Vocalist, guitarist, and all-around interesting powerhouse of a woman, Om Johari is one of the many stellar musicians who shared their experience of practice with me.

Om is a founding member of Hells Belles (a female AC/DC cover band), is currently rocking out with RE-ignition (punk/reggae in the style of Bad Brains), and now is trying to get another interesting project recorded.

Om’s latest project is producing an album with Drive By Preachers, and they need a paltry sum to get this album out. Help them out if you can. Below is a snippet of what they’re trying to get out into the world. Sounds cool to me. Great rhythmic grooves in this teaser:

Om used a brilliant strategy to help get her guitar chops together, make some money for her efforts, and pass the flame along, too. She required her students (7 the first year, 17 the following), to learn one cover tune per month, for which she’d play backup guitar. With a concrete goal like that, and students who depend on you, how could you not practice? This allowed Om to cover song structure, chords, lyrics, and all the other musical elements with her students while learning the guitar part at the same time. She said it was really effective. I say it’s a genius idea.

Want to know what her guitar chops look/sound like? Here’s a full length video of Om in action, singing and playing on her song Drums, Bass & Guitar: