Nothing wrong with listening to commercial music that you hear in the mainstream (aka top 40) stuff but you really need to listen to more. There are a lot of people out there who would listen to commercial music only.  Nothing wrong with it and it’s good to do but you must listen to more. I listen to some mainstream music but not a lot whole lot.

With me, I listen to all sorts of music even though my main genre is rock n’ roll and metal but I will listen to a little bit of everything else like jazz, blues, classical, some pop, some rap and even some country. I’m not a big fan of country ’cause country music these days is sounding way too pop for me, doesn’t sound like country to me anymore. I do like some country artists, though.

You should listen to music that is both popular and unpopular. It’s good to listen to bands & artists that you haven’t heard before and I do a lot of that. If you look at my music collection, you would see a lot of bands & artists that you haven’t heard before.

You should also support unsigned talent too.  I don’t buy a lot of albums from unsigned talent but I will if I like their music enough.

How do I learn about bands & artists? Well, I don’t listen to the radio at all anymore, I stopped listening to the radio a long time ago ’cause FM radio isn’t good anymore. I would learn about bands & artists through the internet, music magazines such as “Guitar World” mostly and sometimes other people would recommend me stuff.

Supporting other music besides the stuff you hear in the mainstream is good for you. There are too many people who would only listen to mainstream music and I would do my best to teach them that they should listen to more. It’s good to listen to as much music as possible and I do. Gotta learn to broaden your horizons. i learned to do that when I was a kid.

Kev

I’ve listened to a couple of albums on Spotify this week. They are:

• Al Di Meola “Elysium” – Just listened to Al Di Meola’s new album “Elysium” on  Spotify and really loved the album. Al kills it like he usually does. I love Al’s music. Al finally returns to the electric guitar on this album and it’s a work of genius. I’m definitely gonna buy my own copy of this album from Itunes soon.
• Faith No More “Sol Invictus” – This album was just okay and kind of disappointing. I don’t think I’ll get this album.
• Heartless Bastards “Restless Ones” – The new album by the Heartless Bastards is really great. I’ve just started getting into this band. I do have their previous album, “Arrow” and that’s an awesome album too. I wanna get more into their music.
• The Figgs “Other Planes of Here” – The Figgs is a local original band from Saratoga Springs, N.Y. I finally started getting into them and I was really impressed with their new record. These guys are pretty tight and pretty rockin’. I think I want to get into more of their music too.

That’s all for now. It’s so cool we can finally listen to Spotify for free on the Ipad now ’cause I remember, they wouldn’t allow it before.

Kev

If you’re a guitar player, have you ever looked at yourself and say, “Gee, I’m not that good and don’t know what I’m doing”. I’ve been feeling like that just recently. I look at my own guitar playing and think I could get a lot better than I was before. In the past, I would just use the guitar as a tool to write songs with. Now I want to take the guitar more seriously and become an actual “guitar player”. I started looking at every aspect of my guitar playing. I started taking everything seriously. I started to look at my rhythm playing. In the past, I didn’t know how to tell time when playing rhythm guitar so in the past few years I’ve started studying timing like 8th notes, 16th notes and all that stuff. Started playing with a metronome more often and that helped me.

I started looking at my techniques more seriously like how I could improve my vibrato, string-bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, etc. I started studying scales and trying to memorize them. I also started taking music theory more seriously and started studying that a lot too. I’m no music theory wiz yet but I’m getting there, though. Learning music theory isn’t really all that hard. In my opinion, every musician should know music theory. You should at least have every note on the fretboard memorized by heart like I do. I’m also trying to get good at ear training and improvisation which I’m also improving on.

You have to look at every aspect in your playing even if it’s the smallest things. I feel that I’m okay at guitar playing but I could get a lot better and trying.

If you’re a guitar player yourself and if you feel that you aren’t any good and don’t know what you’re doing… don’t fret. I have heard from many guitar player who claims they aren’t good and they just too shy to move forward and improve themselves. There is always ways to improve your musicianship. You just gotta believe in yourself and stay dedicated. I’ve even seen some guitar players just give up what they do ’cause they find it boring.

If you wanna become great, you can’t give up. You gotta practice. Practicing is key to getting great, there’s no other way around it. Musicians claim they don’t practice but don’t buy into their lies. I practice guitar everyday. I wanna play fast guitar and shred but I still got long ways to go to even get there. I can play guitar moderately fast but I’m no speed demon yet like Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani. I can only play around 100 – 105 bpm on the metronome. I can’t play up to 240 bpm yet but I wanna get there. To play fast on the guitar, you gotta start real slow on the metronome and build your way up.

I’m trying all I can to get good. You should keep trying too.

Most musicians ignore the art of ear training and improvisation but not me. I’m really studying that and trying to have a good ear in music. I mean, if you wanna play in a band, you have to have a good ear. I wanna jam and rock out. Like I said, there are always ways to get better and improve yourself musically. The reason I’m trying to improve my musicianship is so I can write better songs. That’s pretty much the only reason. I also want to play some badass and facemelting guitar solos too.

