Do Practice Exercises ACTUALLY Help Guitarists Shred??

You ever sit down with a brand-new guitar exercise—some flashy lick you found online—and within about 30 seconds you’re thinking…
“Wait… is this actually helping me? Or am I just wasting time?”

Because here’s the truth nobody tells you:
Not every cool-sounding lick is secretly making you faster.
Not every “shred drill” is building real technique.
And some exercises? They’re basically the musical equivalent of a treadmill—lots of motion, zero progress.

Everything changed for me when I discovered that there are very specific qualities that make a practice exercise valuable.  So, I know that if I see you doing an exercise that doesn't have any of those qualities, it’s probably just going to be a waste of your time.

Once you know how to tell the difference—once you know what actually makes an exercise powerful—you’re able to predict your progress and not just hope for the best. Your speed becomes repeatable. And suddenly, every minute you practice matters.

I want to show you the exact criteria I use to evaluate any lick or practice drill.

Think of it like a filter you run every exercise through—
a way to determine whether it’s going to build real technique, or whether it’s just something that’ll just waste your time and get you nowhere.

Let’s jump in and clear that up in today’s episode.