I am amazed, that there are too many guitarists and bass players who don’t bother to cut their strings after changing them. You know, the type of guitarists that will just leave their guitar strings hanging way out of the tuning pegs. They walk around on stage with their guitars, the end of the strings that hang out will bounce around as you move around, not good. I understand why some of them don’t cut strings, because at a gig, if they trim the end of the string to make it shorter, it ruins the tuning, and it takes them even longer to tune if they trim the string.

Why is it a bad idea to leave your strings hanging out at the headstock of your guitar?

1) It looks silly as hell with the strings moving around, and bouncing back & forth 2) It’s very dangerous, the end of your strings can be pretty sharp, as they can easily poke someone in the eye or cut someone, or you could hurt yourself.

They don’t trim the strings ’cause they’re too lazy to tune. It is also evidence that they are not good at tuning their guitars if they don’t trim.  That’s why you should bring a pair of wire cutters to your gigs. It only takes a few minutes to cut the end of your strings off so they won’t be hanging out. This is also the reason why you need to get good at tuning your guitars, so that you don’t waste so much time tuning.

I always trim the strings. It’s a good thing to do.

Tuning the guitar is not so hard and it can be quick to do with a lot of practice. These days, I’ve been learning to tune the guitar standard tuning by ear, without an electronic tuner. It’s a good thing to do to train your ear.

Kev

Over the years, I’ve got some pretty hateful feedback and criticism toward myself as a person and as a musician online, through various local music forums and social networking sites. I still get negative criticism even to this day, but I just learn to get used to it and ignore it. Although, I will admit though, that I wish I had gotten a better response and wish people treated me better, but what are you gonna do ya know? This is the world wide web, when you put yourself out there, you can’t expect everyone to treat you so kind.

People will think they have the right to be honest about other people, whenever they want because the internet gives them that freedom. That’s the problem. There’s two different type of critics: 1) The honest critics 2) The bullying critics.  There are some people that will think they are honest about you, and some will just bully you for their own amusement. That’s one of the only reasons why there are too many negative people online. There are too many childish people on here, with terrible communication skills on the internet. When one person sees this person bullying some musician, picking on them and making fun of them, other people will join in on the fun, even if they don’t know anything about me.

That’s why bullying me online, has become pretty popular and it’s all over the net. It inspires people to join in because they think it’s fun and they have nothing else better to do with their time. People become addicted and obsessed with the same musician, that they won’t stop until they get old and their fingers start to fall off. They’re like little kids being told to stop by their Mommy and Daddy, but they won’t listen, ya know? People mostly do the internet bullying under anonymous accounts, so I won’t be able to find out who they really are, but I’m usually good at finding out who they really are ’cause their writing style is so recognizable and easy. Of course, there are those bullying people who are not anonymous, they come out and do it, upfront.

I will be a target of internet bullying for the rest of my life. No matter how good of a guy I am, no matter how nice I will be. Sad, but that’s the way it is. I’m a human being and I have feelings too. I don’t mean to talk about the topic of internet bullying and haters, but since “bullying” is so huge in the news lately, that’s what makes me want to be more open about this stuff. I guess this is my way of joining in on the “anti-bullying” campaign. Hoping it will inspire the critics to think what they’re doing is wrong and they should shut their mouths and think how they treat people. I don’t only get bullying from people on the internet, I even get it from other musicians around the local music scene. I’m sure you’ve seen it.

I’m not just trying to defend myself. This is for other people or musicians who have been victims of bullying too. You gotta learn to be tough and don’t feed the haters. Learn to stay above and don’t let other people think they have the right to say what they want about you. They don’t have the right.

Kev

EDIT TO ADD: I’ve written a few original songs in the past about bullying. “Mr. Tough Guy” is one of them, and “Backstabbers” is another one.

At gigs, I’ve seen bands and musicians talk in between songs the right way and some of them do it the wrong way. Keep in mind, that live audiences are human beings. They can hear every word you say on the stage and they aren’t stupid. If they don’t like what you say, they’ll let you know. If you don’t want to get boo’ed or get heckled by someone from the audience, here are some rules on how to play a successful gig that’ll make the audience walk out with a great night.

Things you should do, talking in between songs:

• Name the song title, and tell a little story behind it. What the song is about, how you wrote it and how you inspired it. Audiences like this kind of stuff.
  
• Try to be entertaining, funny, and smile a lot.
  
• Eye contact at the crowd, when talking in between songs.
  
• Talk to the crowd as if you’re in an actual conversation. I’ve seen plenty of local bands ignore the crowd when they try to talk to them on stage. If you want to win an audience respect, respond back to them.
• Try to teach them lyrics for sing alongs. This is hard to do but it can be done if done right. Give it a try.
  

