Many of you have been noticing that I’ve been practicing my guitar more. Learning theory, scales, and stuff. Taking my guitar playing up to more of an advanced level. Yes, I do want to become a virtuoso musician. That was the whole point of me wanting to pick up the guitar to begin with. It takes years of practice and learning to become a “virtuoso”, and I’ve been trying to get there for 17 years now. It has been 17 years I’ve been playing guitar now. While I feel my guitar playing level is in more of an intermediate level, I still got lots of work to do.

I just want to play great like my heroes, ya know? I wanna be like Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Satriani, and Neil Young. I want to be an all around professional someday. I want to become an expert at music theory, and everything. Become an actual musician. Have a good ear and be a good improviser at lead guitar. All that stuff.

One day I will get there. While learning music is easy to learn, it’s just a lot of practice and so much memorizing. It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. You don’t become a full fledged virtuoso right away. Sometimes it takes more than 20 years to get there. Those guys that I listed, they’ve been playing for years before they got there.

I like to be honest with my own talent. It’s good to be that way.

Kev

…I learn to ignore it and just focus on my future.

What’s been going on is that there is this certain band that should be nameless, trying to find certain quotes that I’ve said from my past blogs that are not even online anymore and things like that. They would still make fun of stupid quotes I’ve made on blogs even to this day, even though those quotes were written on blogs years ago. I’ll admit that the way I said those, were kind of silly and stupid, could have worded them better, but they were in the past. Like seven years ago or something like that. Back in those days, I was young. Now I’m a little older, I don’t post like that anymore and people still want to make fun of my past, even to this day. This certain nameless band (which you would probably figure out who I’m talking about), their fans have been going along with it as well.

I have tried to be nothing but supportive of this band ’cause their music is decent and they’re good live performers too, but nope, they just want to continue to act like douchebags. When bands act this way, they get no support from me anymore. I don’t get why anytime this band is posted anywhere on the internet, they end up talking about me instead, but like I said in the previous blog post, any publicity is good publicity.

Let ’em be assholes. I don’t care. My life is good. Living it, enjoying it. Playing my music, working out, and doing the things I love to do.

Their unprofessional amateurs anyway, not real musicians like so many people think they are, and they have the worst fanbase as well. I’m going to get my own band going someday, and I’ll show them, that I can be something.

Kev

Are you the type of musician who have become a target on the internet by the music community, who have been made fun of, ridiculed, and been bullied by other musicians and people in the local music community? I’m sure a lot of musicians have dealt with it. I’ve dealt with it for years. You just want to be a musician just like everyone else. Have fun playing music and get yourself out there, and you can’t figure out why people are making fun of you or laughing at you. They would laugh at the way you post online or how you make your music, or they just make fun of who you are as a person. I’m not the only one who have been treated this way. There are several other musicians I’ve known who have been treated badly by the public, I won’t name names.

Remember the old saying, “sometimes bad publicity is good”? It’s true if you think about it. All they are doing is giving you more attention, when they are not even realizing it. I’ve gotten more fans and supporters because of all this hate going around, so sometimes it helps. Just do your best and ignore all drama, and negative bullshit. Keep playing your music and fuck the world, ya know? Haters are gonna hate, pure and simple.

If people want to make fun of me, let ’em do it ’cause all it’s doing is that it’s good promotion for your music. It’ll get other people thinking, “Hmmm, why are people picking on this guy? I better check him out to see what he’s like”, and then they end up liking you after listening to your music. See what I mean?

The reason other musicians try to destroy your musical dreams publicly is that they want to think they are better than you, that’s pretty much it, really. They think they are “established” musicians, that they feel the need to ridicule those who are not at their level. It’s an “ego” thing for sure. As I explained plenty of times before, if music is what you like to do, then continue to do it, no matter what anybody says or thinks. Keep going. Think about it, whether you get bad publicity or good publicity, it’s all “good” publicity either way.

While it is very unprofessional, childish and lame for other musicians to treat musicians this way, you just got to learn how to deal with it if you want to become a successful musician. How do you think so many major label bands & artists get signed? They get a mix of hate and love, but they kept going, not caring what anyone else thought of them. Just stay positive no matter what happens. If you keep getting people hating on you, just ignore it completely.

I keep writing this stuff on here, ’cause it’s my way of reminding myself not to reply to all the bullshit, and so far it’s working great. If people are talking about you, good or bad, that means you’re doing something right.

Kev

These days in local music there are too many money hungry musicians, and I can never understand why. A lot of them refuse to give out music for free and some of them won’t play for free at all. I know that we are still in tough economic times and that could explain why, more musicians and bands are becoming more money hungry than ever. So they use music for extra income, other than making money from their regular day jobs. To those that know me well, would know that I don’t obsess with money when it comes to playing music. I’m not looking to get wealthy off of music ’cause that’s not what I do this for. I’m just simply not into music for the money.

