It feels pretty damn good to be focusing on mostly electric guitar than acoustic guitar. I’m trying all I can to become a decent electric guitarist. I think I was meant to play electric guitar after all these years. I’ll never give up the acoustic guitar but I probably won’t play it as much anymore ’cause I want to keep my focus on electric from now on.

When it comes to lead guitar, I kind of want to play similar to all my heroes: Jimmy Page, Joe Satriani, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen and Hendrix. I’d like to play kind of similar like all the shred guys such as Stevie Vai, Jason Becker, Eric Johnson and Yngwie Malmsteen. When it comes to playing scales and stuff… the only scales I’ll play lead guitar on are major/minor pentatonic scales, the blues scales and the modes. I’ve been learning and studying the modes a lot lately and still trying to figure them out. I’m still practicing ear training and perfect pitch and all that stuff too. I’m just starting to learn some whammy tricks on electric guitar and I want to learn some other guitar tricks too like the pinch harmonic, sweep picking and things like that. Someday I would love to make instrumental shred music of my own ’cause that would be cool.

People don’t think I can play guitar on a professional/advanced level but that’s okay, let them think what they want. Yes, I still have a lot of work to do in guitar playing, but I’m just gonna keep on practicing and do my thing. Just ignore the critics and doubters and keep playing. That’s all you gotta do. I’ll never become a guitar god or anything… I just want to play and have fun. Make music how I want to make it. I’ve always loved to listen to metal and shred music and I just figure it’s finally time I want to make music like that myself.

Playing guitar is a huge passion of mine. I may have other interests and hobbies but playing guitar is my number 1. It’s all I ever do mostly.

Kev

In the past, I used to be against the whammy bar on the electric guitar. I used to believe that the tool on the electric was a way for guitarists to show off. It’s like them saying, “Hey look at me, I can do all these cool tricks and now I’m an amazing player!” A lot of people believe that the whammy bar is just a way for a guitar player to show off but I don’t think so.

Now that I think about it, the whammy bar on the guitar can be a really expressive tool. You can actually create useful and creative licks on a whammy bar. If you think a whammy bar is just used to add vibrato and bend notes, think again. You can do so many crazy tricks on the whammy bar. Look at Eddie Van Halen and Joe Satriani. Those guys are wizards on the whammy and so is Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix used the whammy quite a lot on the Fender. Listen to Hendrix’s version of the “Star Spangled Banner” from Woodstock, there’s whammy all over that.

Doing whammy tricks aren’t hard as they look. They’re actually very simple. Pretty soon I’ll be using the whammy bar when I’m playing lead. I got a guitar with a whammy bar ’cause I’m hoping to one day learn some of the my favorite shred songs. For example one day I’m gonna learn Satriani’s “Satch Boogie” and I’m gonna try to master Van Halen’s “Eruption”. Those are two of my favorite shred tunes and I want to learn how to play them myself and I will!

Yeah, admittedly I do want to play like a virtuoso and play shred guitar and I still got a lot of work to get there. The whammy is an awesome tool. Like they all say, “Don’t knock it until you try it”. The whammy bar really grew on me. I’m having a lot of fun with it.

Kev

I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the drums and I still can. I’ve been learning how to play the drums for the past year or so. Learning time and rhythm, you’re learning how to play drums. Some people think it’s impossible to learn drums without a drum set but absolutely you can.

With today’s technology, there are all kinds of drum machines out there and there’s also virtual drum sets on DAW software nowadays. There’s also drum software for the PC you can buy like Superior Drummer for example and also EZ Drummer which both are pretty popular. You can find any kind of software on the PC that has a virtual drum set where you can actually play on. Just get one of those and buy a Drummer instructional book and you’re good to go. That’s how I’ve been learning how to play the drums myself.

I really need to learn this stuff ’cause I want to be able to program my own drum tracks when I start recording rock songs on the electric guitar.

