I thought I'd throw this fun topic out to the forum group, as I'm always interested in learning different approaches that might help add variety to my development as a flamenco guitarists.

As for me, I'm new to flamenco guitar, but have been playing guitar most of my life (59 years old). As you can imagine, I've developed a lot of playing habits over the years that are conducive to good flamenco technique. One real challenge I'm dealing with is learning how to consistently relax, so my warm-up routine is all about focusing on relaxing both hands, barely fretting the left hand positions, and keeping the right hand and arm loose and relaxed

I'm lucky to have an excellent flamenco instructor who I meet with once a week. We're using Flamenco explained for a lot of my practice material. He's a formally trained classical guitarist who also LOVES flamenco and he's able to deliver the goods in both genres. He showed me the following warm-up exercises, with the emphasis on staying relaxed, breathing consistently, and staying focused:

*First exercise is an arpeggio/picado sequence following an Am-G-F-E chord structure. In between each chord shape I play a two picado notes on the b string.
*If memory serves me right, the second warm-up exercise comes from Pepe Romero and it's primarily a picado drill moving up and down each string, starting at 1st fret bottom E and playing left hand i-m-a-c-a-m-i-c-a-c-m-i-a-i, play that sequence at each fret moving up, switch to the next string when you reach the 12th fret and start the sequence moving down. I do this with my metronome set at 160bpm.

So, both exercises take about 5-10 minutes. That's my warm-up!

Great thread!
To get the ball rolling I'd ask this: What's your (everyone') main goal/purpose of warmup? Seems like an obvious question at first, but I'd love to hear people's answers. I think that knowing very precisely what you're trying to achieve - or what you're actually warming up - is one of the keys to a good warmup and to good practice in general.
Cheers,
Kai

I think of my warmup as doing a few things. First, since I'm no spring chicken, I use it as a way to limber up,,,slowly. I try not to put any pressure on myself to do anything but play smoothly and with articulation, and simply get my fingers used to moving. I also stretch before and after this part of the warmup. Secondly, I try to use it as a way of beginning to work (slowly) through challenges, both physical (I have difficulties with pull offs, for example) and musical (learning scales used in flamenco, as another example). Additionally, since starting here, I've begun to spend some time doing palmas as a way to better learn compás.

Paul, I'm also a bit older (turn 60 next year) and I agree that a slow, "easy exercise" approach facilitates the limbering up process. Flamenco technique is a very "physical" style of playing and establishing the flow of communication between the brain and fingers/hands is also a warm-up objective for me. I tend to allow too much tension to creep into my shoulders/arms/hands when playing more difficult passages, so I try to establish a mindset of relaxation during my warm-up as well. Relax, keep breathing, light touch, focus on the accuracy of each note and motion.

This is great stuff guys - to all of this I'd add really focusing on the relationship of your fingertip to the string as you start slowly. I think of it as reminding my hands every day what it feels like to sound good and be relaxed. But it sounds like you guys are doing it right

Paul - I love that you're working palmas in to your warmup. This is fantastic for your compás! You might consider doing this at some other time, though, as the mechanics of doing palmas are pretty different from playing the guitar. Both are really important for your development as a player, but physically they're different enough actions that I wonder if it should be part of your overall practice, but maybe not of warmup? Having said that, if it's working for you then just ignore my advice!

Cheers,
Kai

Fred, I like your phrase "...establishing the flow of communication between the brain and fingers/hands..." That's a perfect way of putting it.

Kai, I do also practice palmas away from playing the guitar. I also bought a cajón to help learn compás in a different musical context as well.

Too often it seems my fingers get ahead of my brain and just want to start running. I am learning to be more deliberately slow with all practice and learning. I find it also helps with retention. I wish I accepted this truth for me a lot sooner.

Thanks for the feedback Paul. Those technical exercises are similar to what I (should be) doing now. I like that yours varies the beat and continuously moves the stopping points. I would even mix in 2 octave scales in many keys to get musical with it. So many notes, so little time!