For most of my guitar-playing life, I’ve been trying to find the secret to becoming a better guitarist. I’ve spent countless hours reading magazines and books, scouring the Internet, and searching for teachers. What I’ve learned is this: There is no secret.

Becoming a better guitarist takes hard work, dedication, and perseverance. There are no shortcuts. This is a lesson that has taken me many years to learn. Actually, I’m still learning this lesson. The way all the guitarists I admire got better was by playing, listening, and learning. That’s what it’ll take for me and you to get better, too.

Last year, Tommy Emmanuel put on a clinic at Berklee. If you’ve never seen Emmanuel live, I highly recommend it. He puts on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Here’s some footage from his Berklee clinic:

Last year, Page Hamilton released a guitar instructional DVD titled Sonic Shapes. I’ve mentioned before that I was a big fan of Hamilton’s and his band Helmet when I first started playing guitar in the 90s. He was one of the first musicians I knew of who tuned to drop-D.

On Sonic Shapes, Hamilton illustrates some of the concepts and approaches he takes when writing music for Helmet. Hamilton is a long-time student of jazz and avant-garde guitar, and it’s interesting to hear him talk about how he builds the chords for Helmet music, which seem deceptively simple at first. However, the chords and scales he uses are fairly atypical for the type of music he plays. Throughout the instructional portion of the DVD, Page plays an ESP guitar without distortion so you can really get a feel for how the chords sound without the effects that he normally uses.

In addition to demonstrating how he goes about composing some of Helmet’s music, the DVD features a section of Hamilton’s tips on practicing. He mentions a routine called “Super Chops,” which was developed by Howard Roberts, that he has adapted for his own use. Hamilton suggests always having material on hand so that you can utilize your time wisely. For example, when he’s on the road, he always has a folder of material that he’s working on. He also suggests keeping a practice log so that you can keep track of your progress and of what you want to work on.

As a bonus, the DVD features some live footage of Helmet, where you can see some of the concepts Hamilton discusses earlier in the DVD in action.

The February 2010 issue of Guitar World magazine is a blues-oriented issue and features John Mayer on the cover. On the bonus disc that comes with the magazine, John Mayer gives a lesson on how he plays his cover of “Crossroads” on his latest album Battle Studies.

The intro to the lesson is hilarious, and the lesson itself covers how he plays the entire song, including what pedal he uses to get the dead-battery fuzz tone on the album:

Classical guitarist and composer Kevin Gallagher, from his recent article “Music First“:

We cannot excel at any style of music by simply putting our fingers in the correct place at the correct time. There are no excellent jazz guitarists that I know of who don’t have an understanding of jazz music. There are no great pop guitarists who don’t have an understanding of pop music. And consequently, there are no great classical guitarists who don’t understand how classical music is written on the guitar. Often, I think that students forget that they are studying classical music on the guitar – as if the classical guitar is more about the technique than the music. Let me be clear – if you are studying this style, you are studying classical music on the guitar.

In June, I reviewed Chuck D’Aloia’s Blues with Brains DVD, which is designed to help you add some sophistication to your blues. I liked the DVD, and I like Chuck’s approach to teaching. Since then, Chuck has released two new volumes of his Blues with Brains series, providing further information about how to jazz up your blues soloing. Volume 2 expands upon the insights provided in Volume 1, and Volume 3 focuses more on using blues in a jazz setting. Right now, you can download all three volumes for $50 from Chuck’s site.

Christopher Liscio, the developer of the excellent learning tool Capo, let me know that he has recently updated the app. I’ve previously reviewed Capo and really liked it. Probably the biggest new feature of the app is the ability to save the slowed music so that you can listen to it on an iPod, thus enabling you to practice away from the computer. You can export an entire song or just a looped portion of a song enabling you to customize your learning experience. A podcast series is available on the Capo Web site; the podcast describes how to use the product as well as basic ear training techniques.

Earlier this year, Kenny Wayne Shepherd was featured during one of the Guitar Center Sessions events. They recorded the session and have provide the videos on YouTube. Below is Shepherd and singer Noah Hunt playing “Shotgun Blues”:

The other available videos from the session include:

Introduction and “King Bee”
Shepherd discussing his history
Shepherd discussing his influences
Shepherd discussing changes in writing and why he started singing
Shepherd and Hunt playing “Blue on Black”
Shepherd discussing his effects
Shepherd and Hunt playing “Losing Kind”
Shepherd discussing Fender
Shepherd discussing recording
Shepherd discussing his last album, 10 Days Out

Speaking of Joe Bonamassa, Cherry Lane Music is going to be releasing a tablature book for Joe’s album Blues Deluxe on August 24th. You can preorder the book from Music Dispatch.

I’m terrible about keeping a log of my practice sessions. Chris Davis gives us five reasons why keeping a practice log helps. Here’s one of the reasons:

Ever sat down to practice and though, “well, I wonder what I should do today?” We’ve all been there. A practice log takes the questions out of the equation. What did I have trouble with during the last practice session? A practice log can help track these issues and focus your practice session in on them