I’m so focused on my guitar playing lately and it’s feeling really good!

Kev

Remember, if all you’re gonna do is come here to attack me in every reply of yours, then you’re no longer allowed to post. You will be banned permanently and you will be dead to me. If you’re being ignored, it means you’re done posting here. Can’t you get the hint? It’s funny how people think it’s okay to come on here and say what they want about me and it’s not gonna happen. Then they whine and cry about it. They cry freedom of speech and play innocent victim with me. It happens all the time.

I only approve “civilized” replies. I don’t allow personal attacks and bashing. I don’t allow people defending Barack Obama on here anymore either ’cause I’m fed up with that as well. It is why I don’t allow some of my blog readers to post anymore ’cause most of them are complete assholes and losers to begin with.

If you don’t like how I run my blog, then go away and find a new hobby. You can’t get the hint that I want the assholes and trolls to go away, I don’t care who they are.

WordPress has no way to block users so I just have no choice but to ignore them all.

Kev

Just picked up 5 albums from Itunes yesterday… this time the albums I got are:

• Northern Faces – (self titled debut): Local original band from Albany, N.Y. They put out their debut album and I got it. I’ve been following this band for a long time and finally got an album by them. Listening to it now as I type this.
• B.B. King – “Live at the Regal”: Gotta love the blues. This is one of the best live albums ever, in my opinion! I wanna get more BB King music.
• Joe Satriani – “Not Of This Earth”: After reading Satch’s rock memoir, it makes me want to get the rest of his albums in his discography so I got his very first album.
• Joe Satriani – “The Extremist”: While “Surfin’ With the Alien” is considered a classic Satch album, “The Extremist” is classic too and “The Extremist” is considered Joe’s best in his career so I went with this one.
• Eric Johnson – “Ah Via Musicom”: As you can probably tell by now, I’m trying to get into more instrumental guitar music. This is a classic guitar album by Eric Johnson. This is the album that has that classic instrumental, “Cliffs Of Dover” which is a song that I love so I picked this one.

I love buying albums! Supporting music is good for ya!

That’s all! Enjoy!

Kev

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could play everything you ear in your head and you can play everything being played on your stereo at home? That’s the kind of guitar player I wanna be and doing everything I can to get there. I’ve always been an ear player mostly but I was never that good at it in the past but my ear in playing guitar is getting better and better. I wanna be that kind of guitar player where I can jam to anything and jam with anyone without struggling and getting lost, ya know what I mean? I wanna be that type of guitar player where people won’t tell me what to play and won’t tell me what key to play in and I can come in without any fear.

It does take years and hours of practice to get there. It could take all day and months to practice your ear training and trying to memorize the sound of the notes. That’s the key to making it. Memorizing the sound of each note in your head. It’ll be an easier way to write songs and get ’em out of your head faster.

I’ve always dreamed of being that kind of guitarist where I could just play anything that I hear.

There are different ways to get there and you can start by jamming along to your favorite songs. Trying to figure out the riffs and guitar leads by ear. Stop looking at guitar tab and figure everything out by listening. I’ve been doing that more often and it definitely helps. There are also tons of ear training courses you can take through instructional books and DVD’s. Now that the Apple stuff is here, there are tons of ear training apps you can get too. Jamming along to backing tracks is another good idea.

It’s my dream to become this kind of guitar player ’cause I kind of wanna be like my heroes ya know? My big three favorite guitarists: Jimmy Page, Hendrix and Joe Satriani.

It is why I slowed down on the songwriting a lot ’cause I’m trying to improve my guitar playing and take it to the next level. Hoping to bring my “intermediate” guitar skills to the advanced level.

Sooner or later you’ll see me playing in a rock n’ roll band. Not sure when it’s gonna happen but it’s definitely something I like to do sometime in the future when I’m ready. I’m kind of tired of being the acoustic guy and wanna get into the rock n’ roll thing. I’m just trying to improve my lead guitar skills before the band thing can happen though. The reason I wanna try to improve my lead guitar skills is simply because I wanna rock out and play some “face melting” solos and have a blast!

I love guitar playing more than anything. If I don’t get “women” in my life… that’s okay ’cause music is my relationship and I’m not ashamed to say that. Music is my love and what I do.

Kev

Most small villages and towns show their patriotism by putting flags all over but where all the flags in downtown Greenwich? Greenwich is my hometown. This facebook user brought up an interesting observation and it sparked a huge debate with the local people in comments.

Of course, this facebook user has some mixed responses. Some agree and some don’t. To the people who don’t agree are bashing this user, claiming it’s in poor taste calling out the Greenwich officials and Mayor.

I thought about posting this in my own facebook page but I don’t wanna deal with a huge debate so I would post it here on my blog.

I agree. Where are all the US Flags, Greenwich? Other villages and towns have them up but we don’t?

