Before I start writing new songs again, I am planning on re-working some of my older songs from the past. See if I can try and make them full band from garageband on the Ipad. The older songs I’m planning on doing are: “Mr. Tough Guy”, “Time Bomb”, “The Dark War”, “The Nightmare Has Begun Today”, and “Be Home Safe”. “Say Goodbye, Osama”, I think I’m gonna scrap. I’m proud of the tune, I’ll keep the music and the melodies, but the lyrics, I think I’m going to re-write into something totally different. Something not political. I’ve decided I don’t want to write too many political songs. I’ll just write whatever I come up with, just write from the heart and the mind. I want to bring some of my older songs back so they can get known again. I will bring, “Evil Fred” back too, but that’s going to be re-worked a little too. “Evil Fred” has always been an anthem of mine and it’s always the most requested song at my past gigs.

I will write a bunch of brand new songs too, when I get around to it. Garageband is awesome. Great tool to record song ideas down. If I write a good guitar riff that I like, I’ll just record it so I don’t forget it. Garageband is pretty handy for a musician and best music recording software, in my opinion.

I do plan on writing regular acoustic songs too though. I want to do full band stuff mostly, ’cause I want to prove people that I do know what I’m doing musically.

Kev

In my opinion, I think this is one of my best original songs. I’m very proud of it, even though it was just recorded on Garageband. It’s still not perfect. Still needs a little more work, with a little tweaking here and there, but I’m happy how it turned out so far. If I can record this song in a real band with real people in a studio, imagine how much better this song would sound? I can definitely hear this song being way more tighter played in an actual band played by real instruments.

I’m new to recording full band stuff on Garageband and just getting the hang of it, so bare with me if things aren’t absolutely perfect yet.

Enjoy it, here. Same version that I recorded a while back, just re-posting it for the new readers.

I’m very happy with this song and it’s definitely a keeper! You haven’t heard nothing yet though, guys. I plan to be making more upbeat heavy rock songs like this one. This is the kind of music that I like.

Kev

It really is hard for a musician to tell whether other people respect them as a talented musician or not. I’m starting to see that other musicians and some music fans agree that I’m a talented musician still. Other musicians try to tell me that I’m good at what I do, but over the years, I kept saying that I’m not that good like other people say I am. I kept thinking I’m overlooked and ignored too much, but maybe I’m not after all? Dude, I gotta quit being so sensitive and dramatic, lol. It’s pretty flattering that the positive feedback keeps coming in every time I release something new.

I would still say I’m overlooked by the press and local media though. While, I’m noticing my music still gets attention through other musicians, it would be nice to get noticed by the local press at least. Maybe an interview or some reviews would be kind of nice, but I’m okay if I don’t get recognized by the press. I’ll just keep doing what I do, make the music for you guys. If it weren’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be doing this still. I probably would have given up music completely, if I knew that people wouldn’t support my music at all, but I’m realizing I still do have fans out there.

I’m trying to get new music out there for everyone, just taking my time and want to make the best music possible for my next batch of songs. I’m planning on making 2 demo albums. One full band disc, and the other one an acoustic one. The acoustic demo will be the one so I can get out to clubs & venues for booking gigs with. The full band one will be just for your listening pleasure. I’ll be recording the full band tracks through Garageband, Ipad app.

I’m really trying to focus on getting my timing and rhythm down good enough so I can stay in sync with the drum tracks in homerecording, that’s the most important thing I’m working on. So for the fans out there, that still stuck with me musically, thanks.

I want to release a real official album sometime, but when I do, it’ll probably be an internet only release. I can’t afford CD manufacturing at this point, so I’ll do all I can to put my first album out on Itunes/Amazon/Spotify or something like that. More music will be coming sometime, I’m just taking my time and not getting too ahead of myself.

