CREATING YOUR OWN USEFUL WARMUP

It is important to make a few different templates to warm yourself up in a variety of circumstances. In ideal practicing conditions, you should have a comprehensive warmup that builds on your strengths and augments your skills. You should also have a Quick Warmup and a Light Warmup.

Every warmup should include

postural information/tension release/mental focus (can you do this while you tune?)

meticulous tuning of the instrument, proper bow tension and rosin levels (and verification that you cleaned your strings so they are not squeaky)

left hand finger movements in one position

right hand sound production, spiccato and sautille

shifting exercise

scale

A Comprehensive Warmup should include all the elements of the warmup in depth. A comprehensive warmup is the time in your practice when you become a better player. It is a large chunk of time when you refine your basic skills on the viola and streamline your technique. For example, if you practice 5 hours, you might spend the first two hours on your comprehensive warmup—40% of your time. This is useful for anyone who is still mastering the viola, or someone who has mastered the instrument but is returning after a long period away (because of vacation or injury, for example), or an excellent player on any given day who wants to do a deep cleaning. As the warmup becomes easier (your scales are buttery and thrilling and perfectly legato and in tune and fast, for example) you can add skills to your comprehensive warmup (arpeggios). As those skills become easier (flawless fluid arpeggios) add new ones (double stops) and on and on. But the things you do in your warmup need to be truly wonderful. It is not unreasonable to spend a year on the same scale. Don’t think because you have spent a long calendar time on something that you need to be embarrassed or move on. Really make it sound great and feel easy and excite your musical spirit. And then you can apply the principles you have cultivated to the next technical project. You will notice it goes much faster. This is because you are a better player—you’ve got skills!

A Quick Warmup will include all the elements of the warmup in 20-30 minutes. This is for a regular day when you just want to say hello to your instrument and make sure everything is in order before you start mixing it up with repertoire. It will literally help you warm up your body, mind, and instrument (I always have to retune my A-string after about 10 minutes) more slowly than just jumping into repertoire. It will help you assess the kind of day you are having. It will help you learn to recognize external issues (is your viola less responsive than usual, do you need a rehair, etc.) so you can understand what you need to take care of with your gear. You can develop your skills with a quick warmup, but it is really for a daily practice that doesn’t involve augmenting your technique/musicianship coordination and more for maintenance.

A Light Warmup is most useful when you don’t have time to warmup. Most people have something they do that takes a minute or two to get going. A light warmup can be very useful if you are taking an audition, for example, and need to play several rounds and conserve energy, and you have warmed up quite thoroughly already that day but you want to just get the blood flowing so you’re ready to go. It might include a check of your strings, verification that your bow is tightened the right amount, a little left hand noodle, and a little shift reminder for something you like to play, all of which engages your sound production/right hand. Do not disparage the light warmup—it is very useful in the right circumstance. A brief ritual to feel ready to go is a skill to name and develop so you can use it when it is useful. You will find you use it all the time.