December 28, 2025
About the Author: Arwen
If you’re reading this article you could be either of two types of pianists during a warm-up: someone who always warms up but never knows whether it’s effective or not.
Or someone who skips it entirely because they don’t think it’s necessary or know how to approach it.
An effective warm-up is the key to any successful practise session.
My music teacher always told me that the way you warm-up is a foreshadowing of how well the rest of the practise will look like.
Now although it might not always be the case, I still fully believe her words prove true and I trust you can agree.
It is no secret that the stiffer your fingers are, the harder it is to play notes with the proper technique.
Every pianist can tell you they play better when they’re warmed-up.
You might already know this, but maybe feel a bit lost when it comes to structuring your warm ups.
This article is going to highlight the importance of a warm-up and give you a solid outline and structure you can follow to approach this.
The Importance of Warming Up
It loosens your muscles, helps prevent strain, increases blood flow and can improve hand coordination just to state the obvious.
But not only does warming up benefit you physically, it’s also mentally beneficial.
Warming up effectively creates a space for your brain and mind to focus and transition your attention to the piano only.
By staying disciplined and doing your warm ups regularly, you are naturally building and reinforcing healthy habits.
These habits will continue to strengthen your fingers and improve precision.
Think about an athlete – every single one of them emphasises the importance of stretches before a workout.
Now piano most probably cannot give you as intense injuries as athletes can get, the message and reasoning behind effective warm ups stay the same.
Thus we can see that warm ups don’t only benefit the practise session, but it also promotes an increase in skill and technicality in the long-term.
Essential Warm-Up Exercises
In order for a warm up to truly be efficient and prove effective, it needs to incorporate physical movements that involve the entire hand and wrist to loosen the joints, muscles and tendons.
For each of these exercises, start slow and get everything under control before gradually adding speed to make it more challenging.
Practise both legato and staccato to master your technique.
These exercises can be found online or in a book at your local music shop.
1. Finger Stretches and Hand Mobility
Gently stretch your fingers before touching the keys.
These stretches can include wrist rolls, finger pulls and shaking your hands.
You can even take it further and soak your hands in lukewarm water to increase blood circulation – but no one realistically always has the time for that.
The key idea is to literally get your hands warm for blood flow.
2. Scales
Piano scales are a series of notes arranged in descending or ascending order in a particular pattern.
It can be based on a combination of whole tones and semitones.
The main scales, and probably the most well-known and used, are the 12 major and minor scales for each note from A – G.
There are various other scales, like the blues scale, pentatonic scale, and chromatic scale to name a few.
If you’re a beginner I suggest getting the hang of a few major and minor scales first before moving on to the more complex ones.
3. Arpeggios
These exercises are broken chords played one after the other instead of simultaneously.
An example would be C major chord with the notes CEG, but it is played C-E-G-C-E-G and then back to the starting C.
Watch this video to find out exactly how an arpeggio is played: What Is An Arpeggio? – Piano Lesson (Pianote)
4. Hanon or Czerny Exercises
Both Hanon and Czerny exercises are a collection of piano studies designed to improve finger dexterity, speed and strength by emphasising wholly on proper technique without taking musical expression into account.
Hanon’s exercises are famous for building finger strength and independence through repetitive patterns, while Czerny offers more varied exercises that develop both technique and musicality.
It is recommended that these exercises are used together for best results, but won’t be less beneficial if you choose the one that you enjoy most.
5. Sight Reading
Probably one of the most overlooked aspects of piano due to its challenging nature, sight reading is an essential part of practising piano.
I always make sure to start with them first, because I am very likely to conveniently ‘forget’ to do them.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
As appealing as it seems, rushing through or skipping warm-ups altogether is not beneficial to your craft.
In fact, in some cases, rushing through a warm-up just to get it over with can actually have a negative impact on your skill.
It can encourage wrong technique and form, creating a habit without you even realising – and it’s a lot harder to unlearn bad habits.
The way you warm-up also shows how important the piano is to you.
If you really are serious about the instrument, you’ll be serious about the warm-ups too.
It is recommended to warm up for about 10 to 20 minutes daily before each session, but of course, a short warm up every now and then is still better than none at all.
Conclusion
As silly as it sounds, warming up before practising your pieces is at times overwhelming.
First scales, then arpeggios, then sight reading – it feels as though it never ends!
We can so easily get stuck into the mindset of only doing warm-ups because we have to, where all you need is a change of perspective.
A few minutes before each session can transform your playing experience – relaxed hands, better sound and improved technique.
Mediocre music starts with mediocre preparation and good music starts with good preparation – it all depends on how much you want it.
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