Kev

I was just doing some cleaning around and I found several CD’s that included stuff from my musical past. My gigging adventures from 2006-07, when I was out there gigging like crazy. Mostly photos of my old gigs, and I found a CD that had videos of an old Valentine’s performance of mine back in 2006. I’d love to get those videos of that Valentine’s performance on youtube but I’ll have to figure out how to convert them and get them off the CD.

Maybe I’ll start uploading some old photos of my gigs from the past.

It’s fun to look back, and the more I look back, the more I miss gigging. Why did I stop? Why don’t I gig as much anymore as much as I used to? I think the simple answer, I wanted time off to improve my musical talent. Improve my guitar skills and singing. Hopefully, write some new songs.

I’ll get back into the live performing again soon, ’cause I love performing live. Performing live is one of my favorite things to do.

Kev

There is this great blog in Guitar World, where a blogger gives you advice, on how to write better songs is to sing them a cappella first.

Read the blog, here.

Sounds like a good idea! I’ve never thought of that! I’ve always written the music first and then sang the vocals like the way most musicians do it.

If you sing the vocal melody in your head, then you can figure out the guitar parts from there, after you record the vocal only parts first. It’ll also help you give you a better ear and get good at improvising that way.

I get so many song ideas spinning in my head all the time and it’s tricky to get them out of me. Plus, doing it this way will help get you out of your writers block.

I’m going to give this a try, the next time I write an original song.

Kev

As some of you know, my online web presence always got mixed responses over the years. You either like me, or hate me, I’m all good with either. Some will accuse me of not being smart about anything and they think I’m wrong about stuff. Some will like everything I do and will agree with the stuff I say online.

Just the other day, I just had a professional musician (not naming names), tells me in a facebook message, that he loves everything I do online, and says I do a good job. He also agrees with most of the stuff I say.

My point is, just because one person doesn’t like the way you post online, does not mean everyone else will.

I’m just not afraid to tell the truth about stuff. It might piss some people off, but it’s good to speak out what’s on your mind, not giving a rats ass what everyone else thinks. Just keep doing what you do. Just keep being you. You don’t have to change who you are just because other people don’t like you.

I like those people that are adult enough to put up with my bullshit. There are some people that will still stick with me even if they don’t agree with the stuff I say or do. I believe those who suddenly hate me because of differences of opinions on things and disagreements, have serious issues, but, I’m not worried about it.

If people want to block me from facebook or want to act like I don’t exist in their life completely over some online bullshit, that’s fine, let ’em go. I try to make people happy the best I can, but I’m realizing that’s hard to do and can’t please everyone.

Kev

A lot of guitarists mistakenly believe they can pick with the right hand and fret with the left hand however they want to. One way of becoming a better guitarist is that you must take both of these seriously. If you want to learn to play cleanly as possible, without the other strings ringing notes you don’t want played or other unwanted sounds out of the guitar, you must learn how to hold the pick correctly and fret with the left hand correctly as well.

I’ve been trying to figure this out since the last 15 years I’ve been playing guitar. When playing lead guitar, it’s important to play cleanly every note if you want to be good. You have to find a way to mute the other strings with either one of your hands so they won’t ring out.

It’s tricky to do but with practice you’ll get it and it’ll become easier. Playing clean is a must. If you keep playing lead guitar and other notes ring out of nowhere, you’re gonna end up playing sloppy and sound like crap.

I’m trying to get good at my picking techniques as well. Alternate picking, and playing nothing but down strokes also. You don’t want to alternate pick all the time, you have to learn to mix it up. Down stroke playing only, are mostly good for rock and metal playing.

Trying my best to become a better player. Really want to get there pretty badly.

Kev

… you don’t want to do that all the time. I love listening to shred music. I do love listening to guys like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, and others. They are the greats, no doubt about that. I do want to play fast lead guitar myself, but you can still play great, heartfelt and powerful guitar solos just playing slow solos with just a few notes.

