I agree with Jimi. While the guitar sounds fun, it can sometimes be a frustrating instrument. There was a time where I almost gave it up and there was a time where I took a long break from guitar playing but then my passion came back to it… it happened a long time ago.

If you wanna become a great guitar player, you gotta stick with it. Don’t give it up. With lots of practice, dedication and learning… you’ll get rewarded for it and practice will pay off. Trust me.

How will you get rewarded in your guitar playing when you do become good? Well, you’ll definitely get more respect from people. More musicians will wanna jam with you. You’ll also get bigger and better opportunities like a label signing or that sort.

I’m trying all I can to become great. I maybe decent now but still have a lot work to do. I’ll never give up guitar playing. It’s a passion of mine and it’s what I love to do. I’ve been playing guitar for at least 20 years now. I wanna play like all those virtuosos and making my way up there. It takes a long time to get good like that for sure. Doesn’t happen over night. Just don’t give it up and you’ll get there.

Kev

You know how when you talk to people in the real world… they seem all nice, positive and friendly to you? Then when you interact with them online, they turn out to be an asshole and a big drama queen. When you see things like that, it means that people are showing their true colors. Showing you who they really are. In my opinion, all it’s showing you that it shows you that they really aren’t happy people in life at all. That’s why some online always seem negative and dramatic to you most of the time. They’re showing you that they aren’t really friendly people at all even though they appear to be in person. I think you get my point.

People also get into a lot of drama and negativity online ’cause they enjoy it and they’re addicted to it. There’s negative people everywhere online. It’s crazy, ya know? You just have to ignore them the best you can. That’s why in the online world, they give you these block features and moderation opportunities so you can eliminate trolls and negative people.

Even to this day, I still get a lot of trolls, haters and losers trying to make me look bad online. I’ve dealt with this crap for many years but like always, I’ve gotten so used to it that I don’t care about trolls and haters anymore. They’re nothing to me. I can easily stay above them these days with no problem.

People can do all they can to write me nasty hate messages, bash me in social networking, start new blogs bashing me and make videos making fun of me but no matter what people do, none of that stuff is gonna bring me down ’cause I’m a pretty fucking tough dude. I’ll always stay above that stuff. I’ll always stay strong and stay happy as ever. When people do that shit, I’ll take stuff as a compliment anyways ’cause all it’s doing is inspiring me to speak even louder.

I don’t get into drama and negativity anymore like I used to. It’s just not my thing anymore and I have no idea why people get themselves into it. Avoiding drama is easy to do.

I’m human and I have feelings too… it’s kind of crazy how a lot of people can’t understand that. All I care about is enjoying life, being happy and being me. I don’t have time for drama and bullshit. Not my thing anymore.

Kev

I could probably learn cover songs on the guitar and sing songs that way, yes but honestly, I find it more fun singing with a full band backing track, ya know? It makes me feel like I’m singing with a real band when I know I’m not. I just want to try and test my vocal chops to see how I can do without playing an instrument. When it comes to my music, a lot of people usually compliment me on my guitar playing more than the singing. I want to show people I have what it takes to be an actual singer and frontman. It seems to be working ’cause people are starting to give positive feedback on my singing lately which feels pretty good. Just to show that I can be a decent singer. I plan to do acapella too.

I’ve been more focused on my singing lately than anything. Sometime in the future, I want to test out my singing even more like go out to an open jam at some bar somewhere and sing some cover tunes with an actual band. That would be fun.

I feel I’ve gotten okay as a singer and vocalist… still got a lot of work to do but I’m getting there, though.

Kev

I did the best I could. If you hear me struggling a bit in my singing then it’s probably ’cause I’m kind of under the weather a little bit. Yeah, I’m singing while I’m having a bit of a cold but I just wanted to get this done anyways.

Enjoy.

Kev

I’ll have to say that I love pop music… I’ll confess it really. Pop music is really cool stuff as I admittedly listen to a lot of it. Some of that bubble gum pop music you hear these days, some of that stuff I can take. People are usually surprised with my eclectic taste in music. Why? It’s probably because most people these days stay in one genre of music. When you ask someone “What kind of music you listen to”… some will say they listen to metal only and some will say they listen to country only. Some will say they listen to rap music only.

Not with me, though. I listen to it all. All of it except for opera music and today’s country. Those two I don’t listen to at all but I’ll take everything else: rock, metal, pop, rap/hip hop, techno, R&B, blues, jazz, classical, folk, bluegrass, classic country, etc.

I’ve always felt it was pretty important to listen to as much music as possible and to listen to everything. I just listen to whatever grabs my attention, ya know? If I like it, I’ll support it… doesn’t matter the genre.

People are usually surprised with my variety of tastes ’cause like I said it’s very rare that people have eclectic tastes. I just like listening to good music, yo.

As a musician and singer, I wanna try to perform music in all genres as well including techno and dance/pop music. I just need to collaborate with an electronic musician in order to do that. I kind of always wanted to make a pop album. I wanna play metal as well. I’m tired of the acoustic thing and kind of wanna try other things.

Kev

When you want to play in a band, I’ve learned it’s pretty important to have a good ear and learn to get good with improvising. You don’t necessarily have to but it’s a must so you won’t get lost and won’t play out of key, ya know?

