Okay, got a trick/techinique to throw in here, which I'm sure will be fascinating and thrilling to all:

To warm up at the piano before I play, I play three scales with both hands. Gets my fingers warmed up, and forces me to practice fingering and precise timing and stuff. I do 2 octaves in quarter notes, then 3 octaves in triplets, then 4 octaves in 8th notes, then I let one hand walk up 2 notes ahead and do the whole thing again with the notes in thirds from each other. Then I play a series of chords in that key. Do 3 keys, and then I let myself play some real music.

I could just start playing and warm up with a real song, but this way, I get kind of a useful workout, warms up my fingers and my brain, gets my hands locked into some of those harder keys for future reference, all that.

I have to use it as a warmup because it's not too fun. Kind of like eating your vegies first, then you get dessert.

Okay, I'm a grownup, so I can eat dessert first if I want, and I actually like vegetables, but you get the idea. --Jean