I was recently alerted to the fact that the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation is holding its first annual guitar workshop late this summer from August 29 – September 5, 2010 at the Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork, Montana. The workshop is supported by the National Guitar Workshop and features an impressive list of guest artists, including Pat Metheny, Larry Carlton, Alex De Grassi, Scott Tennant and several NGW teachers. Find out more about the workshop on the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation website.

NPR is streaming Jeff Beck’s new album Emotion and Commotion in its entirety until the album is released next week. As you might expect from Jeff Beck, the album is very eclectic and features some uptempo rock tunes and some slower, jazzier tunes and just about everything in between.

The album’s opener, “Corpus Christi Carol”, is an almost dirge-like song with strings underscoring Beck’s tasteful playing. This provides quite a contrast to “Hammerhead”, which starts with some wah licks followed by a heavy riff from Beck. His cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is beautiful; it retains the original feel of the song but adds Beck’s unique phrasing and feel.

Joss Stone, Imelda May, and Olivia Safe provide guest vocals on a few songs on the album. Stone’s vocals on “I Put a Spell on You” really work well. This is probably my favorite track from the album. Stone also provides vocals on a song titled “There’s No Other Me.” Imelda May’s track is also good, but I was expecting a more rockabilly tune based on what I know of May’s material, but the track is actually a slow, reflective tune. Olivia Safe’s vocals provide an ethereal, operatic feel to her two tracks.

While I’m not into some of the slower tunes on the album, overall it’s a very solid effort from a guitarist who still appears to be in his prime. If you like any of Beck’s previous catalog, there’s probably something on Emotion and Commotion that you’ll like. And, for the next week, you can listen free over at NPR.org.

Guitar Player magazine recently caught up with Jonny Lang, who is currently touring as part of the Experience Hendrix tour. Lang gave Guitar Player a lesson in some of the techniques he uses, including his vibrato technique and alternating between a pick and using his fingers. See the lesson below:

JamTrackCentral.com has recently added two jam tracks with Paul Gilbert playing over them. They have even included tab for Gilbert’s solos for the tracks. In addition to Gilbert’s tracks, they will soon be adding some country backing tracks to their already excellent rock and blues backing tracks.

Anthony Stauffer of StevieSnacks.com recently wrote an article titled No Secrets, Just Practice providing his thoughts about what it takes to get better, responding in part to my article The Secret to Becoming a Better Guitarist. In that article, I posited that there actually are no secrets; Anthony agrees, but says that there are shortcuts:

My thoughts on this are similar with one exception. There are shortcuts. I spent hours, upon hours learning the things I teach here. I can tell you more in a one hour lesson than I learned in 6 months. But here’s the catch. During that 6 months, I was playing. A lot. So while I might not have had as much information as someone with my lessons will have, that forced me to play all the time just to make something sound good.

I agree with him. Finding a good teacher will help immensely. Whether it be online lessons like Anthony provides at Stevie Snacks, or in-person lessons with an instructor at a local music store, I highly recommend finding a teacher that you can relate to. However, regardless of whether you find a teacher or decide to learn by listening to albums, it’s going to take time to improve. While I’m extremely grateful that you’re visiting this site and reading what I write, I can only provide information. I can’t play for you (nor would you probably want me to!). If you want to get better at playing the guitar, you’re going to have to play the guitar. It’s that simple and that hard.