Many great guitarists spend pre-stage time warming their hands up in preparation for a full night's worth of riffing and soloing. Gus G is no different, be it with his band Firewind or when he was touring with Ozzy Osbourne.
How to do this well with limited time can be overwhelming, so we asked Gus how he actually does this.
These six warm-ups will help you quickly bond with the guitar as the exercises are designed to isolate techniques such as legato (hammer-ons and pull-offs), alternate picking, sweep picking and one finger-per-fret fingering. In similar ways to sporting athletes, the incentive for warm-ups is to reduce strain and boost overall performance. After these, you'll be hot to go, for sure!
Before you set sail though, it is worth noting that Gus has detuned all his strings by one tone on his signature Jackson Pro Series San Dimas guitar. This means the typical tuning of E-A-D-G-B-E now becomes D-G-C-F-A-D.
This dropped down tuning creates a deep, resonant sound and also decreases string tension, making fretting easier. If you have a whammy bar you may need to take care when altering the string tension as it can drastically affect the setup.
Jon Bishop wears many hats as a guitarist from transcribing songs for Total Guitar to extensive technique tutorials in Guitar Techniques. He also tours with UK rock and roll legend, Shakin' Stevens and various film+orchestra performances including Love Actually, Toy Story and Labyrinth. Being a big fan of metal guitar playing, Jon is well equipped to analyse and transcribe Gus G's impressive chops.
However, you can easily play these exercises in standard E based tuning as they are pattern based and all will sound perfectly fine. The tab/notation shown below reflects exactly what Gus played but if you're in standard tuning, just follow the tab's fret numbers for similar results.
Gus delivers the examples at brisk speeds so this may make them sound more intimidating than they actually are. Watch him play and listen to his explanations then learn the examples in small sections, slowly and carefully. After this, glue the sections together to duplicate Gus's playing duration. You will find they're all logically pattern based and fall well under the fingers.
Once you've done all six, we recommend using Gus’s examples as a springboard for your own warm-up ideas. What do you find easy here? Don't work on this as much. What do you find difficult: is there a string crossing or a fretting finger that is hampering your results? This is what you want to work on. Addressing your technical weaknesses head-on may feel like hard work and require discipline, but it will maximize your progress.
Example 1: Chromatic jumping
This first example is a variation on the classic chromatic warm-up pattern that utilizes all four fretting hand fingers. Instead of simply ascending and descending on a single string though, Gus goes between two strings to ascend then descend. This introduces the need for greater picking accuracy, as you need to cross the strings with great precision.
Gus plays this example with strict alternate picking (down, up, repeat) and also demonstrates a spider-style variation where you move up one fret after each 1-2-3-4 pattern thus creating a diagonal path.
Tip: embedded in this exercise are various options for creating dark sounding riffs as there are a number of diminished 5th intervals (eg the first two notes of G and Db). Explore and be creative!
Example 2: Finger combinations for legato
This is a legato exercise designed to maintain and develop your fretting hand fingers for independence and stamina. There are six notes played per beat and you can see in the notation what fingers to use. This is a well-designed workout as it will highlight which finger groupings are your weakest. Once you've decided, practice these the most.
Example 3: Legato across all strings
This next exercise uses a fingering pattern of the first, second and fourth fingers across all six strings. On the way up you will hammer-on and on the way back down you will pull-off. There is no need to change the fingering pattern as you would do for diatonic scales (ie scales that are in a key such as D major or E natural minor) as this is meant to work just as a symmetrical warm-up exercise.
It’s easy to get carried away with exercises like this that involve stretching so take a break when you feel discomfort or fretting hand 'burn'. Gus likes this exercise when he needs a quick way to get his fretting hand muscles primed to play.
Example 4: Sweep picking
Here you are concentrating on the synchronization between the picking and fretting hands. This warm-up may seem hard to play as it uses sweep picking and one note per string arpeggio shapes, but the symmetrical pattern is logical and straightforward.
You will use all four fingers, moving over to an adjacent string each time you lay down a finger. This creates a diagonal pattern of notes on the fretboard that can be picked with a single sweep across the four upper strings.
The trick here is to time the fretting of the notes with when the pick sweeps across. Alternatively, if the notes are held down with the fretting fingers then there will be no note separation. With a clean tone, this can prove useful as you can concentrate fully on the picking hand's sweep requirements. But to duplicate what Gus plays, the fretting hand fingers will need to fret then quickly come off the strings slightly to stop the note sounding.
Reality check: this is a tricky exercise if you have never used sweep picking before but hopefully you'll discover it's an exciting approach for guitar playing. If so, slow and careful early steps with your practice will create a solid technical foundation.
Example 5: Alternate picking with scales
This next exercise is a good one for maintaining and developing your alternate picking technique. Here, Gus uses a popular rock/metal three notes per string approach in G natural minor (or A minor if you're in standard tuning) and ascends and descends using alternate picking. The key is to start slow to establish accuracy. You may find isolating two string segments (totalling six notes) will help to establish your precision and speed.
Example 6: Finger strengthening with chromatics
This final exercise is excellent for building your fretting hand strength and precision by slurring notes. The legato pattern contains eleven notes so to make the tab easy to read, these eleven notes are grouped within each main beat. This way, you can easily see where the next position starts and ends. We have also written in the fretting hand's fingerings for the first set of eleven notes.
Once you have the pattern down in one position, you will find it easy to transfer it around the fretboard. When played fast, this pattern is reminiscent of chromatic pieces like Flight Of The Bumble Bee.
Hear it here: Gus G – Advent
This instrumental showcases both Gus's burning metal chops (spot some licks that evoke his warm-up exercises!) and melodic phrasing. There's plenty of powerful riffing too, courtesy of his Jackson seven-string.
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