The smart jogger knows not to go for an hour-long run without warming up first. So why wouldn’t the smart musician warm-up before an hour-long lesson or practice session?
Regardless of the instrument you play, properly warming up your body (and in some cases, your instrument) is extremely important. That’s why it’s the topic we’ll be diving into over the next few weeks!
In this, our first post on the subject, we’re going to take a look at why you should take the time to warm-up properly before your piano lesson, as well as some new and fun warm-up exercises you can try at home!
Why is it Important to Warm-Up Before Playing Piano?
Avoid Injuries
All athletes, regardless of the sport or position they play, warm-up before practice. Everyone knows the importance of stretching your muscles before exercising to avoid serious injuries. But what you may not have considered it that playing the piano can also be a work-out!
Just like an athlete, it’s important for a pianist to stretch their fingers, wrists, hands, shoulders, and elbows before playing. If you forget to warm-up these muscles and tendons, you could be at risk for a painful injury like carpal tunnel, tendinitis, arthritis, and more. These kinds of injuries can take you away from your instrument for weeks – or even months.
Muscle Memory
You use a lot of different repetitive motions when playing piano – especially in the wrists, hands, and fingers. If you haven’t practiced in a while, those necessary motions might feel strange, or even awkward.
Warming up with these kinds of motions helps your muscles remember and get accustomed to them. This will help to prepare your body for playing fast and slow tempos, long and short phrases, and difficult melodic patters or chord changes.
Better Ear Training & Harmony
As a pianist, in order to properly analyze your playing, you need to understand a certain amount of music theory. Using scales and chord progressions to warm-up is a great way to start – and improve – your ear training.
Additionally, the more you use different scales and chords to warm-up with on a regular basis, the better your innate understanding of music theory will become.
5 New & Fun Warm-Up Exercises for Piano
Sing Along with Intervals
If you decide to use intervals to warm-up with, try singing along to a familiar song – you probably know more that you can use than you’re aware of!
Singing these songs while you practice and recognizing the intervals on the keys will help a great deal:
- Minor 2nd Ascending: Jaws Theme, Pink Panther Theme, White Christmas
- Minor 2nd Descending: Fur Elise, O Fortuna from Carmina Burana, Jurassic Park.
- Major 2nd Ascending: Happy Birthday, Silent Night, Frere Jacques.
- Major 2nd Descending: Mary Had a Little Lamb, The First Noel.
- Minor 3rd Ascending: So Long Farewell (Sound of Music), Lullaby (Brahms), The Impossible Dream (Man of La Mancha)
- Minor 3rd Descending: This Old Man, Misty.
- Major 3rd Ascending: Saints Go Marching In, Morning Has Broken, Kumbaya.
- Major 3rd Descending: Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Summertime, Shoo Fly Don’t Bother Me.
- Perfect 4th Ascending: Here Comes the Bride, Amazing Grace, Auld lang syne.
- Perfect 4th Descending: O Come All Ye Faithful, George of the Jungle.
Chromatics
Another fun warm-up exercise is to practice the Chromatic scale with a partner. While your partner keeps their eyes closed, you play the scale, skipping one note – any note you choose.
Your partner should guess which interval/note you skipped. Try this ascending and descending in different keys. Try it multiple times, skipping different notes. Then switch places!
Major/Minor
Another great 2-person warm-up technique is to create your own bingo/roll the dice game with a friend or teacher. On the board, label pictures of the major and minor scales and chords, without their names.
The idea is to recognize which scale or chord it is, and then play it on the piano. Challenge yourself to recognize and play both major and minor scales and give yourself a small reward when you get it right!
Rhythm
Play with rhythm by creating your own! Start by clapping your rhythm out, and then playing it with just a single note on the piano. For example: 2 eighth notes, then a whole note, and finish with four sixteenth notes.
Next, find some staff paper, divide bar lines, and transcribe what comes to your ear. Once you’ve got a short 8 bar rhythm, play the whole thing. Then try adding in a melody, and you’ve got yourself an original song!
Your Favourite Song
Choose a song that you know well, it could even be one you’ve performed before. Try using this song as a sort of mantra or meditation before and after each piano practice session. Think about the song’s chords, inversions, voicings, melodic and rhythmic structure and patterns, scales, and modes. Try to pay special attention to the dynamics and tempo markings in the song.
Once you have analyzed your favourite piece, give yourself the real challenge of memorizing it measure by measure. Then, once you feel comfortable and confident, play the entire song each practice session from memory. This is a great way to help keep you up on your music theory and your performance skills at the same time!
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If you’re not a pianist now, but you’d like to become one, or if you’d like to take it up again, check out our piano and keyboard lessons! Every musician, from beginners to more advanced students, can benefit from one-on-one piano or keyboard lessons at The Music Studio. There’s no substitute for learning from a professional teacher dedicated to your progress.
Call The Music Studio at 416.234.9268 or visit our website to book your convenient lesson time. Our piano & keyboard lessons are booked on an individual basis, which means you can start at any time!