I’ve always believed that if people are supporting your music, you should reward them in return by giving them free songs. Plus, you should be willing to play free gigs ’cause it helps save people money after all the gas money they paid on their road trip to come out and see you. I do like performing paid gigs, don’t get me wrong. I’ll take paid gigs sure, but I won’t care if I don’t get paid much out of them. A lot of bands would complain and whine about getting ripped off money wise by venues, when they should have a good attitude and take what they get.

I know that being a musician is hard work, and a lot of musicians think they deserve to get paid after all the hard work and travelling, but you don’t need to be money hungry all the time. Leave your selfish ego at the door. Not being a hungry money musician, will show your true passion for music. That’s pretty much the main reason why I don’t obsess with money in music ’cause I want to show my passion and love for it.

This is another reason why, I will never do this “Kickstarter” program to get my album in the works.

Would I get an album in the works sometime? In fact, I already did in 2006, when I released that 10 song acoustic demo, “Dedication” when I recorded in that professional studio (you can hear that album on my ReverbNation page, that was my first album). I didn’t sell that album to anybody. I just made a bunch of copies and gave it all out to people. I uploaded it for free on the internet.

I will do the same when I do my next internet album, which is going to be a full blown rock n’ roll record.

Again, this is just “local” music, not the major label industry. Which gives the freedom that you can treat your music how you want to being an unsigned artist. It’s your choice if you want to give your songs out or sell them. I just think bands wanting money all the time, is just a bit greedy. Treat your fans with respect by not taking money from their wallets, you’ll earn even more respect from the public.

Kev

Yep, I figure it’s time for me to start learning music theory and take it seriously, if I want to be accepted as an actual musician. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about music theory online and through instructional books. It all seems pretty simple. Not that hard as you think! I figure if I want to become a better musician, I would learn it. I thought it would be important to learn before I start thinking about forming a band someday.

Why should I learn it? Well, it would be much easier to explain my songs to other band members like all the chords and notes and stuff. Plus, music theory would help me play better guitar musically, on a professional level. It would help me become a better songwriter as well. I’ve just grown tired of playing basic things, so I need to broaden my horizons to learn more complex stuff.

I am also taking ear training more seriously too. Trying to get better at tuning the guitar by ear and trying to memorize the sound of all 12 keys. If I want to be a full fledged musician, this is what I need to do. I need to become an actual musician, if I want other musicians to play with me. That way I won’t get lost with their playing as well.

It’s gotta be done. It is time to become a real musician here.

Kev

There’s a lot of local bands and solo artists around here, releasing songs in which they call, “Singles” or “Hit Songs”. You see, with my own music, I never called my songs, “Singles” or “Hit Songs”. When some of these “local bands” release so called “singles”, they would make a professional music video along with it and the song would get radio airplay for local radio stations. When I see all of this, I just throw my head back and laugh. Why do I find this all funny? Because this is more evidence that some of these bands are living the rock star fantasy, when this is just local music.

With my own music, I don’t think I’ll ever create a song that would be good for radio airplay. I wouldn’t want my music to be “mainstream” material. Which is one of the reasons why if I ever get a band, I wouldn’t film professional VH1/MTV like videos. I’ve said repeatedly in the past, that I hate music videos. Most of them are garbage and I find it kind of silly that local bands are doing them these days, but they do want they want to do to get themselves out there, it’s just not gonna be my thing.

Sure, I’m gonna release an official album sometime, but I’m not gonna pick three or four songs that would be considered, “singles”, off of it. This is not the major label industry, guys. We’re all unsigned, whether you agree with it or not. Stop taking yourselves so seriously. Just play the music, put it out there and that’s it. Enjoy yourself. I don’t pretend to be a rock star. I’m a guy that loves to play music and that’s the way it should be.

Kev

I know there are are some musicians who can’t tell their own talent. Who can’t tell whether or not you’re a good musician like myself, but do you really need to go asking other musicians for feedback or honest critique when you release a song? No. Why is this you may ask?

Sure, other musicians will give you some kind advice on trying to fix the song better and make a few little improvements, but they won’t exactly say whether or not they actually like the song itself. That’s how a lot of musicians are around here. They pretend to like your music and you can tell they really don’t, by simply reading between the lines. That’s how musicians are people. If you’re not getting any positive feedback from musicians about your songs or saying they don’t like your stuff at all, it’s just an opinion. Not factual. Musicians like to treat opinions as facts when it comes to criticizing music, it’s crazy.