It does feel really good learning timing and rhythm in music ’cause timing is everything in music. In the past, I didn’t know anything about rhythm and the metronome. I used to record without a metronome or a click track but now I’m all over it. I’ve definitely improved greatly when it comes to rhythm and the metronome ’cause I used to be shit at it admittedly.

Someday down the road, I will buy myself EZ Drummer software. The program costs like $150 or more but I’m sure it’s worth it. Maybe I’ll buy that software this year. I want to make full band rock songs and doing all I can to get to that goal.

For bass guitar tracks, how would I go about doing that? Well I’ll probably do that with MIDI on Mixcraft 8. I even thought about buying myself a real bass guitar and add bass tracks myself. Either that or I could find another bass player that I can collaborate who is willing to work with me. I’ll figure something out.

Making full band rock songs is something I’ve always wanted to happen and it will. Just trying to get all the right gear, software and all that stuff. It takes time and money but I’m working on it.

Kev

So today I’ve just gotten back into using the free edition of Spotify on my new PC. Using the Spotify app on Windows 10. I know I’ve been switching back and forth from Spotify to Apple Music, but I think I’m gonna stick with Spotify from now on. I’ve used Apple Music streaming for a long while but decided that I didn’t like it anymore. Spotify is easier to use. I plan on subscribing to Spotify full time sometime in the future whenever I can afford it.

This morning on Spotify, I listened to Gregg Allman’s final solo album “Southern Blood” on it which was beautiful stuff. I also listened to the Greta Van Fleet album “From the Fires” which was also an amazing album. Now I’m listening to Myrkur’s newest album, “Mareridt” which is a Danish black metal band with Amalie Bruun as lead singer, half way through that album and it’s amazing stuff.

I’m gonna use Spotify as a way if I want to hear an album if I like it enough, I’ll buy my own copy. Plus to listen to albums I’ve always wanted to hear that I never got to yet. Just listen to music on it like always.

I love listening to music. Supporting other bands and artists is good for ya. I like to listen to tunes while I’m browsing the internet. As always, I’m a full album kind of guy. I listen to albums all the way through. I never listen to selected songs like a lot of people do nowadays.

Kev

Is there a such thing as New Year’s Resolutions for musicians? Hell yeah! Why not! What I hope to achieve as a musician in 2018 is that I’m going to keep trying to improve my musicianship to the next level. I’m always going to try to improve my guitar playing and singing which I’m working extremely hard at both. I’m not an actual musician but I’m doing all I can to become an actual musician. As a matter of fact, I’ll never see myself as an actual musician, I just do what I do. Just play music and enjoy it!

With all that being said, I’m gonna do all I can to switch from being an acoustic guitarist to electric guitarist full time. Like I’ve said before, I’ve spent most of my life playing acoustic music and I think I finally want to become a hard rock & metal musician. I think hard rock & metal is what I was meant to really play. It always has been my main genre. I’ve always loved heavy music and I’m a huge fan of shred guitar too. I don’t think I’m a virtuoso guitarist yet but I would definitely like to get there and that’s my goal. I want to have a good ear, I want to have good rhythm chops and good lead guitar skills too.

I want to start writing heavy rock songs pretty soon so I’m just trying to collect all the pedals to get the right sounds.

I’ll never give up acoustic music. I’ll always play that too, but I want to keep my focus on electric rock mostly. On my next demo or album, I would like a mix of acoustic and metal like I talked about before.

I’ll never give up what I do… play guitar and singing ’cause that’s what I am. It’s a huge part of me. I also hope to write more songs this year as I’m going to start messing with guitar riffs on an electric guitar this time to see what I can come up with. I believe I can write some pretty cool guitar riffs and play solos that rock & metal fans would like. People might be surprised at what I could do.

I’m not that great on the electric guitar yet but I’m gonna do all I can to get real good on that too. I want to shred… I want to write heavy riffs… I want to get good on the whammy bar and all that stuff. I don’t think I’ll ever play electric guitar like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson and all those guys, but I’m proud of how my playing is at now. I came a long way and I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years now.

