Easy Guitar Warmup Exercises Your Kids Will Love! Are you Ready?
Easy Guitar Warmup Exercises Your Kids Will Love
Hey kids, are you ready to rock?
Before you start strumming those strings, it's important to warm up your fingers and get your muscles ready for some serious guitar playing. As a guitar teacher with years of experience, I know that warming up is the key to making the most of your practice session. That's why I've put together these five fun and simple guitar warmup exercises just for you! Whether you're a beginner or an experienced player, these exercises will help you improve your skills and have fun at the same time. So grab your guitar and let's get started!
Easy Guitar Warmup Exercise 1 - Six String Picking
This is a simple exercise to warm up our picking hand. It will also build up our picking hand consistency and co-ordination.
All we are going to do is:
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- Pick the first string 10 times with a downstroke
- Pick the second string 10 times with a downstroke
- Pick the third string 10 times with a downstroke
- Pick the fourth string 10 times with a downstroke
- Pick the fifth string 10 times with a downstroke
- Pick the six string 10 times with a downstroke
It is important that you keep a steady rhythm. We don’t want you to rush through the notes or play them in uneven bursts. You can make the warmup more challenging by repeat the process using upstroke or even alternate picking.
Easy Guitar Warmup For Kids Exercise 2 - Six String Waterfall
This is another easy exercise that can be used to warmup our picking hand. It will involve playing multiple strings one after the other and will be a great exercise for developing the ability to change strings.
To perform the Waterfall Exercise you are to,
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- Play the first string once with a down stroke
- Play the second string once with a downstroke
- Go back and play the first string with a downstroke.
- Now skip over the second string and play the third string with a down stroke
- Go back and play the first string with a downstroke.
- Now skip to the fourth string and play it with a down stroke
- Go back and play the first string with a downstroke.
- Now skip to the fifth string and play it with a down stroke
- Go back and play the first string with a downstroke.
- Now skip to the six string and play it with a down stroke
Congratulations, you’ve just finished the waterfall exercise. You can make it more challenging by starting on the 6th string and going in reverse order.
Guitar Warmups For Children Exercise 3 - Playing Every Fret
In this easy beginner exercise for kids we are going to play every fret along a single string between 0 and 12.
Start with your index finger and:
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- Play fret one.
- Let it ring out for a few seconds
- Play fret two and let it ring out for a few seconds
- Repeat the process until you go all the way to Fret 12
To make it more challenging you can start the exercise with a different finger, or you can try it on a new string. If you need to make it easier for younger kids, go from Fret 1 to Fret 5 instead of the length of the entire string.
Warmup Exercise 4 - Single String Scales
While playing every fret along a single string is a great way to physically warm up our fingers, it’s not really a challenging exercise. You can make the warmup more interesting by drawing a single string scale on the board and having the student play it. An easy one to do is the Open E Minor Scale which can be played using the frets 0 2 3 5 7 8 10 12.
To play this scale you should:
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- Say 0 2 3 5 three times
- Play 0 2 3 5 three times on string 1
- Say 7 8 10 12 three times
- Play 7 8 10 12 three times on string 1
- Say all 8 numbers three times
- Play the entire scale three times.
This is an easy way to learn and play scales on the guitar and most kids can do it with relative ease. To keep the warmup exercise interesting just use a different scale every time that you do the warmup.
The Best Guitar Warmup Exercise For Kids 5 - The Millipede
This is one of the best warmup exercises for guitar because it uses all four of our fingers. It will really help with developing co-ordination and finger dexterity.
To perform the Millipede you are going to play the following notes on string 1
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- Start at open position and assign one finger per fret
- Play the open string, then frets 1-4 using fingers 1 to 4 sequentially - eg 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 one finger at a time.
- Move your first finger to the 5th position
- Play frets 5-8 using fingers 1 to 4 sequentially - eg 5, 6, 7, 8 one finger at a time
- Move your first finger to the 9th position
- Play frets 9-12 using fingers 1 to 4 sequentially - eg 9, 10, 11, 12 one finger at a time
You will arrive at fret 12 having completed a full octave across three different finger shifts. Try it at least 5 times in a row, or until it becomes easy. If you want an additional challenge, do it in reverse order.
Now You’re All Warmed Up
Congratulations, you've made it to the end of our article on 5 Fun and Simple Guitar Warmup Exercises for Kids! By practicing these exercises regularly, you'll be on your way to becoming a confident and skilled guitar player in no time at all. For best results, you can pick out one of these 5 warmup exercises every practice session. Of course there is nothing wrong with using multiple warmup exercises in the same practice session.
Remember to always warm up before playing to get your fingers ready and play at your best.
Keep practicing and don't be afraid to try new things on your guitar. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be a famous rock star! Keep on rocking!
