So the YMCA in Greenwich may have stopped “Boxing Bootcamp” classes for good, I think which is a shame. I was really liking those classes and I was doing really good in boxing too. Ah well, I’ll probably continue to practice and learn boxing on my own ’cause I still plan on buying my own heavy bag for home soon, just gotta find a place to put one. Either that or I could hire another boxing trainer or something? Not sure.

Anyhow, I’m thinking about doing martial arts pretty soon and I might start this summer. I might join the NY Martial Arts Academy in Greenwich. There is a karate school in Greenwich after all and it’s $45 a month which isn’t too bad.

Could I one day become a black belt in “karate”? Hopefully and that’s what I want! If I can do boxing pretty good then I am capable of doing “karate” too.

I’m 40 years old and it’s not too late to get into karate at all. I know it’ll take a couple of years or more to become a black belt but I could become a black belt a lot quicker as long as I stay dedicated. Train hard and practice hard which I’m planning to do.

You’ll never see me in a professional fighting match of any kind. I don’t want a career out of fighting. You’ll never see me in an MMA cage or nothing like that. I just want to have fighting skills for self defense. Just in case, ya know? Plus, I want to have fun and enjoy myself. Karate, boxing, yoga, etc. I like doing all that. Good stress relievers and helps make you a happier person.

I could become a Mixed Martial Artist, just do it as a hobby. Not as a career. You’ll never see me in the UFC, although that would be pretty cool.

Kev

I have been studying a lot about rhythm guitar and timing. Playing along with a metronome is probably the most important thing to do as a musician. If you want to be a real musician, you got to understand timing and I’m trying to understand it as much as possible.

With the metronome, I can play whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, 8th notes and 16th notes just fine… however, though… I want to challenge myself even more. Learn more syncopated rhythms. You know, play off beat rhythms. I want to write original rock songs with a lot more syncopation rhythms. I also want to experiment with more ties and more rests too. I would also like to play more complex guitar chords more than just barre chords and basic open chords.

I’ve been inspired to learn more in guitar playing ’cause in the past, I was stuck in a rut. Kept playing the same things over and over so I wanted to improve myself hoping to play a little more professional. Move up to the advanced level of guitar playing and I’ve been working on that.

Studying timing is pretty important if you want to record your own music and even play in a band. Many guitar players ignore this stuff and they hate playing along with a metronome but once you get into it, you’ll love it. When I first started playing guitar, I’ll admit that I never wanted anything to do with the metronome but I finally learned to love it.

Once you understand timing and rhythm, you’ll be able to play any type of music… doesn’t matter what genre. I practice timing and rhythm even without a guitar. Tapping your foot and clapping along with a metronome is fun as well. I love learning rhythm patterns and I like to create patterns of my own as well.

Someday in the future, I would love to jam with a drummer. A real human drummer just so I can test out my skills, ya know? When I look for a drummer, I’m not just going to jam with a random drummer. This drummer have to know what he or she is doing. This drummer must play along with a metronome quite well. If I find a drummer who doesn’t play in time, then forget it. Onto the next one. If I form a band someday, I’m gonna take talent very serious. I would want all band members to be really good ’cause I want to play fuckin’ tight music, ya know? I would want my band to rock really hard.

Yep,  if you want to be taken seriously as a musician, you have to understand timing and have good rhythm. It certainly helped me as a player greatly.

Kev

Ya know, I’ve always wanted to be a one-man band when it comes to original songwriting. I’m working my way up to it. That’s what I got the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 audio interface for ’cause this thing has MIDI connections on it. With this audio interface with MIDI connections, I’ll be able to hook up any kind of MIDI controllers with it and drum machines too.

I’ve always wanted to be a one-man band. Play all instruments myself. I’m not so great at piano/keyboards but I’m trying to learn and practice that too. I do have a piece of shit Casio keyboard that I use to practice with. I won’t use that keyboard for recording but learning & practicing only. I’m not so good at playing keyboards but I would like to be. I would like to focus on learning that all summer. I stopped practicing keyboard again admittedly but I’ll get back to it. I should get back into it tonight.

Playing bass lines on a keyboard shouldn’t be that hard. As long as you know theory, the scales, have a decent ear and things like that, you should be fine.  I do know a lot about music theory now so I should be good.

As for drums, I’ve been studying timing, rhythm and drum notation a lot ’cause I’m gonna have to get good at this stuff if I’m going to do a lot of DAW recording. I want to make a full band rock album someday and would like to do it all myself. Instead of programming drum tracks into a DAW, I think it would be easier to get a drum machine and I will. I’m sure there are plenty of drum machines out there with realistic sounding drums. I’m gonna get a drum machine.

I love studying timing and rhythm. You’re a true musician if you have a good sense of timing and I’m improving in that too. It also helps me become a way better rhythm guitarist too! I used to hate playing music along with a metronome but now I fucking LOVE IT. Playing along with a metronome is not all that hard at all.

I’ve always wanted to make full band rock songs and trying all I can to get there. It just takes time and patience I guess.

Hell for bass lines of my songs, I might even forget about using MIDI and just buy a real bass guitar. I even thought about that too. I’m sure I can find a nice bass guitar for $200 or less.

Being a one-man band would be a lot of fun. My own vision and my own ideas.

Kev

Yesterday, I bought a bunch of books from the Kindle app on my Ipad. I am finding that reading books on the Kindle is a lot better than reading them on Apple’s “Ibooks”. The “Ibooks” app is really crap, though. Kindle is way better. I don’t have a Kindle gadget yet but I do plan on buying one sometime. I’m sure I can buy a cheap Kindle gadget for at least $80 or a little more. You can still read Kindle amazon books on an Ipad.