I don’t really care to have technical ability though, I just want to write great songs and that’s all I wanna do. Make music how I want to make it and not caring if anyone else likes it or not. I don’t take myself serious like many guitarists do out there. I just do what I do. Just play guitar and rock out. It’s that simple.

Kev

Well, Happy New Year, y’all!

It’s been a great year for America, has it? US economy booming under Trump, Obama legacy slowly being erased, Trump getting rid of the many regulations in America, SCOTUS judge approved, ISIS getting destroyed and most importantly of all… we FINALLY got TAX REFORM! While we still have a lot of work to do, this is a good start so far. We won a lot throughout 2017 and I predict there will be much more winning in 2018. While Trump is doing an impressive job so far, we still need the Wall, getting rid of Obamacare and to hopefully lock up Hillary/Obama. We get those done, we’ll be good!

Anyway, enough of that… as for my own life… 2017 was pretty good for me but hopefully I’ll make 2018 better for me. I’m definitely gonna try to get a job this year and gonna start the job hunting again.  I also plan to get back into songwriting again this year ’cause I really am itching for new songs. I’m also thinking about a live gigging comeback ’cause I really miss performing on the stage. I’m also going to continue to ignore negativity and focus on positivity. I’m also going to get back into fitness and yoga full time after a Holiday break from it all. There are many resolutions that I have but those are just a few of them.

I’m gonna plan on posting on this blog a lot more ’cause I know I’ve been slowing down on it. I just didn’t care to post on here much anymore but I’m going to try to post on it a lot more this year. I’ve found myself being busy with life nowadays… like playing more guitar and playing more music.

I spent most of the day video gaming today. I’ve been playing the “Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition” on the PS4 all weekend. Play it most of the day. I’ve gotten back into video gaming again ’cause I want to try to catch up with some of the other games that I got.

Kev

So I’ve just started collecting guitar pedals. The reason is that I want to get all the right sounds that would be good enough for me to play heavy rock music on electric guitar. In the past, I always used to be against sounds effects and never were for those pedals at all but now I’m all over them. I’m realizing that pedals can be useful for guitar sounds. I want to get pedals that would be right for both my rhythm playing and lead guitar playing ’cause I do both. I’ve been playing lead guitar a lot more than rhythm, though ’cause I’ve been trying to improve my lead guitar playing and take it to the next level.

When playing lead guitar, you don’t want to play lead guitar with a clean tone all the time. You need effects to give it some additional color like you’ll need wah, chorus, flanger, delay, etc. Effects will make your guitar solos sound interesting. I do have aspirations to be a lead guitarist and I’m working my way there. I love playing guitar solos so if I ever made my first heavy rock album, there’ll absolutely be a lot of solos on it.

So far the pedals that I currently own myawld are a wah pedal, a few distortions, an overdrive pedal, a delay and now a chorus. I still need a few more pedals, though. My goal is to get a fuzz pedal next and I’m probably gonna go for the legendary fuzz face which I always wanted. I’ll save up for it in 2018. Fuzz pedals are important ’cause they create a cool sound with your rhythm and lead. I also want to get a Flanger, tremolo, echo and maybe an EQ pedal too.

I’m not gonna go too crazy with guitar pedals, just get all the simple and basic ones. Try to get the right sound for badass heavy rock. I also plan on buying a pedalboard soon so I can hook all the pedals together and create my own pedal setup which is the goal.

I’ve been focusing on electric guitar more than acoustic now which feels real good. I spent most of my life playing acoustic and want to branch out; do something different.

Kev

I know it may seem weird, but I find myself listening to a lot of black & death metal like the title says? Why? Not sure why. I guess there are many reasons why. 1) It’s because the music is good and I enjoy it… 2) I listen to a lot of it for guitar inspiration. 3) I listen to it ’cause there is no other good music out there.

In the past, I used to be scared to death to listen to this kind of music but if you actually listen to it… listening to extreme metal isn’t that bad. Some of these bands actually write some of the best music ever. I’m noticing that extreme metal like black & death metal makes some of the best guitar riffs. Plus, the lyrics can be intriguing as well.

