All of us pick up a guitar for a reason. Hoping to achieve greatness and get to the next level. Play like all of our heroes that we looked up to. The same goes with me, ya know? I hope one day I’d become a guitar wizard and I’m working my way up to it. Trying all I can to get there. I wanna play guitar like my heroes: Jimmy Page, Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix and Al Di Meola. That’s the kind of level I want to get at. Been trying to figure out how to get there for 20 years now and still trying to figure out how. Getting there doesn’t happen overnight either. You have to stay dedicated and committed, you gotta really want it. It could probably take me another 10 years or more to get there to become the virtuoso type of player.

I’ve been practicing. Learning new things. Learning the scales, music theory and ear training. I’ve also been trying to figure out songs by ear and trying to figure out guitar solos by ear too. I’ve also been jamming along with backing tracks a lot ’cause that helps. I’m sure y’all can tell that I’ve been getting a lot better. Practice is a pretty important skill. Many musicians out there don’t practice ’cause they’re too lazy. If you wanna improve and get better, practicing is key. Start off slow and don’t rush yourself. That’s how you get better too. Play along with a metronome at all times and learn how to stay in time.

I really am working the best I can to get that level of guitar playing that I want. I’ve taken guitar playing more seriously than ever before.

Ya know, I don’t wanna be that type of guitar player that’ll just write songs for the hell of it. I want my music to have good guitar playing. Tight rhythms and interesting solos. I would like people to listen to it and go, “Wow, listen to that guitar playing”. I’m sure you know what I mean. A lot of bands focus on the songs more than the actual guitar playing. That’s why I listen to stuff like Page, Hendrix, Satriani and Al Di Meola is ’cause they kept their focus on the guitar playing.

Most people look at the guitar as a songwriting tool. What about the actual guitar playing itself, though? I know good guitar playing when I hear it and that’s what I wanna hear with my stuff. I wanna hear loud guitar playing with great riffs and rhythms. Great lead guitar solos too. I wanna learn how to play guitar with more heart and passion.

That’s what’s missing in music these days is “good” guitar playing. You don’t hear much of that ’cause most focus on playing the guitar as a songwriting tool. They just throw some chords and riffs down and that’s it. Not caring about the heart and passion in your playing. What about playing guitar with more power and more aggressiveness? What about playing with more heart? When you hear me play my acoustic guitar, you probably notice that I always sound pretty tight and aggressive quite a lot. That’s because I wanna focus on being the guitar player than a songwriter. It’s probably because I listen to too much rock and metal which is where I get that style of guitar playing from. That’s why my performances are pretty energetic.

Someday, I’ll become something in guitar playing. It’ll take some time but I’ll definitely get there.

Kev