• This Chromatic Warm Up Exercise Has Helped Many Beginner And Intermediate Players

    in Beginners,Chords & Progressions,Exercises,Experienced players,Piano

    You are on the right page if you’re looking for a chromatic warm up exercise to add to your daily practice routine.

    This lesson will be short, simple, and sweet. However, before we go into the exercises, permit me to briefly share with you on the importance of a warm up routine.

    A Short Note On The Importance Of A Warm Up Routine

    For keyboard players, there’s need to warm up with traditional scales like the natural major, natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scale, then the arpeggios of basic chord types like the major triad, minor triad, diminished triad, and augmented triad.

    Each of these should be played for several octaves on the keyboard using both hands separately and/or simultaneously.

    Just like athlete, musicians also need warm up exercises to prepare them for the mental and physical tasks ahead of a practice or performance session.

    The goal of warm up exercises is also to keep the fingers fit, while maintaining several aspects of dexterity which include (but isn’t limited to) the following:

    Independence

    Speed

    Agility

    Rotation

    Fleetness

    Balance

    Strength

    So, if you’re interested in developing or maintaining your piano technique, then you need to take up on a daily warm up routine and in a few weeks you’ll be amazed.

    “Now Here’s The Chromatic Warm Up Exercise…”

    We’ll start out with the beginners’ part of the exercise before we proceed to the intermediate part.

    However, it’s important to note that the key difference between both exercises is the width of the chords used. Triads are used in the beginners’ part while the intermediate exercise consists of seventh chords.

    That said, you may want to try both exercises irrespective of your skill level: beginner or intermediate.

    Beginners’ Warm Up

    Attention: This exercise consists of 12 chords and although the chords are derived from the chromatic scale:

    …the harmony is associated with the key of C major:

    Therefore, you’ll find several scale tone triads in the key of C major in this exercise.

    Suggestion: Start by playing one chord per beat, then two chords per beat, then three chords per beat, and four chords per beat. Also, feel free to raise the tempo as you get comfortable and master the chords.

    1st chord (C major triad):

    2nd chord (C# diminished triad):

    3rd chord (D minor triad):

    4th chord (D# diminished triad):

    5th chord (E minor triad):

    6th chord (F major triad):

    7th chord (F# diminished triad):

    8th chord (G major triad):

    9th chord (G# diminished triad):

    10th chord (A minor triad):

    11th chord (A# diminished triad):

    12th chord (B diminished triad):

    Warm Up For Intermediate Players

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    Final Words

    Now that you’ve learned the warm up exercises for beginners and intermediate players, I recommend that you practice it daily until you’ve thoroughly mastered it.

    In a subsequent lesson, I’ll be breaking down the theory behind these warm up exercises and also show you how they are played in other keys.

    Thank you for reading this blog post today and I’m doubly sure you learned a couple of things.

    Suggestions, contributions, and comments are welcome. Please don’t hesitate to use the comment box below.

    See you in the next lesson!

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    Chuku Onyemachi

    Head of Education at HearandPlay Music Group
    Onyemachi "Onye" Chuku is a Nigerian musicologist, pianist, and author. Inspired by his role model (Jermaine Griggs) who has become his mentor, what he started off as teaching musicians in his Aba-Nigeria neighborhood in April 2005 eventually morphed into an international career that has helped hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world. Onye lives in Dubai and is currently the Head of Education at HearandPlay Music Group and the music consultant of the Gospel Music Training Center, all in California, USA.

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    Related posts:

    1. The Warm-Up Session: 90% Of The Musicians I’ve Come Across Skip This
    2. Harmonization 202: “Drop-2 Voicings” Of Neighboring Chord Couples
    3. How To Approach An Unfamiliar Hymn In 4 Steps
    4. Top 3 Reasons Why I Think Triads Are Important
    5. 95% Of The Time, End Of The Song = 2-5-1 Chord Progression
    6. Chord Quiz: “What Do You See?” (Part 1)
    7. Five Functions Of Dominant Seventh Chords Every Musician Should Know



    Tagged as: chromatic warm up exercises, exercises, piano exercises, warm up, warm up exercises


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