I’m tired of people knocking black & death metal… people say all kinds of crap like it all sounds the same and all the singers do is scream/growl. Listening to the screams, growling and gritty singing can be quite enjoyable actually. I’ve been listening to bands like At the Gates, Venom, Amon Amarth, Ensiferum, Burzum, Opeth and bands such as those. I don’t know, I just keep listening to this stuff as this kind of music is becoming addicting to me.

I’ve just started getting into the band Mayhem… ya know that legendary band from Norway. I bought their first album, “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” from ITunes today. I’ve always wanted to get that album ’cause I really love the song “Freezing Moon”. If you’re into metal, you probably know that song. It’s a great tune!

I also love the band, Burzum which is Varg Vikernes project and I bought their album, “Filosofem” which is my favorite album by them. I had to get it today off ITunes.

There are still more metal bands I want to get into. I just love this stuff. A lot of these guys really are very talented and amazing musicians. I really wish they would get more respect in the industry.

Funny thing is, a lot of people don’t see me being a metal head but I am. I just like the music. I’ve always listened to metal ever since I was a kid. As a kid, I started listening to bands like Twisted Sister, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, etc. My love for metal never stopped. The whole reason I picked up the electric guitar is that I’m hoping to become a metal musician someday and still have that dream.

Kev

Merry Christmas to all of my blog readers. It doesn’t matter who reads my blog, Merry Christmas to all of you! Even to all the trolls and haters, lmao!

Lets be positive today! No political discussions. No rantings. No negativity.

Here are some of the gifts that I got from the family today.

I got a new stereo receiver for my Ipod and vinyl player. I’m going to start collecting vinyl in 2018, I think. I will still continue to buy albums on CD and digital from ITunes, though. I like to listen to music in all formats.

Got a new chorus pedal for my electric guitar. A few bluray movies, Game of Thrones – Season 7 and a Dictionary.

Hope everyone is enjoying your day! Rock on!

Kev

I know a lot of unsigned musicians out there want to get heard and try to make a name for themselves locally which is all good and cool, but that’s my goal admittedly. I too want to get heard by as many people as possible and make a name for myself like most musicians ’cause that’s what we all do this for pretty much. If you want to play music and get yourself out there, you gotta have balls and be ready.

Keep in mind though, when you do get yourself out there and playing your music publicly, you WILL go through all kinds of bullshit and negativity in your music life. You WILL get doubters, haters, critics and backstabbers. You will also meet some other musicians and promoters out there who can be big time prima-donnas and pompous assholes too. Knowing from my own experience dealing with all this myself, you will get other musicians and promoters thinking they’re more superior than you and they’ll try to make you think you’re nothing musically.

If playing music is what you want to do then you gotta be brave, have balls and ignore all bullshit and negativity completely. You gotta have that “Don’t give a fuck” attitude. You need to care about you and your music and that’s it. Sure, it may sound a bit selfish to only care about you but that’s what you must do if you want to play music successfully and positively. There are gonna be people out there who are gonna have negative thoughts and feelings about you but the secret is, you don’t care. Only care about you and the supporters/fans who really like you.

There will be jealous assholes out there that just want to see you fail musically and they’ll try to destroy your dreams and goals. Don’t let that happen. Only concentrate on your music and only that. Just keep making music and that’s all you need to do. If you can’t take any negativity then maybe being a musician isn’t for you. You’ll have to learn to accept that not everything is gonna be positive and not everyone is gonna like you. I know there are some musicians out there who can’t accept that not everything is gonna be positive and not everyone will like them but fuck them. Those are the prima donnas that I’m talking about.

When I got myself out there, I dealt with plenty of bullshit and I almost gave it up ’cause of it. Don’t give up music ’cause that’s what they want you to do.

Just stay humble and keep playing. That’s all you gotta do really. That’s what you wanna do is to piss people off and make people jealous. If you’re getting all that then there’s gotta be something about your music, right? Good music and good talent are gonna make people jealous of you. People are never gonna admit that, though.

Kev