When I was a student in music school, I studied with excellent players but kept feeling like I was hitting a wall I couldn’t seem to get over. My goal was to become a full-time professional guitarist, but I wasn’t sure how to get there. Even though I was already teaching students, playing studio sessions, doing gigs, and had a prestigious scholarship to the school I was studying at, I still often felt lost on my instrument. I began to realize that I didn’t know the fundamentals of my instrument well enough. I’d been playing for years and studied hard, I felt like there were certain boxes or patterns on the neck that I was comfortable playing, but I didn’t really know the whole neck and felt insecure in many areas. So, when I improvised, I stayed in the boxes I knew well and didn’t know how to break out of them.

I wanted to get better and was willing to put in the time, but I didn’t know how to get there. When my teachers would say things like, ‘You can just play the mixolydian mode over this chord,’ I understood what they were saying but didn’t have those concepts under my fingers well enough to use them.

Although I had some head knowledge, I didn’t have those things imprinted in my muscle memory and in my ears, and I didn’t see those shapes all across the neck, so I wasn’t able to apply it to real playing.

I felt pretty defeated.

But then, I had an ‘aha’ moment. I’d hear the classical students practicing. They weren’t just learning repertoire songs. They were also practicing exercises that gave them the physical skills to access that very demanding repertoire.

My eyes opened, and I understood how important it was to learn my scales and arpeggios. They were one of the keys to unlocking the mystery of how to get better.

I also knew enough to know that playing scales and exercises alone wouldn’t make me a skilled player. But, like cardio for a basketball player, strength training for a football player, or flexibility for a gymnast, musicians need certain specialized physical skills to enable them to play well.

So, I began to learn those vital exercises. If my teacher said you should learn the CAGED scales to understand the neck, I’d learn them. If I heard a great player say that you needed to know all of your 3-on-a-string modes to get fast, I’d practice them. When someone said you need to know your arpeggios in order to play melodically, I’d try to learn them.

There was a lot of hit-and-miss since there were no really great technique training methods like the classical players had. But, slowly, I began to piece things together. And as I did, the puzzle became more clear to me, and I got better. And I began to see how other great players used those concepts. I was learning how to learn. And I was starting to compile them in a clear and logical way, the way the classical players learned, starting with the most vital fundamentals and progressing through more and more advanced studies.

And that’s how the Guitar Daily Workout was born. 

It’s a comprehensive SYSTEM for learning those key foundational exercises.

The Guitar Daily Workout is not the end-all of getting good at the guitar. There’s much more to becoming capable on your instrument than scales and exercises. But, it is a vital part to getting better. 

If you’re hitting roadblocks you can’t seem to overcome, this may be an important part of breaking through. It has worked for countless great musicians over the years and can help you become the player you’ve always dreamed of becoming.

Dan Shields