10 tips for warming up without an instrument

The education and training of a musician mainly focusses on working with the instrument. It is often forgotten, however, that playing a musical instrument requires certain physical abilities. We take it for granted that we have the strength to hold it and that we are able to play for hours. Only when health issues arise like tenseness, overstraining or pain, do we realise the high performance we demand from our musculoskeletal system. Warming up should therefore be a fixture in our practising routine.

In the book "Musiker in Bewegung" [Musicians in motion], our author Alexandra Türk-Espitalier helps to prepare specifically for the demands that making music puts on the body. The book’s intention is to motivate people to use all their resources and possibilities to stay physically healthy in order to be able to give an optimal musical performance.

Warming up before playing - which ought to be a matter of course - repeatedly raises questions in daily practice, however. Alexandra Türk-Espitalier has answered the most frequent of these questions here. She explains why warming up is important and which exercises, without an instrument, work best.

The purpose of Warm-Up Exercicses 

1.      What is Warming-Up good for?

Warm-up exercises improve the blood circulation in the muscles, thus increase their oxygenation, distribute the synovial fluid and thus prevent injuries. Furthermore, warming up improves the elasticity of the connective tissue and gives the body a feeling of "permeability", which is very important for making music. Mentally, warm-up exercises prepare you for the activity ahead.

Basic Rules for Performing the Exercises

2.      How long should I warm up?

The duration depends on the time of day, the ambient temperature and the individual connective tissue condition. For example, a person who is rather inactive will definitely need 10-15 minutes in the early morning in winter to feel fit to exercise. In summer in the afternoon, on the other hand, 3-5 minutes may be sufficient.

3.      Can stretching exercises be used to warm up?

In principle, there is no reason why not. However, it is very important not to stretch to the limit. This could lead to minor tissue injuries, as you are not yet sufficiently warmed up.

4.      Can I break a sweat while warming up?

This is possible, but not absolutely necessary for making music. Improved muscle perfusion can also be achieved through gentle, flowing movements without much effort.

5.      Are strength-training exercises suitable for warming up?

Not really. Light strength endurance exercises with low resistance and few repetitions could be used, but that would hardly be called real strength training. Lifting heavy weights to warm up is not advisable because of the increased risk of injury.

Lessons and Rehearsal Situation

6.      How do I motivate my students to do warm-up exercises?

Just do it! Of course, everybody - student or not - wants to start playing the instrument right away. But if you as a teacher consistently do 3 minutes of warm-up exercises with your students before they start playing, they will not know any different from an early age and will consider this as natural as the subsequent warming up on the instrument.

7.      Can you do warm-up exercises together as an ensemble before the rehearsal?

Of course, you can! Exercises in the group are motivating and even those who may not be so enthusiastic about it are pulled along by the others. As a conductor, a few minutes of warming up with the ensemble also saves the sometimes arduous phase at the beginning of rehearsals, when some are not yet up to the task, both physically and mentally.

Sample Exercises

8.      Which warm-up exercises are suitable for shoulder girdle and the arms?

The arm twist is also an excellent warm-up exercise. Stand upright with your arms hanging loosely at the side. Turn the hands so that the palms are facing alternately forwards and backwards. The arms remain stretched and a rotational movement can be felt in the shoulder joint.

Instead of just turning the palms to face forwards and backwards, the movement can be extended by drawing with the hand an imaginary figure eight lying on the floor next to the body. The back of the hand always leads the movement, pointing forwards/inwards, forwards/outwards, backwards/inwards, backwards/outwards and then forwards/inwards again.

You can find more exercises in our YouTube playlist.

9.      Which exercises get the whole body going?

To do the arm swing exercise, stand with your arms hanging loosely by your sides. Rotate the upper body quickly to the left and to the right. The arms swing from side to side. Exhale briefly and forcefully on "sht" when the arms swing to the right. When the arms swing to the left, inhale. Repeat the exercise 3-5 times and then change sides.

Another exercise is bending with breathing: inhale, raise your arms above your head, stand up on tiptoe, bend forward as you exhale, let your arms hang loosely and inhale again. Then, straighten up slowly, vertebra by vertebra, starting from the lumbar spine, while exhaling. On your next inhalation, raise the arms above the head again and repeat the exercise from the beginning. Repeat the whole exercise 3 times.

10.  What exercises can you do to warm-up your hands and fingers?

A suitable exercise is the wrist rotation exercise. You sit at the table with your elbows propped up. Hold the left forearm with the right hand. Bend and stretch the left wrist alternately, with the fingers following loosely. Combine this movement with a slight circular motion: When pulling the back of the hand upwards, turn the hand slightly at the same time so that the palm becomes visible. The fingers remain loosely bent. When bending the wrist, also turn the palm back a little. Perform 2 x 15 repetitions with each hand. 

The folded hands exercise is suitable as well. It can be performed both standing and sitting. The palms touch each other and the hands are at chest level. Now pull the hands down as far as possible without the balls of the thumb moving away from each other. Move the hands up and down in a flowing motion. The back remains upright. The shoulders do not slump forward. Perform a total of 15-20 repetitions.

Alternatively, the fingers can be interlaced (Folded Hands 2) while one hand alternately pulls the other into maximum wrist flexion. This exercise can also be repeated 15-20 times.

You can watch a video tutorial of this exercise on the YouTube channel of Alexandra Türk-Espitalier.

You can find more exercises in our YouTube playlist.

Info Box

The exercises have been taken from:   Alexandra Türk-Espitalier „Musicians in motion - 100 Exercises with and without Instrument“   view in store