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I voted 'no' on the poll. Nothing I do on the bass is particularly "athletic" so I don't feel the need to treat it like a sport. I use about the same amount of finger pressure on the bass, as I do when typing on my computer keyboard. And I don't warm up before I use my computer, either.
I usually warm up by playing a few bars of Portrait of Tracy.
That damn song, I swear if I don’t play it everyday, I’ll forget how it goes.
Otherwise, there’s a piece I got out of an instruction book, years ago, can’t remember which, but the phrasing is brilliant. Honestly, i also play both to make sure I still “got it.”
Speaking of Portrait of Tracy, I have this funny habit when I fret the string and stretch my pinky for the harmonic... I stretch my lower jaw as far as I can to the right.
That damn song, I swear if I don’t play it everyday, I’ll forget how it goes.
Otherwise, there’s a piece I got out of an instruction book, years ago, can’t remember which, but the phrasing is brilliant. Honestly, i also play both to make sure I still “got it.”
Speaking of Portrait of Tracy, I have this funny habit when I fret the string and stretch my pinky for the harmonic... I stretch my lower jaw as far as I can to the right.
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I don’t get that logic. You hands aren’t going to be able to do anything they’re not designed (i.e. capable) of doing. There's nothing “alien” or “unnatural” about playing a musical instrument.
You can be more comfortable doing the things you regularly do thanks to muscle memory and more frequent repetition. But that’s about as far as it goes.
Repetition and familiarity generally leads to greater comfort once you build up strength in neglected muscles and your body subconsciously figures out the most efficient motions needed to accomplish a task. Most times the motions that require the least effort and strength are the “correct way” to play an instrument.
Injuries result from improper movement coupled with habitually using too much physical force to compensate for their inefficiencies. The reason so many great player’s have a style that seems to be so fluid and effortless is because they’ve discovered how to play with the least amount of force and effort.
Like freestyle swimming or learning to ride a bike, it takes awhile before it clicks. But once it does it’s incredibly easy by comparison.
I give both hands the same treatment with about 5 minutes of warm up. I start with my forearms, massaging them both front and back vigorously. Then move to my hands, again massaging every inch and up and down each finger and thumbs, then make a loose fist, and open them spreading fingers wide and repeat several times. Then I move to what I call wrist rolls making a loose fist, and roll your hand in a circle several times clockwise, then reverse to counter clockwise several times. Finish up with a few finger stretches. And you are ready! Really loosens everything up.
Koy
Any time I pick up a bass i start with whatever riff is stuck in my head ATM, which serves as a limbering up of fingers.
For practice, after tuning I usually just run through whatever the walking bass line is called for House is a Rocking in F# a few times. That stretches things out nicely by covering the longest four frets and all four strings. And then maybe once an octave higher.
Now before a gig, usually I've loaded the car, driven to the venue, unloaded everything of mine and set it all up, plus help with lighting and the PA setup. After all that I usually just stretch my hands and wrist a little and shake my jazz hands a few times before hitting it. Also play a few chords on the keyboard just to get oriented.
At this age, the more important thing I have to do but sometimes forget is stretching the rest of my body before and after all that. Otherwise I feel like crap coming home and the next day.
Now before a gig, usually I've loaded the car, driven to the venue, unloaded everything of mine and set it all up, plus help with lighting and the PA setup. After all that I usually just stretch my hands and wrist a little and shake my jazz hands a few times before hitting it. Also play a few chords on the keyboard just to get oriented.
At this age, the more important thing I have to do but sometimes forget is stretching the rest of my body before and after all that. Otherwise I feel like crap coming home and the next day.
I'm kind of surprised by the multiple mentions of stretching cold muscles.
Limbering up in the sense of working joints through a natural range of motion, that's good.
But stretching in the sense of extending cold muscles past the point of resistance is not something you do if you want the muscles to perform their best that day. And I don't see a benefit since most playing is limited to a relatively narrow range of motion anyway. Maybe I'm not understanding.
Sub'ed here because I'm looking to incorporate a warmup routine into my playing. Work has started preventing regular practice, and I sound like crap when I start playing now. I need an exercise to calibrate and warm up my fingers before I try to play actual songs.
Limbering up in the sense of working joints through a natural range of motion, that's good.
But stretching in the sense of extending cold muscles past the point of resistance is not something you do if you want the muscles to perform their best that day. And I don't see a benefit since most playing is limited to a relatively narrow range of motion anyway. Maybe I'm not understanding.
Sub'ed here because I'm looking to incorporate a warmup routine into my playing. Work has started preventing regular practice, and I sound like crap when I start playing now. I need an exercise to calibrate and warm up my fingers before I try to play actual songs.
