#120: Make Your Warm Up a Triple

Let’s talk warm-ups.

You likely have a favorite way to warm up at the beginning of a practice session. It might be short and sweet, like an arpeggio and a scale. It might be a fairly thorough routine that allows you to check everything from your posture to your focus. Or possibly it’s just a passage from a piece that you’re learning.

Whatever you do, however you like to warm up, that’s great. I don’t want to change that today. 

What I want to do is show you three different and important ways your warm-up can help you, that’s the “triple” referred to in this episode’s title. These aren’t earth-shattering or revolutionary new techniques. They are simple, clear approaches to your warm-up that will allow you to develop critical skills beyond what is usual in a warm-up. I have a warm-up that I will use to demonstrate as I teach you these approaches and it’s available for you as a free download. You’ll find the link in the show notes for this episode, which you can find either on your podcast app or by going to Harpmastery.com, clicking on “podcast” in the menu bar and then clicking on today’s episode, which is episode 120. 

But you don’t have to use that warm-up. You can use these approaches with your regular warm-up and derive just as much benefit, in fact, the triple threat benefit, three critical skills you can improve with whatever warm-up you like.

If you’re wondering what the critical skills we will focus on might be, here you go. They are finger dexterity and independence, independence of the hands, and musicianship, specifically dynamic control and rhythmic control. Don’t let the terminology scare you off. This is easy. And it might even be fun.

I’ve also included in the show notes a link to a blog post I wrote a while back called “Break Through: What to Do When Your Technique Is Holding You Back.” In that post I talk about warm-ups, but I also share some other ways to improve your technique and your confidence.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Get your free Noodle Doodle warm-up PDF. Click here to download.
• Click here to join My Harp Mastery  before Friday, September 8th. 
• Related resource Break Through: What to Do When Your Technique Is Holding You Back blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]