To improve your ear in guitar playing, you can read all kinds of guitar instruction books all you want to but that’s never gonna help ya get a good ear.

To get a good ear in music, all you gotta do is memorize the sound of each note in your head. Knowing exactly what they sound like. It can take hours and hours, days and days of practice to know what a note sound like. There are only 12 notes of music and if you have memorized all 12 notes then you’ll be able to play just about anything that comes to your head. Plus it’s important to know all the intervals too.

As always, it’s also important to jam along to your favorite songs. Figure out songs by ear and forget looking at guitar tab. Many guitarists uses guitar tab to learn songs. That’s because they’re too lazy. Many guitarists these days are too intimidated to learn songs by ear. I don’t know why. Why do you think all the guitar greats like Hendrix, Clapton, Satriani, Anastasio, etc. became guitar virtuosos? It’s because before the age of guitar tablature, all they did was sit there in front of their record players with their guitars in their hands. They would spend all day figuring out songs by ear. That’s pretty much how you become a master guitar player.

I’m not a “wizard” at improvisation yet but I’m sure am getting there and getting closer. That’s the kind of guitar player I’ve always wanted to be. I’ve been playing guitar for at least 20 years now, I think and still haven’t gotten there yet but working on it.

I wanna be that type of guitar player where I’ll just pick up the guitar and play just about everything I hear note for note without struggling. I wanna be that type of guitar player like where I’m playing in a band and nobody will have to tell me what to play or tell me what key to play, I can just come in and jam with no problem. You get the idea, I wanna become the improviser guitarist kind of like all those virtuosos. I wanna become that type of guitar player so I can be able to jam with all kinds of different bands and jam with other musicians.

When you have a dream of what kind of guitar player you wanna be, you gotta stay positive and stick with it. Stay dedicated and don’t give up. My ear in music is getting a lot better, though. I can tell ya that.

Kev

You know what one thing I hate what bands do when playing live gigs? I hate when they play their guitar solos the same way that’s recorded on the CD. They play the guitar solo the same way at every show. I try not to listen to bands like that. I also don’t really care for bands who write their guitar solos beforehand.

So with all that being said, some of you guys already know that I prefer guitar solos that are played spontaneously. In other words, “improvisation” and winging out the guitar solos. In my opinion, the masters of guitar playing are the guys who usually wing it out: Jimmy page, Hendrix, Duane Allman, Trey Anastasio, Jerry Garcia, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Satriani, etc.

That’s why I mostly listen to jam band music, prog rock and metal ’cause those genres improvise their guitar solos most of the time. That’s how I like to listen to music, ya know?

So if I ever get a band of my own going, all of my guitar solos in a band will probably be spontaneous. Just “wing it out” and jam. That’s the kind of band I want to be. If I ever get a band, I’ll play mostly guitar driven rock n’ roll but there will also be a lot of jam rock. Long improvised jams.

I’ve always loved that kind of stuff. I’ve always been a fan of improvised music. That’s why I’ve always been a fan of stuff like Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Phish, the Allman Brothers, etc.

I love “spontaneous” music ’cause unpredictability is fun. I hate hearing music when you already know what’s coming up next. That’s the beauty of live performing ’cause you can play whatever you want and you never know what you’re going to play next. That’s the beauty of improv.

That’s why I’m doing all I can to study music theory and improve my ear, ya know? I want to become one of those kind of guitarists which is the whole reason I picked up the guitar in the first place.

Kev

While I’m pretty happy with my new home studio setup, I’m gonna be adding more and more stuff as I go along. If I want to add drum tracks to my original songs which I wanna figure out how to do soon, I’d figure it’ll be easier if I get a drum machine or one of those electronic drum pad things like for example this thing here…

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RhythmWolf

I don’t know if I will actually get that drum machine I posted above but I just posted it as an example.

Either that or I might say fuck drum programming and I’ll get a real live human drummer to add drum tracks.

I still wanna make a full band rock n’ roll album someday and I’m doing whatever I can to make it happen. I love making acoustic songs and all that stuff but man, I’ve been playing acoustic for 20 years now and I finally wanna do something different for a change. I wanna sing rock n’ roll music. Loud guitars. Loud drums. I wanna play tight rock n’ roll with improvised jams and all that stuff.

I’m dying to make full band music, though. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do for years.

If I ever get a band of my own to write original songs and play covers with, what will I name the band? Well, I’d probably name it “K’brocking” aka the name of this website. That’s why I have chosen the name for this website to be “K’brocking” ’cause it’s gonna be the name of my band, I think. It’s a pretty cool band name, I’d say. Pretty original and different.

Kev

Now that I have speakers for my computer. I just turned them on… turned on my P.A. system. Cranked up the speakers and my P.A., sang karaoke songs with the backing track playing. I tested it out by recording on video on my Ipad to hear how it sounded and it surprisingly sounded okay. So soon you’ll see me uploading videos of me singing karaoke covers with the backing track playing in the background. It’s gonna be really fun!

I’ll show people that I can be an entertaining frontman if I ever fronted a cover band someday. Watch me, y’all. I’ll upload a video of myself singing karaoke soon. I wanna prove to people that I can rock on the mic and not play an instrument.

Kev