Warm-ups, WOW

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
Started it two years ago......the warm ups are okay, except the 1-2-4, I struggle with that one particular exercise..............but I am noticing immediate benefit just doing the exercises on the first 25 pages. I could always do box 1, but doing the pull offs and string flipping is helping a lot.

I dont solo because I cant make it sound anything musical, I am thinking this course will help a ton
 

ChrisWiggin

Blues Newbie
I realise this is an old topic but thought I'd post my thoughts in case anyone new like me is struggling. I've had Griff's courses for many years but came back to them recently in semi-retirement determined to go the course and finally learn how to play properly. I just started on PSTM last night and honestly, I fell at the first hurdle with warm up excercise 3 (the torture chamber Major 7th shape) and almost thought - that's it. I'm never going to be able to do this. Why Griff started the course with this as an opening excercise is totally beyond me. I think this is a very rare example of him dropping the ball. I understand the need for warm up excercises but this one should have been last, not first with some very strong words of caution as to how hard it is. I vaguely recall being able to do this excercise years ago but stiff, mildly arthritic 63-year-old fingers flatly refuse to stretch like that anymore. I'm going to keep going back to it but last night it made me close the course and even consider giving up on guitar. The only reason I've jumped back in today is reading these comments and realising everyone struggles with it, so I thank you all for that.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
I realise this is an old topic but thought I'd post my thoughts in case anyone new like me is struggling. I've had Griff's courses for many years but came back to them recently in semi-retirement determined to go the course and finally learn how to play properly. I just started on PSTM last night and honestly, I fell at the first hurdle with warm up excercise 3 (the torture chamber Major 7th shape) and almost thought - that's it. I'm never going to be able to do this. Why Griff started the course with this as an opening excercise is totally beyond me. I think this is a very rare example of him dropping the ball. I understand the need for warm up excercises but this one should have been last, not first with some very strong words of caution as to how hard it is. I vaguely recall being able to do this excercise years ago but stiff, mildly arthritic 63-year-old fingers flatly refuse to stretch like that anymore. I'm going to keep going back to it but last night it made me close the course and even consider giving up on guitar. The only reason I've jumped back in today is reading these comments and realising everyone struggles with it, so I thank you all for that.
I had a private lesson with Griff and PSTM came up. He suggested that I play as much of the warm up as I need to in order to ... well... warm up, then skip to the more interesting (and playable) lessons. Right now I don't get very far, but it gets a tiny bit better each time I play.
Never play to the point of total frustration. Move on to something more fun.
Remember that the goal is to make you play better and have fun, not to make you quit. LOL
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
Skip that exercise and get into the “meat” of the course. (Or work on it over time.)

The main goal of the course isn’t to be able to do the warmups.

Warmups are for warming up. :unsure:

I can’t do that exercise either, but this is one of my favorite courses. It finally forced me to start counting in order to do the sequences of 3s and 4s when the beat is divided into 2s and 3s. :oops:

Edit: Oops! Just realized this is a page 2 and I already said pretty much the same thing 5 years ago.

Never mind.
 
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TexBill

Blues in Texas
Holy crap! I'm still on Warmup Example 3....how the heck do you keep all your fingers in place while moving the first finger one fret over?!? I can't get past the first move, LOL! This is kicking my ass already! Love it! (y)
Ouch, that hurt. Well my little fingers are just not meant to stretch that far. After months of stretching and strengthening exercises, I can now get my pinky 4 frets away (2 WS ) from index finger. That was a major feat. No where ready to walk down the fretboard.
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
actually, I enjoy the warmups now, if I have no time for anything else, I still do this. With the shape my hands are in, it can sometimes be slow, but it actually helps them feel better
 
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