Things you shouldn’t do, talking in between songs:

• Don’t be a jackass or an egomaniac.
  
• Don’t talk too long. I’ve seen musicians where they go on and on about stuff for about 10 minutes straight, just shut up and play the damn song already!
• Don’t be too negative and offensive. Swearing is okay but it depends on the gig and the venue.
• Don’t be confrontational toward the audience, if they don’t respond to your songs or they walk away from your set. I’ve seen it happen before. Big turn off.
  
• Don’t respond to the hecklers. If you are getting heckled, if someone shouts out,  “You suck”, just ignore it and play.
  

Talking in between songs is important, in my opinion. There are a lot of bands that don’t talk at all, some of them just play one song after another, but that’s okay. If you don’t want to talk to the crowd, that’s your decision, but you could get more fans if you interact with the crowd more.

If you’ve seen my gigs in the past, you’ve probably seen me talk to the crowd, check out some of my youtube videos of my live performances for proof on that.

Kev

I’m okay with internet haters and people making fun of me online. I can deal with that stuff and stay above it pretty well. Why? Because I have better things to worry about then concentrate on that stuff which means little to me. I got a lot going on in my personal life off the computer, plus, all I care about doing is playing my music and working out, doing the fitness thing.

I don’t understand why other bands become obsessed making fun of me or bashing me online. They would go in this certain bands facebook account(this rock band that I still respect, should be nameless but you’ll figure out who I’m referring to), going around the entire internet looking for quotes that I said online, and making fun of it. They would call me all kinds of offensive names and all kinds of crazy things without mentioning my name. Joke around and laugh at me continuously like some kind of comedy thing.

I’ve been wanting to say that if these guys had a problem with me, then why don’t they just come say this stuff to me, like a real adult? I’m not that hard to find. Why not write me an e-mail or even better speak to me in person? Nope. Instead, they do the bashing, bullying and harassment with their fans like little kids in pre-school. Personally, I don’t find what they do funny, and this is part of the reason why I can’t add random people in my facebook account anymore.

I don’t get why bands do these things. It’s childish and pretty unprofessional. As for why they do it, I believe it’s just their way of secretly promoting themselves off of me. They like that attention. When they do it and they won’t stop, their fans will like what they do and they join the bullying bandwagon. The sad part is, most of these guys don’t know anything about me and they haven’t even met me. Their fans go along with it, because they support that band and will think they have the right to do this stuff ’cause the band is doing it. It’s just this band’s way of getting more fans, that’s pretty much it really. That’s the only reason why they won’t stop their bullying.

I’ve said it before, I have nothing personal against this band. I enjoy their music and think they’re good performers. I just wish they would leave me out of things, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Free country, I guess. I just want these guys to focus on the music. Notice I don’t obsess with bullying other bands anymore like I used to? It’s because I have better things to do and better things to worry about. Plus, I’m trying to make my life as positive and happy as possible. I don’t have time for bullshit.

Kev

Reverb Nation website just put up a great blog that I just had to post here. The blog shows you how musicians & bands could get success in their music even without a label, and this article gives proof on how that could happen.

Read it, here.

If you want success with your music, all it takes is hard work and doing it all yourself. Making the best music possible if you want to be respected. You can become a recognizable musician by not signing with a label at all. If labels ever started asking me to sign with them, I’m not saying it will happen but what if, I would probably turn them all down. I wouldn’t care how much money they would offer me ’cause I don’t do music for money and fame.

You can still get thousands of fans even without a label. You can still have a great career on a high note even without a label. You can still get great opportunities even without a label. Who needs, a record label, ya know?

The industry is such a difficult world, it’s going to be overwhelming for you, I’m telling you. The way the industry is today, I wouldn’t want anything to do with the major label industry. If today was the 1950’s or even the 1970’s, yes, I probably would have signed a record contract back then ’cause those days the industry was something special. The industry is not the same anymore. It’s all greed, power and corporate bullshit.

Like the article said, you’re better off staying unsigned. Period.

Kev

Sometimes I just don’t understand the music world. Why there’s sometimes a bit of bullying and negativity around music with other musicians. I learned that if you want to have a better career in music and if you want people to respect you as a musician more, you need to watch how you post online. I’m learning from my past mistakes, and learning to let the past be the past, and keep it that way. I’ll admit that the way I posted online in the past was bad, and I regretted it. The reason I did what I did long ago, was that I was calling out people by name of musicians who were negative nancies and called out the ones that bullied me over the years. I’ll admit that what I’ve done was kind of childish on my part and wish I could have handled that stuff a little better. When you become defensive of yourself like that, it makes other people think that you’re the badguy instead. Musicians still have a problem defending themselves over negative things written about them online, so they reply to everything, calling them out and trying to defend themselves. That stuff is still a huge problem today, I see it in facebook with musicians all the time and on craigslist too.

