Wednesday, October 16, 2024
BassGuitar Tips & Hacks

10 Bass Warm Ups To Supercharge Your Practice


It doesn’t matter where you are on your musical journey, we all need to warm up before we do any kind of playing. I’ve been using these 10 warms ups for almost 30 years, and I’ve stayed injury free and incredibly productive in my practice routine as a result.

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Originally posted by UCd6Y__-1Yjb-89Euc0KAJCA at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytg2Dr04Ksg

41 thoughts on “10 Bass Warm Ups To Supercharge Your Practice

  • More great stuff from Janek! I like to take these exercises and build new ideas and exercises to fit my playing. Thanks again for all the great material. Keeps everything new and interesting for me. Stagnation is the worst.

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  • This was my First Bass Book I bought three years Abo when I startet my bassplaying Journey…..I still do it frequently Almost every day and take something out of it every day…..thank you for showing me how it is played properly and remind me to use it more focused.Cheers from Germany

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  • Recently I either:

    1) work through hanon warm ups using Victor Wooten's double thumb + (up to) 3 fingers. It's a style that I want to get down, and because it's less familiar it warms me up

    Or 2) the Pat Metheny method from his warm up book, which takes simple, spontaneous lines and works them around the instrument (seemingly inspired by hanon, but with key changes)

    (I spent a long time warming up with exercises from your books/videos though, and would definitely recommend them!!!)

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  • I start with 5 mins of hand/finger stretching, then I usually do one or two of your exercises, then backing tracks to get the flow and then I get into whatever Im working on!

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  • Usually try something with a metronome. Im trying to build relaxed techniques so lots of chromatics with octaves 6ths and 3rds to stretch my hands etc. yhen arpegfios and scales to help me get to know the bass

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  • Any advice on sitting comfortably? I've tried sitting like you are and it's always felt foreign to me but looks very useful.

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  • Intervals up and down the fretboard while focusing on finger independence on the plucking hand.

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  • Bought this Pdf this summer alongside buying a new bass and I have to say doing only the first 2 of these every practice has showed major gains. Don't be disheartened if you struggle getting to 100bpm with the first exercise, it took me about 3 weeks of daily practice to get upto 100bpm. Exercise 2 for me was easier to get to 100bpm.

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  • Just to be honest, I'm still trying to figure it out as a beginner. I have a few of your book lessons and am trying to figure out how to attack them to get the best out of them to get better at the bass. I do have the warm up, pentatonic, 251, all good stuff, practice to performance and chordal harmony. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you enjoy your lesson and playing.

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  • I sit in the moment in my studio… I breath… I feel my body in space & time… I then warm my shoulders, forarms and hands up then I use your warm ups

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  • I practiced the second exercise all day today and I can see that diminished sound is sinking in my vocabulary. Thank you so much! Such a beautiful exercise.

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  • I start out with some backing tracks. They are designed for running scales and arpeggios at various tempos. How long i´ll do it depends on how much time i have. Afterwards i will get to the things i´m currently working on. Now i´ll watche the video. Thank you for all your work Janek!

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  • Don’t think I’ve ever consciously thought of anything I’ve done as a warmup but I usually start with some chord tone exercises in a cycle of fourths. Given me something to think about here and look into. Sounds like a great resource! Definitely will look into this when I can.

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  • Ok Janek, I play scales, each mode of the major scale up and down 4 times, then the same with the harmonic minor, and I play the chords for each mode. Then I play your II-V-I substitutions from a video of yours, then I run thru a jazz blues etude by Rufus Philpot. Then I play thru arpeggios to a II-V-I in 2 different keys where the chord voicings are different. I know you say to do it in all 12 keys but when I do, mostly I’m just playing the same patterns in 6 different locations, then the other pattern in 6 other locations, you know? Then I play along with “a set” of about 8 songs that seem good for me.

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  • For me, exercises with odd time signatures in which the index finger and middle finger of the right hand alternate consistently are very helpful. Constantly shifting the starting point trains right hand independence.

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  • Per the instructions, my practice routine is generally thinking about practicing, then picking up a bass, tunning, running some scales/ patterns, playing a song I'm familiar with, maybe another song, noodling around, and getting lost in music-related, guitar, and bass YouTube video rabbit holes.

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  • I do an exercise that goes: on a 4 string starting in the E string: minor and maj triads so it would go: F Ab C the on the E string Gb Bb Db all using the bottom 4 frets. Then move that pattern up a 4th now being: Bb Db F then B D# F# then the same pattern starting on the D string. The move the whole pattern up chromatically all the way up the finger board. After that I do the whole thing again but now playing 8th notes with the right hand. Or 2 strokes per note. ????

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  • I use to do the major scale from C to C up and down for about 5 minutes.
    Warm up it's very important for constancity. At least for me.
    Nice video Janek. Ty

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  • I love warmups that incorporate all of your fingers. I like to crawl up the neck vertically and alternating. I-M, I-R, I-P etc

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  • I have been using the Major Scale Exercise #1 from ATGS as my warm up since I picked up the bass four years ago.

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  • I start to warm up playing chromatically playing with 4 fingers in both hands, one finger per fret, 8th notes, then 16th notes all 16s. Then i move to one bar the "&" hammered on, then next bar the “and” hammered on then the "ah" hammered on. I move then to triples playing the scale one key per day starting on B or C 3 notes per string on the B string whatever mode it is for that given key. So if i am in E major, i start with B mixolydian and i play all the modes on all 6 strings up to the 18th frets. I use different combinations of fingering, hammer ons, pull offs and slides (10min). Then i put a backing track on that key and make melodies using the modes (10 min). After that i put a drone note of the key of the day and play all modes of major, melodic minor, harmonic minor and harmonic major (10 min). That goes for 30 min everyday before practicing!

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  • I like to warm up by playing every fret on every string using every finger. Something I got from one of your books, maybe All The Good Stuff, but I've expanded it to a new shape these days just to keep it fresh. That's the point of this anyway right? To take what you've created and make it my own. From there I usually can get a feel for how my hands are feeling that day and can go in the proper direction without hurting myself.

    Happy practicing everyone

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