Guitar Pedals - A beginners guide to starting a Pedalboard

Building your sound as an electric guitarist can sometimes be as important as building your technique. Although I'm a firm believer that the finesse and touch of highly trained fingers create the best tone, adding guitar effect pedals to your basic guitar/amp sound will be like adding an extra dimension of sound dynamics to the music you play.

The place to start 
The place most guitarist start with is adding an overdrive or distortion type of pedal. This type of pedal adds more gain, sustain and power to your original sound and can enhance your crunchy rhythms and fatten and add presence your lead guitar work. Some popular choices would be an; Ibanez Tube Screamer, Xotic BB Preamp, Pual Cochrane Timmy Overdrive, Fulltone, Carl Martin Plexitone, Boss OD3, Suhr, and Wampler.

Next on the pedal list
The next pedal choice would be a delay and/or reverb. These pedals will give you the echo or reverberation of sound bouncing in stadium, cave or tunnel. This adds the spacial quality of the guitarist in bands like U2, Coldplay or Hillsongs. Some popular choices would be an; T.C. Flashback, MXR Carbon Copy, Strymon Timeline, Line 6 DL4, Boss DD-7, Line 6 Echopark, Strymon Blue Sky, T.C. Hall of Fame.

Add some more cool tones
Some fun and sonically interesting places to go with pedals are the time-based effects like chorus, phasers, flangers, uni-vibes, tremolos and filters. These effect give the guitar a whole new dimension of tonal expression; sometimes adding very non-guitar types of sounds. Check out the intro to U2's song, "Elevation" or this demo of the Strymon Mobius http://www.strymon.net/mobius/ and it will give you an idea of the dynamic quality possible with these pedals. Popular choices are too many to list in detail but some great companies to look at are; Strymon, Line 6, Boss, T.C. Electronic, Electro-Harmonix, Wampler, Mooer, and Eventide.

Possibilities never end! 
One of my favourite additions to my effects is the area of boost, compressor, and preamp pedals. These pedals can beef up a low quality amp; completely change the characteristics of the original sound; and smooth out the rough edges of your tone. I like to think of this type of pedal as adding good fuel to your engine; better performance, smoothness and efficiency is the result. Some good product choices come from; Xotic pedals, Wampler pedals, Custom Tones, Suhr, Keeley, Radial and MXR.

Take your time and do your homework
My suggestion would be to watch some product videos, talk with other guitarist, visit pedal companies websites, and demo out some pedals at local music stores. There is even a store dedicated to effects and pedals right here in Langley, B.C. called Guitar Effects Canada. For a choice of 500 pedals and some expert friendly advice, go to - http://guitareffectscanada.com/

DERRIVAL - Finalists in Peak Performance

A former guitar student of mine (Adam Mah) along with his band Derrival made their way to the finals of the 2014 Peak Performance band competition in Vancouver. Making it to the finals is not easy and it will mean that Derrival will win a minimum of $50,000 and a possible of $102,700. The finale is on November 20th at the Commodore Ballroom where they will announce the order (1st,2nd,3rd) of the winners.  Please check out their Facebook page.

Adam was a great student and worked extremely hard from week to week. I'm proud to have been a part of his development as a guitarist and a musician. 

Congratulations, Adam!!!

“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”
― Thomas Jefferson

Guitar Heroes ( Where have they gone? )

Some common questions I ask many of my young guitar students are; "who is your favourite guitar player?"or "can you name 5 guitarist who have had an influenced your playing?" or "what is the name of the guitar player(s) in your favourite band?" Most of the time the response I get is total silence or they might just blurt out a name like Eric Clapton or Santana even though they have no knowledge of any of their songs or description of their style.

In my youth, as a guitarist, I had 10 to 20 favourite players who I knew most everything about and who had a profound influence on my playing. These were the people who taught my how: to play, to work hard, to jump around on stage, to choose the right gear, to practice, to get good tone, to use different scales for different styles, to create, and with all that and more they inspired me to great things in music.

Fast forward to present times and besides a few Youtube 'guitar sensations', you have an industry of homogenous and faceless of musicians serving in a utility role of sounding like everyone else, who are trying desperately to figure out what the next "big trend"will be rather than being true inspirational artist
and taking up the guitar heroes mantle. It's like we are in the 'dark ages' of the electric guitar.

“I started out playing guitar because Jimi Hendrix was my hero, so my roots were really based on Jimi Hendrix and his style of playing.” ~ Joe Satriani

The Art of PRACTICE ( part 1 )

One of the question that gets asked most in music lessons is, "how do I get my son or daughter to practice more?" After 25 years of teaching guitar I am convinced that there is no ready or set answer to the question. In one sense, there is no art or skill to getting into the doing of practising of guitar, rather, there is an art to practising once things are in motion.

The one universal principle in practice that can work for everyone is to have "scheduled practice" times, just like you would have in sports, dance or drama. Start off with 3 - 4 scheduled guitar practices per week and it will get easier and more enjoyable once it's routine and you see the benefits of your consistent work.

To add to the practice tip above, here's a quote I like from the legendary and successful football coach Vince Lombardi.

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect"

...with patience

...and persistence