Warming up with the appropriate exercises gives you a chance to focus on good basic technique without pressure. Things like getting your fingers in just the right place to get nice clean notes, keeping a relaxed hand position, and getting your thumb in the best place.It’s also a chance to work at the coordination between your left and right hands. These are aspects that will naturally bleed into the rest of your practice when you start off putting your attention there from the beginning. And because the ideal warm up is something you don’t have to think about too much it frees you up to pay attention to these small details.Keep it simpleFor that reason I prefer to use warm up exercises that are not too difficult. I’ll often use the same ones over and over. I want my warm-up to be relaxing. This allows me to play slowly and really pay attention.At times I’ll use the warmup to prepare for the song or technique I’m working on in the body of my practice session. For example, if I’m working on something that involves melody, I’ll warm up with a Spider or Speed Developer exercise. If I’m working on something that uses a tremolo technique I’ll include a tremolo exercise in my warm up. How long?Depends on the length of the practice session.. For a short session I’d go for 3 to 5 minutes of warm up. For longer sessions I’d stretch that to around 10 minutes.