Project K2R4

Ever try a practice journal?

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I’ve been lazy at practice for awhile. I’ve got tons of things I want to work on in my technique and tons of things that I’ve purchased that I have yet to even look at. I’ve decided to take a page from the playbook of a few other guitar players I know and try a practice journal.

IMG_0330There is no correct way to do this, but I’ll go ahead and outline my strategy.

  1. Only plan a week of practice at a time. This should help accommodate the changing needs of what I should practice.
  2. Always start your last practice session of the week by planning the next week so you don’t end up with a day with no plan.
  3. Write down what you want to work on, and that day write down what you actually worked on.
  4. Be descriptive, draw shapes, keep good notes.
  5. Keep something handy to record if you stumble upon something awesome.
  6. Mix it up, don’t spend multiple days on the same topic if you can help it.
  7. Put in some of the things you would otherwise avoid (transcription, reading music, etc.)

I think the beauty of this is that it’s a forcing function to make you practice. So often we’ll just jam and call it practice, or go days without practicing. Since I have a plan, I find a way to commit 30 minutes to an hour on some specific thing I want to work on.

Have you tried this? Did it work for you? Sound off!

A cheap DIY clean boost pedal

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I was looking for a quick and dirty clean boost pedal a few weeks ago when I found this kit from AmplifiedParts.com. The kit comes with everything you need to build the complete pedal for $24.95 plus shipping. I think the cheapest boost pedal I’ve seen is the $40 Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 (I have one, and this kit is better I think) so this makes for a real bargain.

Of course it’s DIY, so you need to be handy with a soldering iron and have some time to spare. It comes very well documented and took me about an hour to completely assemble and wire up. It’s not a very difficult project at all, perfect beginner project if you haven’t build pedals before.

I did take a slight detour from the printed instructions to add a BOSS style DC jack on the back so it wasn’t a battery only affair. You can get the jacks for less than a couple bucks and it only adds two small wires to the project.

If you are in the market for a boost pedal or just want to get started building your own pedals, I highly recommend this little kit. It’s called The Piledriver Power Power Boost Effects Pedal Kit and is available from AmplifiedParts.com. They shipped pretty fast too!

The sample below is just a quick thing I recorded so you could hear how well this little pedal drives a tube amp into clipping. I was playing an Ibanez Jem77BFP guitar through just this pedal into an Egnater Tweaker 15w half stack.

I’m in the AxeFX Club and I am SOLD!

It came in yesterday. I have had about two hours of play time on it so far. It is I N S A N E. I can’t believe how it sounds, what it can do. I’ll do my best to record something this weekend to show it off.

I’m in love…..

A Dead Cat Tells No Tales

Hopefully I don’t sound like a dead cat :) Here’s a playlist of songs that I put together featuring me singing as well as playing guitar, bass, etc.

Yet another new song: Bite Your Tongue

Production Notes:

  • Drums: Superior Drummer 2.3
  • Guitars: Ibanez RG1527 Prestige/Pod HD
  • Bass: Ibanez SR505/POD HD
  • Vocals: Rode NTV/Universal Audio LA-610 mkII
  • DAW: Logic 9, Waves Gold, CLA Vocal
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