The Steel Guitar Forum

Something I have always wondered especially with the "Pros". Can you set down to your guitar "cold" and start cranking out the hot licks or do you have to warm up. I have to have at least 15-20 minutes of hard warm up or playing before I become halfway fluid with my playing.

Speaking for myself I can never tell until I sit down and begin. I have practiced all week, right up until showtime, and then not been able to deliver squat. Conversely I have taken the guitar out of the case after a LONG period of time away from it and pure gold came out all night. Go figure!

One of the fascinations, for me at least, about the science of performance in general is that, just like a pro athlete, we can practice the same every day, eat the same, sleep the same, train the same, warm up the same, but the actual level of performance is never quite the same and sometimes varies wildly. The best we can do is try to not toss up an airball in public...good luck with that

I agree with everything Dave Grafe says. (And I have sometimes had success with Bo's method of getting warmed up. ) But usually I say that the first half hour of the day is a throwaway, and I always try to make sure that nobody hears it. The worst mistake I make is to get to a gig and get obsessed with setup and positioning and tuning issues, and forget to warm up. If that happens, then usually I have intonation and picking problems for a few tunes.

Two other thoughts: Just because I get warmed up in the morning doesn't mean I am warmed up that night. Whatever good comes from getting warmed up seems to evaporate if an hour or more goes by without playing.

And it sure takes me longer to get warmed up now (I'm almost 59) than it did when I was young. The concept didn't even occur to me until I was about 40...

Pretty women in the audience help get the blood flowing. Real good pedal steel players watching intently can do the opposite...

Take 2 golf balls and spin them together in one hand. Both vertical and horizontal on the way to the gig. It will be like you already played a set. At least physically. Mentally I don't know.

Great question. I know from experience that 10-15 minutes of focussed warm ups on 6 string can get me to a comfort level that would take hours of playing without the warm up. I'd be interested in any warm up routines people have for pedal steel. (I haven't tried the golf ball trick but again know from experience any luck I have with golf balls is just that -- pure luck; and usually bad luck.)

If you drive a manual transmission like I do, bad traffic gets my feet warmed up on the way.

Too bad the volume pedal doesnt make me play any faster.
Clete