Lessons learned:
1. Practise with a metronome while imagining that you’re recording - this will make you try really hard to play as clean as possible. It puts the brain into ultra-focused mode
2. Record your practise sessions and listen back to them - you will be surprised by how bad you sound. This will force you to get better.
3. Limit your practise time. There’s no point beating yourself up and failing to play a part cleanly over and over again. Play the best you can and tomorrow will be better.
4. Pay attention to the timing. Listen to the metronome and focus on playing exactly on the beat.
5. You need to focus REALLY HARD when practising. Watching TV while playing is not an option.
6. Focus on playing “fluidly” - try to achieve equal note lengths at all times
7. You must “feel the beat” with your brain/body. It’s not a good tactic to just listen to the metronome and completely focus on it, letting it keep time for you. Having the metronome play only the 2nd and 4th beat is a great way to become more responsible for keeping time
8. Begin each practise session at a slow, achievable tempo
9. At higher tempos, you really need to be comfortable with playing the part, so that you can focus on proper timing

Lesson learned: if you’re going to do something everyday for a month, do it in February.

guitar rule: play a cool chord after you finish training the exercise

Don´t bother watching the video. Result: He became Spiderman.

The training this provides for the picking hand is underrated.

results unclear, didnt become a spider

I just realized that I’ve listened to almost 15 minutes of a guy playing the spider exercise and was enthralled with… tap tap do do do do do do do do…

And it’s because I’m inspired to really pick up my practice and exercises and see even half of that improvement.

I've been playing guitar for about 20 years. I did the spider exercise when I first started playing, but had not done it since, until I saw this video. I felt my technique was lacking compared to where it used to be. So, I decided to do this. Thank you for the suggestion and reminder. I'm about 10 days in. I do it as I am sitting through my morning meetings, for about 30 minutes, then 10-15 minutes throughout the day, and again 15-30 minutes before bed. Results are outstanding. Very good thing to do. Can't wait to see where I am at in another 20 days.

Some of the most boring exercises give the best results.
I think the important thing is structure.
Great stuff!

I did not expect this video to be as engrossing as it was. It also really made me want to practice!

My hats off to you sir. It's take some serious bravery to put yourself out there like this especially with how people can be on the internet today. We should eat a little humble pie while watching this.

15:45 * puts guitar away for another 7 years * 😄

Yes, quality is much more important than quantity when practicing. And: If you are absolutely on the beat, you stop hearing the click. It feels really weird at first, but when you feel the beat internally, it won't throw you off. Rhythmic precision is highly underrated by many if not most.

Damn, I'm deaf in my left ear. All I heard was a metronome.

Thanks! I'm brand new to guitar but wanted to try this exercise for better hand independence and stretching as I have very, very small hands. Seeing someone who's played guitar for a while struggle and seeing that it takes time has really helped as I struggle massively with feeling like I'm not progressing.

I used a similar method and it does indeed work. The great thing is that I noticed an improvement on day 2. The payoff is almost instantaneous, so the effect is that you are encouraged by progress almost immediately.
The exercise works. It can be a pain in the ass but stick with it. The next day you're going to love playing again, at least it was that way for me. The day I spend practicing it often sounds like crap, but the weird thing is the following day I seem like a different guitar player than I was the day before. Its amazing how the brain fixes mechanics while the body is at rest. And it gets even better as you progress.

I was looking for a video to watch while having lunch and I clicked on this video just to see a few minutes and go away, but I watch it in its entirety, from the begging to the end. why is this so cool to see?

This video allows people to have a real understanding of how long certain skills are developed.

Thanks for sharing your progress. My problem with practice often is: I start, I suck, I skip it. It's very reassuring to see others struggling as well but pushing through!!

This exercise is very helpful to me, i included this to my daily exercises before playing anything, I've been doing this for almost 2 years now. Whenever i didn't do this exercise when i pick up a guitar i feel that something is missing. Im telling you, stick with this exercise and try different variations of it. In just 3 months my finger dexterity skyrocket using these. Now i have 13 fingerstyle song under my repertoire and i can say that this really help me.