You have NOT forgotten how to play guitar

You pick up the guitar but feel like you can’t do anything right.

A song you played perfectly yesterday now sounds bad.

A song you played last week feels like you never played it before.

Why?

Because you overlook the need for warmup.

When I say warmup, you think of exercises and scales.

You say: “That sounds boring!”

While exercises and scales can be a useful part of warmup, I define warmup as preparing to play at your current level.

If you don't warm up, you are assuming you can pick up the guitar and play at your current level.

This is usually not true.

Warmup doesn't need to be long. It only takes 5-10 minutes.

The important thing is to start with things that are easier than your current playing level.

Here are some good elements to include:

• Tuning - tune the guitar with an electronic tuner or tuning app
• Checking Sitting Position - notice whether you are sitting comfortably with the guitar, where both hands can reach the strings, and the left hand can reach the needed frets.
• Checking Hand Position - notice whether your left-hand and right-hand position is comfortable and effective.
• Strum - Play some steady down strums.
• Riffs - Play some simple riffs.
• Easy Song - Play an easy song you have played in the past.
• Improvise - Play some notes that fit your mood at the moment.
• Scales and Exercises - If you don’t mind scales and exercises, you can do some of those too. But the goal of a warmup is not to be tedious, just to prepare you to play at your current level.

If you don’t normally warm up, try it today and let me know whether it helped.

Keep making music!