Pieces for warm-ups

[mark1]

I would like to know what pieces(if any) people use to warm-up...not including Hanon or Czerny. I use either some easier  Bach or Mozart k 331. Just curious what everyone plays.
                                                                             Mark

[bernhard]

I never warm up as a matter of principle.

Instead I play a piece I know really cold to get used to playing cold. (If you are asked to perform on the spot are you going to warm up?)

However, in my experience the best thing to keep your fingers going first thing in the morning are J.S.Bach and Scarlatti because they demand complex finger work on both hands.

If you ae going to work on a virtuoso, athletic piece, then you need to warm up (but this is not "general" warm up in which I don't believe). The best warmup in such cases is to play the most difficult (straining) movements required by the piece at a slower speed.

This is the same principle used nowadays in sports. If you are going to run, you warmup by walking fast or cycling, if you are goign to do high kicks, you warmup by doing leg swings slowly and carefully.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bitus]

hm... that's very interesting, I never thought about that, though it makes sense.
If i don't warm up i feel i cannot control my fingers properly. This doesn't stop me from playing when needed to play on the spot, but it's unconfortable.
Doesn't warming up in fact mean that the blood needs to get to your fingers? or does it also have to do with the tendons, muscles, etc. Would stretching parts of your arm/body before playing help for an instant warm up?
The Bitus.

[mark1]

I probably shouldn't have used the term" warm-up" but it fits good...and yes, it's always a piece ya' got down cold. It gets the blood flowing and Bach like pieces are good examples. What pieces get your blood flowing?

[sagenwc]

I use Rachmaninoff's Elegie (Op. 3 no. 1).  The reason is that it begins in the left hand note by note and very slowly.  It gives me time to feel the piano, and to very slowly warm up.

[newsgroupeuan]

It varies with me.

Ussually Bach Prelude 2 from WTC Bk I

[zhiliang]

For me, i will do some portions of a difficult piece slowly and also feeling the fingers walk on the keybed to get sensitivity into my fingers. Its what i call "fingers crawling". It can be scales too but done slowly. And i normally use pieces that i am currently learning so it can be anything.

Regards,

Zhiliang

[comme_le_vent]

cziffra used chopin's op10no1 to warm up.
if i every had to choose a warm up piece....id choose the godowsky version of the same piece.