Warm Up Rituals

[kawika5150]

Before a gig, what do you use to warm up aside from scales and stretching? Maybe even a shot of whiskey?

[two fingers]

Put two Bud Lights and two waters on stage. Put in a fresh piece of Extra Polar Ice gum. Tune. Watch for the drummer to count off the first song. I have never done any kind of stretchy fingery kind of thing before a show. In fact, I usually pick up my bass about 15 seconds before the first song.... just long enough for a quick tuning check.

I have gotten in the habit of putting two beers on stage before each set, but rarely ever finish even one, much less both. I usually forget about them until the singer tells everybody to "holler and swaller" or some other sort of toast kind of thing.

[Tupac]

They say you should get your heart right up before going on stage. Flea runs around the block and John Frusciante meditated and did yoga stretching before shows. Some more options to consider.

[Duckwater]

Brush my hair, drink lots of coffee & tea

[BassChuck]

The music I play doesn't require any special stretching or warm-up in that respect. I play fretless, so I do a series of scales that checks hand postition and intonation all over the neck. Most of the time that's done at home before leaving. Otherwise, a quick tuning and equipment check about a half hour before first downbeat (that was there's a little time to fix problems if need be).

[Piggy8692]

Originally Posted by Tupac

They say you should get your heart right up before going on stage.

Who are 'They?' I'm not disagreeing, just wondering what their theory is. I kinda tend to do the same. A lot of jumping up and down, pulling my knees up to my chest. Trying to get the blood flowing without wearing myself out.

[vbchaos]

Usually, just the common stuff... Depending on our slot in the line-up, we just stick together in the audience and enjoy the other bands - sometimes we learn a thing or two regarding playing or stage performance :-)
When the band playing before us is finished, we give them the time to clean up the stage and do some warming ups. It has no use to haste the band cleaning up the stage, they just won't be faster, no matter if you try to haste them or not. They had their show, they maybe want to talk to some fans, want to chat, need to clean up their rigs and pedal boards... Enough time to tune, warm-up, stretch, get nervous ;-)
On stage we rig everything up, do some line checks, tune again, wait for the FOH guy to give the go, do a small stage-volume check with complete band playing and then - we go!

+1 at the two bottles of water. I stopped drinking before a show - although I can do this while rehearsing, alcohol does not do any good before a show.

[phillybass101]

I noodle a lot before playing live. scales and finger exercises are boring and you might forget to loosen your hands all the way or in the way you need to. One scotch, one bourbon, one beer :-)

[capncal]

i try to get a complete set run through in before the gig if i can early in the day. and if not, just run through some scales or some licks or something. something to get the fingers moving and strings warmed up.

oh yes, and a shot of bourbon or two and some fraternizing with the other bands. or ladies always helps.

[Ubersheist]

I play an ascending walking chromatic scale up the neck starting from the 7th fret and working my way closer to the nut. The important thing is to hold each finger down (including the ones not actually playing). It's something sort of like this, but I skip around the strings while still fretting the other fingers on the strings I'm not playing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNaHq1htrUk - I play it pretty slow like at the beginning of the video with extra care not to lift any fingers off the the fretboard.

That just loosens up the fingers, metacarpals and muscles all at once. I also stretch the fingers out by pressing my palms together sort of like if I was praying. That may not work too great for double jointed guys, but it helps, too. Lastly, I stretch my forearm muscles a bit by straightening my arm as much as possible, pointing one hand downward so my wrist is at a 90 degresss and gently pulling the hand back toward me while keeping the arm straight. That helps with the tendonitis.

After that, I have no rituals except for rockin' the audience and wowin' the ladies (but never in the manner I intend).

[DataDan]

make sure my gear works. I have a low budget rid that I end up fixing a lot, so when I get to the gig I have to make sure it survived the ride!

after I tune and check the gear, I talk to band about any concerns, owner/bar tender about anything I should know about, and also find other musicians in the crowd that I know and can say hi to.

I come back to these other musicians between sets too. they can provide valuable info about your levels. Most non-players will all say the same thing: 'sounds great!'

[SteveHeissner]

Count the number of hot chicks in the audience. And I never drink more than one or two beers if people in the audience want to have a drink with me.

[jmclearnon]

+1 to the noodling, i do that a lot. With stretches and chromatic scales, and tuning, usually i will have been playing for 30 minutes before the gig starts.

Before that i usually check all my gear is working, walk around the stage and see whats around and talk to the stage crew about their weeks and have a wee chat! (+put my water on stage)

[davidjackson]

I need to get the three fingers I use on my right hand up to speed. Lots of fast triplets with the amp on mute. Running through a silent rendition of Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" does it for me! Then a few nice stretchy (gentle) one finger per fret position studies and I'm good to go!

(Yes, I know Steve Harris only uses two fingers of his right hand when he plays it...)

[fearceol]

Originally Posted by SteveHeissner

Count the number of hot chicks in the audience.

You are obviously warming up for a different sort of playing. This thread is about warming up for bass playing.

[vbchaos]

Originally Posted by davidjackson

I need to get the three fingers I use on my right hand up to speed. Lots of fast triplets with the amp on mute. Running through a silent rendition of Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" does it for me! Then a few nice stretchy (gentle) one finger per fret position studies and I'm good to go!

(Yes, I know Steve Harris only uses two fingers of his right hand when he plays it...)

Hehe - i use that one also alot for training and warm-up. For training at home i have an iron maiden playlist - trooper, wicker man, phantom of the opera, wratchild and the whole number of the beast cd :-) when you are through this, you are definetly warm :-) and fit!!!