Think Like a Pro (part 1)

OK, so we hear this advice often, but friends - what does it mean?

Well it can mean many things, so here are my thoughts....

Always warm up. Good players ALWAYS warm up before they do a gig, in exactly the same way that any sports player would warm up before competing.

Now, this may SEEM obvious, but I can tell you that after years of playing and teaching, that not everyone understands this. Consider the Hollywood syndrome on this. Of all of the movies you have ever seen on the life stories of great bands or great musicians; how much of it focuses on either the amount of practice OR warming up that the musician does?. ANSWER: Usually very little.

The goal of warming up is to get your hands feeling their best. In a sense we need to understand what 'warmed up' actually feels like. Over the next few days I will talk about that and the way that it feels as your technique improves through daily practice and how it feels to be actually mastering your technique.