I know how a lot of musicians and singers out there don’t enjoy performing covers but in my opinion, singing cover songs is extremely important. I’ve always done both. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t make any difference to me whether it’s a cover song or an original. Music is music to me. Singing covers is important ’cause it really does help improve your talent. To get better with singing, a lot of people think that doing all these scale exercises like the “OOhs” and “AAaahs” will help make you sing better. Doing the scale exercises along with a piano would help your voice greatly. It’ll help you sing higher and help your ear but you don’t want to waste a lot of time singing scale exercises. To improve your singing, you gotta work on singing other peoples songs. Sing all your favorite songs that you’ve heard on the radio over the years of your life. I’m gonna start doing that a lot.

In youtube, there are tons of backing tracks of your favorite songs. This morning, I just videotaped myself singing 3 Black Sabbath songs: “Iron Man”, “Electric Funeral” and “God Is Dead”. I used full band backing tracks online ’cause I don’t have a band of my own yet. I even surprise myself ’cause I didn’t think I could sing like Ozzy but I guess I could. I guess I can do pretty good singing metal and hard rock, wait until you hear them when I upload them to facebook. I don’t upload videos in youtube much anymore ’cause youtube is garbage now. I upload videos from facebook mostly now.

I was gonna upload those 3 videos of me singing those Black Sabbath songs today but since tomorrow is Ozzy’s birthday, I think it’ll be best to wait for tomorrow for those. It’s a great way to celebrate Ozzy’s birthday tomorrow. Yeah, I’m a huge Ozzy and Sabbath fan. When I used to subscribe to Apple Music streaming, I heard all of Ozzy’s solo albums and all of his stuff he did with Sabbath. I’ve always been an Ozzy fan my whole life and always wanted to perform his songs.

Singing cover songs will definitely help you sing better as it definitely did help me. I’m gonna sing more Sabbath songs. I will also try singing some Zeppelin, The Who, the Doors, more Bowie and sing all the songs that I loved over the years.

I really love singing. I don’t want to be a backup singer, I want to sing lead on everything. Singing is just fun and I want to get better at it. I don’t think you’ll ever see me on “The Voice” or “America’s Got Talent” or anything. I’ve had people asking me if I’ll ever appear on those shows but I don’t think I will. I want to stay far away from them. That’s not how I want to see myself.

Kev

This quote is so true and so me, indeed. I’ve had this attitude for a long while now and it’s a good attitude to have. Be who you wanna be. Don’t listen to anybody even if it pisses them off. Nowadays, it seems like someone is always trying to change you if they don’t like something about you. If there is something someone doesn’t like about you they’ll point it all out and they’ll judge you no matter the situation. They always think they’re right but you’re always wrong. Don’t ever let them think they’re right about you.

I still have a problem with having a lot of haters and negative people getting all over me. It still happens to this day but that’s okay. My life is a good one. I’m not perfect but neither is everyone else. A lot of people thinks it’s my fault for attracting a lot of haters but I disagree. Haters are just gonna hate. They hate for no reason ’cause that’s all they got. People are gonna be weird and crazy. There’s also gonna be a lot of assholes out there too. There’s a lot of negative people out there nowadays, it’s crazy.

I have no time for them. All I want to do is enjoy life. Play my music, do my boxing, yoga, bodybuilding stuff and everything else that I like to do.

People always tell me to stop talking about politics so much and just concentrate on my music and get back to talking about movies. Well, I talk a lot about politics ’cause maybe that’s what I like to do. I’m a political guy. It’s a huge part of me. On top of that, I’m just a patriot and love my country. I’m doing all I can to help defend my country by speaking the truth about what’s going on.

People always whine and cry about the way I post online. I’ve been dealing with that crap for like a decade now. Even if I still have my own social networking and my own blog, people are still crying about my online stuff but that’s okay. I’m not changing for anybody. I will always be myself no matter what the haters think. They can go fuck off.