Like David Gilmour has done with Pink Floyd for example. He’s the master at playing slow guitar solos with only playing a few notes, and it can still sound fuckin’ amazing! Jimmy Page has played a mixture of both fast and slower guitar solos.

You don’t want to play fast guitar solos all the time, or the music will sound like shit. You want to play fast or slow over a song, only when the song and the right tempo calls for it. I can play guitar fast okay, but not super blazing fast. Using the metronome, the fastest I am able to play is somewhere around 170 – 180 bpm’s. I do want to play even faster someday, but taking my time and practice.

I don’t care to become a shredder, I just want to improve my lead guitar playing chops. So I can be able to do all lead and rhythm work myself. My guitar studying and learning is coming along well.

I’m going to start making my own backing tracks in garageband so I can practice playing solos over them (just instrumentals with no vocals). I would also like to start getting together with other musicians ’cause that’s good practice to is jamming with real musicians. Another way of improving your lead guitar playing is playing along with solos on music that is not a guitar. For example, in jazz music, you can play along with a sax solo or play along with a violin in classical music.

I really want to be a better guitar player and trying the best I can to get there.

Kev

These days, I’m taking guitar playing more seriously than ever. I thought, if I’ve been playing for 15 years or a little over, I really need to sound like I’ve been playing for a long time! So I aim to expand my chops, get better, and improve. Hopefully get to the advanced level of guitar playing.

Get good at both rhythm and lead. I’m planning to learn more challenging guitar techniques like two handed fret tapping, sweep picking, arpeggios, etc. Improve ear training and learn music theory.

Again, I’m not aiming to become a shredder or a virtuoso. I feel that if I want to get a band going or join someone else’s band, I need to improve myself. Get prepared. I feel that I need to learn more stuff if I want to play serious rock guitar in a band or something.

I want to have sick and tight jams. That’s the kind of music I like. That’s the stuff I want to play. I do want to become more professional. I didn’t get that good years ago ’cause I’m not rushing myself. You want to take your slow time in learning the guitar. I’m trying the best I can.

Kev

There are plenty of guitarists that are too lazy and not confident enough to learn new things on the guitar and improve their skills. If you’re stuck in a rut, tired of playing the same things all the time, then that’s a sign that you have a lot more learning to do. That’s how I felt. I’m very confident on trying to become a great player. Hopefully, someday impress the hell out of everyone with my guitar skills. I’m probably one of the very few guitarists that is dying to get there. I’m doing all I can. Studying, learning, reading, and practicing.

You don’t need to go to college to learn. You don’t need to hire another guitar teacher. You can still become a professional guitarist by learning it all on your own.

If some people believe that you don’t have the talent, you need to prove them wrong and get better. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Your talent might have mixed opinions as of now, but once you improve and start to play great, maybe, just maybe everyone will treat you with respect then.

This is one reason why I picked up on the songwriting again, ’cause it’s good practice to improve my guitar playing skills more, especially my soloing. I could use garageband just to create my own backing tracks to practice jamming with.

I’m more worried about my guitar playing, then my singing, although, I too am trying to get better at singing too.

Learning the guitar may seem boring, frustrating, but I don’t think so. I would have no problem trying to play a scale or a riff over and over again 100 times a day just to get it right. I’ve been practicing speed exercises so I can learn to play faster lead guitar. Trying to improve ear training and improv. Also trying to learn some theory stuff ’cause that’s important too. I’m trying to learn everything a musician is supposed to know so I can be called an actual, “musician”.

I’ve been trying to learn “Stairway to Heaven” again. I’ve been trying to get that song right for years. Been playing that song along with a metronome, by playing slow at first, and counting along with the rhythm as it shows on the tab. After I get the rhythm right, I’ll record myself playing it, so I learn the “Stairway” solo and record over it. Yeah, I’ll try to play the “Stairway” solo as you hear on the Led Zeppelin IV album. It might take me a couple of months to master but I’ll get it. I think I’ll start learning more Led Zep stuff and some of Page’s solos.

Kev