. I have also heard jazz guitarist Jim Hall mention that he soaks his hands in warm water before playing. I have tried to play in the morning right after showering and it just rips off my calluses, so I'm not sure how he does this, but I'm not sure how Jim Hall does a lot of things (more on that in future posts).
NOTE: If you find any errors in the pdf file, let me know. You can also find the .pdf file and the .msc file (for MuseScore, if you have it loaded on your machine) here.
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