I’ll always be me. I am what I am. I write on a blog and do my social networking stuff like facebook/twitter so I can show you who I am and be myself. That’s what all this stuff is for, right? The internet gave you this stuff so you can be yourself and express yourself however you want to. Whether it’s online or in the real world, don’t change for anyone. I never will that’s for sure. I’ll always be the same guy online and offline. You can’t really separate the two. I think the reason I get so many haters is ’cause they know I like being myself and they hate that. I don’t listen to anybody. I stick to my guns. That’s why they all get on to me hoping to get me to listen to them. Never happening. I like who I am and will never change.

Kev

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

I am thankful for family, friends, fans & supporters, the music that I do, the fitness that I do and just enjoying life.

Also, thankful for Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the United States (sorry, just had to say it, couldn’t resist).

Admittedly, I’m not very good at improvisation on guitar playing but I’m really working my ass off and practicing ear training and all that. I have been learning to sing along to the notes on guitar as a way to memorize the sound in my head. That really helps. I have been learning intervals. I have been studying music theory too.

Here’s an interesting article that teaches you how to have a better ear in guitar.

http://www.guitarworld.com/lesson-videos-rock/seven-ways-guitarists-can-improve-their-ears/30222

There are also all kinds of ear training apps for the Ipad/Iphone and also the PC . I have an ear training app called, “Harmonomics” that I use that is pretty helpful. That app is actually a game where they play you a note and you have to guess what it is. Kind of like a quiz game which is pretty cool.

I’m doing all I can to have a good ear in guitar playing. It doesn’t take overnight. It takes dedication, practice and patience. It takes a long while to memorize what notes and keys sound like. I’m getting the hang of it, though.

One day I will become an improvising wizard and I’ll soon be able to play anything and everything which is my goal.

Kev

I’m really proud of how far I’ve come with my singing. I feel I have gotten better vocally. I like what I hear in my voice so far but I still have lots of work to do. My goal in singing is to have a powerful head voice and I want to be able to sing real high too ’cause I can’t sing real “high” but I want to and am practicing as you can probably hear. I just love singing. It’s something I’ve always loved to do. I love feeling the buzzing in your head when you sing with head voice. Feels great. A lot of people used to compare my voice to Bob Dylan and Tom Petty but I hate those comparisons. I don’t want to sing like that. Sing like I’m talking, ya know that I mean? I want to sing with more head voice, use more range and more control. Sing a little higher. I also want to be able to learn how to scream which is what I’m working on as well. I want to be able to sing like David Bowie and Chris Cornell who are my favorites. They are my big inspirations right now and of course, Robert Plant too. James Hetfield is another hero of mine vocally. I want to be able to have a good voice for my originals, ya know? Getting there the best I can.

As for my guitar playing, I’m still trying to improve that too. Still trying to spice up my lead guitar playing chops which is going well. Trying to improve my speed ’cause I want to be able to shred, ya know, play fast. I want to be that type of player so I practice with a metronome and all that. Studying my timing and rhythm. Ear training is improving too.

You can probably get where I’m going with this right? I want to be able to make great rock n’ roll someday. Not necessarily metal even though I love that genre and listen to metal all the time. I want to make hard rock music. Make a hard rock album with big riffs and lots of solos. I want to get a band of my own together when I’m ready and I will hopefully in the future ’cause having my own band is a dream of mine. I would like to do what everyone else is doing. Playing in bands, playing gigs and rocking the clubs. I would like that too, admittedly. I would like to one day become a part of the full band scene. When I do get a band going someday, I’m gonna take talent very seriously. I won’t be picking random musicians just for the sake of jamming. I want talent. I want to make great rockin’ music. Someday I’ll make it all happen when the time is right.

I’m just trying to hone my musicianship. Trying to get better. Some people would say I’m already “good” but thanks, I still have plenty of work and learning to do. I do enjoy getting all the positive feedback I get with my covers and originals, though. That’s really awesome and a good feeling.