I warm up on both bass and guitar. Nothing fancy, no "routine" as such. Maybe it's a little bit of a song, or maybe just a scale or some chords. It's most important for me when I've got tremolo picking ahead of me on guitar - I'll get tendon irritation if I don't take the time to warm up and focus on staying relaxed.
+1
Some players look like they are wrestling a bear when they're playing; manhandling the bass, gripping it like they'll pull the neck off, sweating bullets trying to figure out where to go next. Most of the great ones look like they are barely paying attention.
+1 to that.
I don’t specifically warm up, but But I do try to take it slow for the first couple of minutes..
"depends." sometimes i do, sometimes i'm already 'there', and sometimes i just 'warm' into real practice. sometimes i just do the warm-up and i don't do any real practicing. i do check to make sure that my fingers are still attached and working as they should, daily --- i've had a few surprises in the last several years! 
When I was playing the string bass and putting in serious practice time, I'd play scales and arpeggios for 45 minutes every morning before I played anything else. I'd tart slow with a metronome and speed up until I was playing them as fast as I could CLEANLY play them.
I'my playing mostly guitar now (shhhh), but I'm putting in 3 - 4 hours of practice a day and I start almost every day with 20 - 30 minutes of scales and arpeggios. Same thing, start slow and speed up with a metronome. It's not the only way, and not always a lot of fun, but the results speak for themselves. You do that for a couple of months, you'll see a noticeable improvement in your playing.
Cheers.
This is strictly a hobby for me, so practice is limited to 60-75 minutes. But I could certainly devote 15 of those to something like that.
Of course I would have to learn some scales and arpeggios first...
Absolutely. Watch Steve Vai or Annie Clark when they’re playing. They’re totally effortless and fluid despite the technical prowess they display.
There’s also no reason to see ergonomic inefficiencies in an instrument as something that’s either unavoidable or a badge of honor. I come from the IT world where it’s understood there’s absolutely no reason to put up with anything if a handful of chips or a few dozen lines of code can take care of it for you once and for all. So why struggle? Some people pride themselves on working hard. Smart people prefer to work smart.
Innovation and better engineering makes for better instruments and playing experiences. Don’t accept excuses saying otherwise. Gary Willis pioneered using a bass ramp to limit the range of motion of his plucking hand in order for him to develop greater speed and precision in his style of playing.
Just think about it. A small piece of wood under the strings, rounded to match the string radius was all it took for Gary Willis and others to accomplish something it previously took them much more effort to do without one. Where’s the silliness or shame in that?
No they don't, at least most that I know don't. They put couple of easier-to-play songs at the beggining of the performance, gradualy warming up. Ie my band does that, and everyone except me is pro.
I would guess that musicians with technicaly highly-demanding performance always warm up, but they are smaller part of pro community.
There is this irrational belief among some TB members that a bunch of pointy headed academics sat in a room and decided what the best technique was and is now in some shady, secret conspiracy is trying to force it on the bass world for unknown and nefarious reasons.Absolutely. Watch Steve Vai or Annie Clark when they’re playing. They’re totally effortless and fluid despite the technical prowess they display.
There’s also no reason to see ergonomic inefficiencies in an instrument as something that’s either unavoidable or a badge of honor. I come from the IT world where it’s understood there’s absolutely no reason to put up with anything if a handful of chips or a few dozen lines of code can take care of it for you once and for all. So why struggle? Some people pride themselves on working hard. Smart people prefer to work smart.
Innovation and better engineering makes for better instruments and playing experiences. Don’t accept excuses saying otherwise. Gary Willis pioneered using a bass ramp to limit the range of motion of his plucking hand in order for him to develop greater speed and precision in his style of playing.
Just think about it. A small piece of wood under the strings, rounded to match the string radius was all it took for Gary Willis and others to accomplish something it previously took them much more effort to do without one. Where’s the silliness or shame in that?
Actually, good technique is based on what works best for the greatest number of people. Whenever someone says, "That doesn't work for me." I know that they've never really tried it. You don't try proper technique for 2 minutes and decide it isn't comfortable and it doesn't "feel natural" and give up. When I pluck the strings with my thumb, that was the most comfortable, then when I plucked with my index finger, that was the most comfortable, then alternating index and middle finger was most comfortable, then using a pick; now they are all comfortable because I put in the time it took to get used to the different techniques and know when to use each one.
We're not the special little snowflakes we think we are. Good technique works for most people and will make you a better player.
Now get off my lawn and go practice your good technique!!
