Brent, I taught myself to do handcut dovetails, what it takes is some time, serious time devoted to getting it right.
What I did is this, I cut up some wood, all about 5/8" thick, maybe 6" wide by 6" long, I cut maybe a dozen boards up.
First thing I did was put one board in my vice, then I took my saw (don't matter which one you have, push, pull etc) and I practiced cutting a straight saw kerf about 5/8" deep into the piece of wood, I just the best I could, without being too worried about how good it was, I then moved the saw over about 1/8" and cut another one, I did this to the entire length of the board, then I took the board to the SCMS and lopped off that end with all the kerfs..... repeat.
Make a few hundred cuts like that and you will be amazed at how much better you get in a short time. You have to look at other things too, these things will become very apparent when you cut a couple hundred kerfs, body position, even the height of your workbench, if things are good, you will be fine, if things are too high, or too low, you body will complain and you will feel it.
Then just start doing dove tails on your practice boards, don't worry about them being perfect, just do them, do half a dozen then quit, the next time you are out in the workshop, practice your saw kerfs and your dovetails. When you make a set of dovetails, they will not be perfect, but you and your body will have learned more, muscle memory works. Again, if your board is 6" long, you and make at least 4 or 5 sets of dove tails on each board, make the dovetails, then go cut them off on the SCMS, repeat.
Trust me if you do this two or three times a week, you WILL get better, and I mean MUCH better at hand cutting dovetails.
They are NOT a black art, but they certainly require that you put the time in learning how to do it, train yourself.
Sure a better saw can help, and a fancy dovetail gauge is nice, but nothing, I mean NOTHING replaces plain old sweat and practice.