I like Kindle more than Ibooks ’cause of the prices for the most part. Books in Ibooks can be pretty pricey but Kindle books are definitely affordable and cheap.

I bought several more guitar instructional books on the Kindle app. Mostly books that would spice up my lead guitar playing, theory knowledge and rhythm playing. I also bought books about other stuff. There were guitar instructional books that Kindle had that the Ibooks didn’t have. That’s what made me want to go to Kindle.

Kindle is pretty nice actually and I can see why it’s gotten so popular. Kindle app is much easier to read and easier to use than the Ibooks, in my opinion. Apple’s Ibooks is pretty much garbage.

Reading books is another one of my favorite things to do. There are times where I want my peace and quiet. There are times where I don’t feel like playing music or watching TV, just read books. Reading is good for ya. I’ve always been into reading books ever since I was a kid.

Kev

When I first started playing guitar, I started to learn to play electric blues guitar but got kind of bored with it and stopped. Moved on to rock n’ roll and metal for a little bit. Then I switched to acoustic guitar full time for a lot of years.

Now I’m back to electric again, I’m thinking learning blues music again. I really should. I’m planning to buy a few blues guitar instructional books soon. I’m also planning to buy a few jazz guitar instruction books ’cause I should really learn to play jazz as well.

Other than me listening to a lot of metal lately, I also love listening to blues & jazz. I listen to a lot of that stuff. Whenever I don’t feel like listening to loud guitars, I would listen to something relaxing like blues and jazz.

For blues music: I like to listen to Joe Bonamassa, B.B. King, SRV, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Gary Moore, etc.

For Jazz: I like Al Di Meola, Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, George Benson, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, etc.

I listen to more blues & jazz for guitar inspiration. Sure, Miles Davis and John Coltrane weren’t guitarists but man, listening to their music can help you become a good guitar player too. When listening to jazz music, you don’t need to listen to jazz guitarists to become a better guitarist. On the guitar, you can play by ear by listening to Coltrane’s sax and play what he’s doing. Same with Miles Davis’s trumpet.

I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz & blues. I don’t necessarily want to become a jazz & blues guitarist… I still want to play metal but experimental metal. I want to learn more than just power chords and pentatonic scales, ya know? Branch out and learn different things. It’s good for ya as a musician and guitarist.

It’s annoying when guitarists stick to one genre of music. I like to listen to a bit of everything and it’s important to be a versatile guitar player.

Kev

I’m really am trying my best to become really good at guitar or even better become like one of the greats. It just takes time and patience to get there. So you ask. What level of guitar playing am I at now? I would say that I’m pretty much in the “advanced” level ’cause I pretty much know a lot in the “intermediate” level. I’ve been learning more advanced guitar techniques and more advanced theory stuff. I think learning music theory is pretty important to learn that way you can communicate with other musicians and become a better songwriter yourself. Music theory will also help my lead guitar playing skills.

I’ve been loving the electric guitar. Ever since I got that new Mitchell electric, I can’t put it down. It’s definitely a different feeling than acoustic and trying to get more used to the electric. I want to be that type of player not to show off technical skills… I don’t really care about all that. I want to be the type of guitar player to melt people’s faces melodically.

I’m doing my best to make my lead guitar playing sound musical ’cause nobody wants to hear you play scales, ya know? They want to hear music. So the goal in becoming a great lead guitar player, you want to make your lead playing sound likes it’s singing a song and that’s what I’m trying to do. Joe Satriani always said you should sound musical all the time and sounds like a good idea to me. Playing all these fast shredding notes, sweeps, whammy bar stuff maybe all cool but in my opinion, sounding musical is more important.

With my original rock & metal songs that I would like to write, I would like improvised solos during the instrumental break. They’ll probably be pretty long solos ’cause I’ve always liked to play long. I just want to make solos that will serve the song. I just want to jam out so I’m doing my best studying, practicing and learning lead guitar. I want to be good at both rhythm & lead.

I’m probably gonna stick with the electric guitar for a pretty long time ’cause honestly, that’s pretty much what I was meant to do. When I played acoustic guitar in the past, I’ve always played it like an electric guitar. I never really played acoustic like a country or a folk guitarist.

I would like to hopefully play in a rock band someday like join someone else’s band or start one of my own. Not sure.

Kev

Since I got my new electric guitar, I’ve been keeping my focus on that. Spending most of my time working on music. Practicing music, learning it and making it. I work on both. I practice trying to make my singing better too. I work on both singing and guitar. I want to be good at both singing and guitar.

I am loving electric guitar a lot, though. I wish I spent years of my life playing electric guitar instead of acoustic but I’ve played acoustic for like 20 years. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never give up the acoustic… I just want to do something different finally. See if I can play rock music and metal. Stuff I’ve always wanted to play.

As for singing goes, that’s going real good too as I notice my voice is getting a lot stronger. Getting more range. I was trying to discover my vocal range, see what range my voice is in and I was pretty surprised that I can sing up to one octave. I can sing up to C to C easily which is awesome and didn’t think I can do that. That’s as high as I can sing for now. My goal is to sing real high someday and I’m working on that. As much as I want to be a good guitar player, I want to sing good too. You can tell that I’m working on both very hard and practicing a lot.

Trying to post on the blog more but I’ve been focusing on music and other things. Enjoying life and all. Trying to stick with the fitness too. Admittedly, I slowly backed away from bodybuilding to do boxing and yoga instead. I didn’t give up bodybuilding but I did slow down on it ’cause I know boxing and yoga will get you in shape.

I’ve been spending lesser time on the internet doing other things. I’ll try to post more when I can think of things to post about.

Kev