Why do musicians feel the need to be negative online? It’s not just an ego thing, there’s more to it than that. It’s just their way of trying to get more people to pay more attention to them. It’s like a, “Hey, nobody respects me as a musician, so respect me,” kind of thing. That’s pretty much the main reason some of them do it. They think they’re playing and musicianship is talented. They think they are god or something, and when they learn that not many people respect them, they do whatever it takes to get people to respect them. Know what I mean? That’s why some of these musicians go on these daily negative rants in facebook, or even worse, criticizing or bullying other musicians, or putting down the music scene.

When music fans and other musicians see this musician being negative in facebook or some other social media site, they will give this musician support to make him/her feel better. It’s just their secret way of promoting themselves and getting themselves out there. So is a musician acting like however you want publicly a good thing?

Knowing from my past experiences about this, no it isn’t good. Understand how good and bad karma works. If you become a good guy, you will get good things out of your career and better opportunities will come. If you become a bad guy, you’re just going to kill your chances in achieving your dreams, you won’t get anywhere. The way you post online, really affects your professionalism. You may have a personal facebook page, separate from your music pages, but yes, you must be careful how you post in your personal pages as well.

If you want to be a respected musician, you can’t be an attention whore to get it. You earn the respect by being a talented musician and acting like a professional.

Kev

A drummer’s job in music, is to keep time. There are drummers out there that mistakenly believe that you can play the kit however you felt like it. Drummers need to practice along with a metronome just like other musicians do with other instruments. There are bands out there where the drummer isn’t even playing in time at all.

When you’re auditioning for drummers and if you want to make sure that he/she is keeping time well, make them play along with a metronome first so you can see for yourself. It’s a good test to see if they know what they are really doing.

Whenever I get a band going and start auditioning members, I’m going to make sure I get a good enough drummer. Playing in time is serious. If you get the wrong drummer, your band will NOT sound good, and believe me, other people can tell if you’re playing in time or not. Timing is everything in music. It’s important, you have to take it seriously.

Kev

When I do these rants about bands & musicians online, one thing to keep in mind that these posts aren’t aimed at any band in particular. Some would mistakenly think that I’m trying to point fingers at somebody which is not true. That’s not what I’m trying to do.

What I’m trying to do is that I’m trying to make it a more positive music world. When bands & musicians do crazy stuff online or anywhere else, I’ll have no choice but to rant about it here. Hoping it might get them thinking that they could be wrong.

Trying to stop bands from doing stupid things that they will regret later. Trying to stop them from getting themselves in trouble. Trying to inspire them to be more professional and have better attitudes. Trying to get them to learn from their mistakes in their careers.

I know my thoughts are probably pissing bands off still, but that’s good. I know some of you will say that I don’t have band experience, that I shouldn’t keep giving band advice, but I have the right to do this stuff as I want to. I may not have band experience but I do have a lot experience playing gigs and being around other bands. As long as I’m seeing things with my own eyes, I have the right to speak things out publicly, ya know? Think about it.

A lot of these bands think they can hide from the truth and get away with things. It’s crazy. People are really weird in the music world, and I’m not afraid to say stuff like this.

Kev

Joe Nacco is a musician who I’ve known for a while. I’ve done a bunch of shows with him in the past. I think he’s a talented songwriter and he’s pretty underrated around this area, I would say.

It seems that Joe is a fan of horror films and zombie stuff. As you can see, Randy McKinley, is in the Joe Nacco Band now and he is in the video, the bassist with the long hair. I think Randy looks pretty cool as a zombie.

This is a pretty well made video. The zombie make up was well done too. It seems like a video that George A. Romero wish he’d made.

Kev

This post is aimed for the people who are not musicians. Just regular music lovers who supports local bands. They too, seem to be openly opinionated and honest toward local talent. Using the internet to bash those they don’t like and using the internet to voice their honesty. They really need to cut the negative attitude and keep opinions to themselves as well.

It would be nice if they would support all bands & musicians more as well. Not just support the stuff that they like, which is what they seem to be doing lately. Local bands and musicians, work hard, so we all deserve to get heard and be supported.

That’s the sad thing about the internet, it gives the freedom for people to write what they want about others. I usually ignore the negativity and haters, yes, they can hate me all they want to but it would be nice if some of them would have a change of heart, ya know?

They should be supportive of all music too. I do have some regular music fans that actually like my music ’cause they are nice enough to stay loyal to me, but it would be appreciated if more would be supportive.

Like I said plenty of times before, you can’t ask and beg for their respect, I guess you have to earn it, like I’ve repeatedly said. You want to win their respect by making the best music possible, and I am doing the best I can.

My point is, that we all need to get together and support each other in a more positive note, that includes musicians and regular music fans. It would make a better music scene.

Kev