Kev

https://twitter.com/Robert_Downen/status/797552302760620033

https://twitter.com/Robert_Downen/status/797552920707338242

News broke out today there has been a possible shooting at the Crossgates Mall in Albany. In the two videos above where the local media interviews the police chief, that interview alone sends up a red flag pretty much. As soon as the reporter asks her if she has any evidence of a “shooting” at the mall, she pauses for a little bit and then suddenly says, “I can’t comment”. Really? Usually when there is a shooting, police are quick to prove it but she can’t???

If you look at the 3rd video where they interview the guy at GM restaurant, notice how John Barrella doesn’t look worried or scared a bit? He appears to be smiling a little bit.

This post claims that the shooter has been caught as seen in the photo but no evidence of that either…

https://twitter.com/Pro2AWomen/status/797547928139206656

No details came out of this shooting. I hear that it was claimed that 3 suspects has been caught but they were released already?

It’s an obvious false flag and it’s kind of odd this would happen a couple of days after the election just so they can find a way to blame something on Trump and his supporters which a lot of people already are.

On top of that, why would the local news media interview the police chief near the mall while there’s a shooter supposedly active? Wouldn’t it be kind of dangerous for the news media to be near the mall while there’s a shooter around? There’s no doubt this is a false flag and a stupid hoax.

Kev

I usually try not to give myself criticism when it comes to my own singing but I believe that me singing the National Anthem the piano version sounded pretty damn good. That was just a backing track that I found in youtube. I was trying to find an instrumental backing track that would fit my voice and finally found something that would work so I used that one on the celebration video of Trump’s victory. The youtuber that recorded the piano National Anthem gave everyone permission to use it if you please so I decided to use it to cover it for myself.

After that song, makes me want to work with a real pianist. Try to find someone who plays the grand piano or an upright or whatever. Not someone who plays piano on an electric keyboard, I want a real pianist. Someone to collaborate with and write original songs with. If I were to work with a pianist, this pianist must be good with music theory and have a good ear, that way I can give him/her song ideas of what I’m hearing in my head.

I enjoyed singing over the piano like that and wanna do more. I’ve always liked piano songs. Been a fan of Billy Joel, early Elton John and Fiona Apple is an inspiration too. I don’t play piano, wishing I did so I’m going to have to collaborate with one.

I think a project like this would be fun and I think I can make good songs like that. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll hit craigslist and try to find someone.

Kev

When I said I was getting myself into boxing as a hobby, I wasn’t lying. So here’s video proof.

Watch out internet haters ’cause I’m gonna find ya and I’m coming for ya, haha, kidding.

Kev

Every year on Halloween I binge watch a bunch of horror films most of the day so here is what I watched:

– Dracula (original w/ Bela Lugosi)
-Frankenstein (original w/ Boris Karloff)
-The Wolf Man (original w/ Lon Chaney)
-Psycho (original with Anthony Perkins and directed by Alfred Hitchcock)
-Halloween (original with Jamie Lee Curtis and directed by John Carpenter)

I wanted to watch more but I was getting sleepy and went to bed after “Halloween” got over with. Ya know, as I get older, I realize that I’m no longer a kid and I’m not a night owl like I used to be. These days I don’t stay up real late anymore. I usually go to bed around 10 or 11 now.

Hope you all had a good Halloween!

Kev

I won’t be doing much for Halloween like usual. Most people like to go out to costume parties and go out trick or treating with their kids and all that stuff but not me. My preference in celebrating Halloween is staying home watching horror films which is what I plan to do today. Every year on Halloween, I do a horror film marathon. Watch horror films all evening and all night. Yeah, I know it’s not healthy to watch many hours of movies but once a year won’t hurt anything. Watching a lot of horror films is a great way to celebrate Halloween. Why do you think there are horror movie marathons all over cable TV? I’m a huge horror film fan. Love ’em.

Kev