“They call me the wanderer
Yeah, the wanderer
I roam around, around, around…” – Dion

Now Dion was singing about not settling down and always on the move. And when I just want to get the ole digits to loosen/warm up, that’s what I do. Steve Stine refers to it as “meandering” which is basically playing your instrument with no particular true goal than to listen for a gem, surprise or maybe a muse.

It’s a kind of taking a different path and discovering something you might not of thought of or expected.

When I improvise (on my own) I try to do just that… musically look for things while just grooving on an idea (with or without a backing track).

Plus there is the bonus of warming up at the same time.

Here are few ideas you can work with to get you going.

• Put on the vinyl. In the day when there was no YouTube, guitar mags with note for note transcriptions and song sheets never quite had the right chords, you played to a record! Heck there wasn’t even a rewind or loop feature, so patience was needed. Plus you’ll develop an ear for music…
• Play to a jam track. You can create your own, download or buy jam tracks. This will tighten your groove which is key to playing with others.
• Use a looper. This will really teach you to be accurate in your timing, because if you are slightly off… YOU WILL HEAR IT!
• Play slowly. Most will agree it is harder to play slowly than fast… every note has it’s place and you can focus on your tone, pitch and dynamics.

These are just some of the things I use, and hope it helps you. If you have any ideas you would like to share, comment below.

Have a good one.