Learning electronics is not necessarily that hard. At least not to get a basic understanding, enough to get a grip on how a distortion pedal works. Do not fret about getting all the information in, just try to understand the basic concepts; read about the closed circuit, voltage/current/resistance, and a little about diodes and transistors. That will take you a long way, and you will soon be able to impress your friends with new knowledge and vocabulary.

Here is a link to a brief page that give a high level overview of some steps in learning electronics. There is also a nice illustration of the connection between voltage, resistance, and current. https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/how-to-learn-electronics/

For a bit more actual learning, Sparkfun run a nice site with learning material, with e.g. a collection of starter tutorials; it looks like a good place to dive in. https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/where-do-i-start

For the braver, who does not fear long rambling texts and hideous 90’s style web site design, here is a link to a few pages with a lot of info about transistor circuits. It’s a massive amount of text to read, and not always very well structured, but there is a lot of good examples of practical electronics, and explanations. http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/TheTransistorAmplifier/TheTransistorAmplifier-P1.html

This page surprised me to have a rather useful little collection of example circuits, e.g. for simple mixers etc.: http://www.doepfer.de/home_e.htm

Some interesting ideas here, most notably perhaps spring reverb: http://patcharena.com/tag/build-your-own-spring-reverb/

A useful collection of OP-amp circuits: https://www.ti.com/ww/en/bobpease/assets/AN-31.pdf

For learning KiCad, I recommend the “Getting to Blinky” series. Not sure if it’s updated for KiCad 5, though. Search for it on YouTube.

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