Somebody in facebook told me that you should only release the songs that you like and don’t have to rely on feedback from other musicians. You’ll know your music is good, when you start seeing people responding to it positively, like giving your song the thumbs up in Facebook or simply say, “Good job, I like it”. So if you want to tell if you’re a good musician or not, just put your music out there and see what happens. If you don’t get much of a response, that’s okay. You don’t do music to please everyone. You do music to please yourself. Like I said before, if you write a song that makes you smile, chances are, other people will too. So only, release the work, you think is best.

Musicians are really horrible when it comes to feedback in music. A lot of them can be mean and offensive. Only very few can give smart and intelligent criticism. The best people to get feedback from are people who are not musicians. They don’t know anything about being a musician, and if they say you’re good, then you probably are. I’ve had non musicians actually like my music before.

I’m about to watch Metallica’s 2nd night at Orion Fest. I’ll review it after.

Kev

If you’re a musician, you have to realize that the music world is not always going to be positive, 24 hours and 7 days a week. A lot of us musicians want to see everything positive, but there will always be negativity everywhere, no matter how hard you try to fight it. I’m sure all musicians had their share of feuds and drama with other bands and musicians. Happens, all the time everywhere. There are ups and downs being a musician, so that’s a learning experience. In this day and age of the internet, this gives local musicians the freedom to be more outspoken and brutally honest about other talent. When you’re a musician, and suddenly you’re not getting along with other musicians well. You sometimes get into heated flame wars publicly in facebook or other music forums. I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “Why, are musicians writing this nasty stuff about me?”. That was the question that I asked myself when I put myself out there years ago. I still ask myself that question to this day. No matter how positive your music world gets, there will always be a few bad guys coming around to ruin everything. Musicians don’t like other musicians trash talking, yet they are doing the same things all the time.

So lets ask this question again, why do musicians feel the need to trash talk you? There’s nothing wrong with you. Nothing wrong with you at all. You’re just being you. Playing your music and being who you are. Living your life the best you can and all you get is other musicians out there trying to destroy your dreams and goals in your music. Per se, musicians think they own the music scene. They think they can control how you act or they think they can control how you play your music. If they think you’re an asshole, they’ll have no problem saying it. If they say your playing is bad, they’ll have no problem saying that publicly either. When ever I do the same thing, call someone an asshole or say this band here sucks, people treat me like a criminal for it yet it’s okay for other musicians to do. See what’s wrong with that picture, folks? I’ve been trying to figure this out for years. I’m sure you’re not really an asshole and actually a good person, and I’m sure you’re a very talented musician. The reason for all this negativity is misunderstandings about you as a human being. They don’t understand you well. Musicians get wrongfully accused of a lot of things. The internet world of local music, can be full of tabloids and misinformation about you just like famous rock stars deal with that stuff.

I’m sure you’ve tried to talk with musicians you have grudges with to make things better, but no matter how hard you try, you’ll never win. You won’t get an apology or won’t even bury the hatchet. There are some musicians around here that still hold a negative grudge against me. I know there is. Yes, I’m sure it kills you inside that some musicians don’t like you out there, as well as I, but it is what is.

Best way to handle all this, is that you only care about you. That’s it. The only thing you need to focus on is your music and living your life, best as possible. Only focusing on the positive in your life. Not worry about what other people think about you at all. I have vowed to stay out of all musician drama of any kind over the years, and it really works. Only care about your music. That’s all that matters. You don’t always have to be a 100% friendly and happy happy joy joy to all musicians out there ’cause you never know if they don’t really like you when they pretend to be. That’s why you can’t be trusting every musician you set your eyes upon.

You only support the musicians who support you. Don’t support the musicians who don’t support you in return ’cause they’re not worth your time. Move along. Play your music and be happy.

Kev

Just recently, I have decided that from this point on I’m only going to add people I know in my personal facebook page. If I know someone personally, or know someone well, that’s when they’ll get accepted as a friend in my friends list count. I do this for a reason. Basically, the only reason is to keep all those friggin’ haters out. Some of these guys just add me for entertainment value, just to follow what I do for laughs, ya know? Honestly, I won’t tolerate that childish bullshit. I used to add people randomly but I can’t anymore. As you can tell I don’t play bullshit games with anybody, and that goes for musicians as well. I don’t need drama in my life which is why I do what I do.

If you’re a musician and have a personal facebook page, other than your music account, you don’t need to add random people in your personal facebook like so many musicians seem to be doing these days. Treat your page responsibly, so you can protect yourself as a person.

Then, of course, musicians with their own personal facebook page, won’t follow this advice. They’re gonna keep adding random people as many as they can, so they can make themselves look like a popular musician online.

Kev