Before any workout, you’ll have a warmup period, preparing your body and mind for the physical tasks ahead. Warming up the body to play an instrument is just as important. It prepares the student for what is to come.
With beginning violinists setting up a good posture and playing position is one of our primary goals. A good warmup will prepare the student physically and mentally for the challenge of holding an instrument in a relaxed and natural way.
My beginning orchestra classes always began with some stretching and relaxation exercises. We often set these to music and incorporated beat motions and expressive movement. I love the way warmups are presented in the Orchestra Expressions Series published by Alfred. I attended a seminar with one of the authors, Michael Alexander. I loved his explanations of how the different warmups targeted both left and right-hand problem areas and set up beginning students for success.
I have adopted and modified many of the warmups from Orchestra Expressions Book 1 with my beginning violin students. The three I’ll discuss in this post I usually introduce in the first lesson. I’ll repeat the warmups for several lessons to reinforce the concepts. Younger students will spend more weeks covering these exercises than older students while building fine motor skills.
Waves: Extend your arms in front of you with palms down. Move your arms in parallel motion upward and downward, side to side, and in circles. The motions can be repeated with palms up and with arms moving in opposite directions.
Variations: Perform with music, such as Twinkle variations or the Suzuki Book 1 recording. I also love Keeping the Beat, a collection from John Feierabend. Young students also love performing this warmup with scarves.
This exercise promotes a relaxed and fluid movement of the arms. When performed with music, it helps internalize future repertoire and emphasize beat, phrases, patterns, and expressive movement.
Finger Flex: This is a great stretch for the fingers and loosens up the arm and hands. Extend your arms up in the air or front of you. Make a fist in both hands and gently flex your fingers out as far as you can.
Finger Sit-ups: Raise your right hand to eye level with your palm facing you. Keeping your fingers curved, squeeze your right forearm with your left fingertips. Leave all fingers down while you raise and tap each finger. This exercise sets the hand up in the proper position and begins teaching finger independence and dexterity.
Variations: Once the student has learned the playing position, I have them perform this exercise on the instrument in different finger patterns. It helps students see the need for each finger to be strong and independent. It shows them how the third and fourth fingers are naturally weaker and need to be strengthened. Some students can not lift each finger independently at first, so this is a great exercise to get the fine motor skills going. Once students learn the fingerboard geography, we also use it to review notes on each string in different positions.
You can check out these warmup exercises in my first YouTube channel video. I demonstrate each move along with text prompts. It is perfect for screen sharing in online lessons. These exercises all transfer well to any string instrument, even guitar, so it’s great for any string class as well.
What other body warmup exercises have you tried with your students? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in our private group on Facebook just for Violin Club teachers.
All exercises in today’s post are adapted from:
Brungard, Kathleen DeBerry, et al. Orchestra Expressions Violin Book 1. Alfred Music, 2004.