It makes me feel ashamed to live in Greenwich ’cause I’m starting to dislike this town. It isn’t just Greenwich that is being unpatriotic, it’s just that the USA as a whole has become more unpatriotic than ever thanks to Barack Obama and the White House for teaching America how to become unpatriotic.

It can’t be that hard to put flags up everywhere when other towns have done it. If you’re bashing this person for questioning the town’s “patriotism”, then you must be a liberal.  I wouldn’t be surprised that the Greenwich officials are unpatriotic liberals.

I thought what this person did was real good. Bravo!

Admittedly, I don’t really enjoy this town anymore… I would like to move somewhere else where’s there’s a lot to do like Saratoga Springs or Glens Falls or something like that.

Kev

I understand that people wanna go and have a blast but they don’t need to go have a blast at bars & clubs. What’s so fun about spending a lot of money to get yourself wasted? In my opinion, I don’t find it fun. I used to but not anymore. I try to avoid bars & clubs as much as possible, though. The only reason I would go to one is if I would see a local band that I really liked and that’s pretty much it really. Bars & clubs are overrated as hell and that’s my opinion. They’re everywhere and everyone you know is going to them these days when they want to go out. Bars & nightclubs are everywhere these days ’cause they make a lot of money obviously. That’s the only reason they’re around.

Reasons I don’t care for the bar & club scene:

• People are too crazy, not a good place to socialize:  When you go to a bar & club, you can expect a lot of crazy drunks all over. You’ll be having weird conversations and most of them won’t know what they’re talking about most of the time
• Overpriced admissions and overpriced drinks: When you wanna go see a band or a solo artist, you can expect the admission prices to be overpriced these days. Drinks are overpriced these days too. I don’t drink anymore and it’s why I only drink water when I go to a bar or a club which only happens once in a blue moon.
• Not a good place to meet women:  Yeah, some random women at bars will allow you to dance with them, hit on them and all that stuff but chances are, they’re gonna be very drunk which is why they let you. It’s difficult to hook up with chicks from bars & clubs because most of them go there to get attention with men, that’s it. I don’t think you’ll hook up with them after that unless you want a “one night stand”?  That’s what I don’t want.

I don’t do bars & clubs like I used to and no, I was never an alcoholic. I used to drink occasionally but I stopped drinking for good.

If you want my idea of having “fun” and having a blast. I like to do that at home with just playing my guitar. Another idea of having fun is working out and lifting weights at the gym. I also love going to the movie theaters, that’s my idea of fun too. Whenever I get extra money for myself, I also like to shop around the malls. Those are the things I would prefer to do.

I also like going on vacations and go to the ocean when I can.

There are other fun things to do besides going to bars & clubs all the time. You just gotta look around.

I’m not a hard partier anymore like I used to be. Just had to get out of it.

Kev

All of us pick up a guitar for a reason. Hoping to achieve greatness and get to the next level. Play like all of our heroes that we looked up to. The same goes with me, ya know? I hope one day I’d become a guitar wizard and I’m working my way up to it. Trying all I can to get there. I wanna play guitar like my heroes: Jimmy Page, Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix and Al Di Meola. That’s the kind of level I want to get at. Been trying to figure out how to get there for 20 years now and still trying to figure out how. Getting there doesn’t happen overnight either. You have to stay dedicated and committed, you gotta really want it. It could probably take me another 10 years or more to get there to become the virtuoso type of player.

I’ve been practicing. Learning new things. Learning the scales, music theory and ear training. I’ve also been trying to figure out songs by ear and trying to figure out guitar solos by ear too. I’ve also been jamming along with backing tracks a lot ’cause that helps. I’m sure y’all can tell that I’ve been getting a lot better. Practice is a pretty important skill. Many musicians out there don’t practice ’cause they’re too lazy. If you wanna improve and get better, practicing is key. Start off slow and don’t rush yourself. That’s how you get better too. Play along with a metronome at all times and learn how to stay in time.

I really am working the best I can to get that level of guitar playing that I want. I’ve taken guitar playing more seriously than ever before.

Ya know, I don’t wanna be that type of guitar player that’ll just write songs for the hell of it. I want my music to have good guitar playing. Tight rhythms and interesting solos. I would like people to listen to it and go, “Wow, listen to that guitar playing”. I’m sure you know what I mean. A lot of bands focus on the songs more than the actual guitar playing. That’s why I listen to stuff like Page, Hendrix, Satriani and Al Di Meola is ’cause they kept their focus on the guitar playing.

Most people look at the guitar as a songwriting tool. What about the actual guitar playing itself, though? I know good guitar playing when I hear it and that’s what I wanna hear with my stuff. I wanna hear loud guitar playing with great riffs and rhythms. Great lead guitar solos too. I wanna learn how to play guitar with more heart and passion.

That’s what’s missing in music these days is “good” guitar playing. You don’t hear much of that ’cause most focus on playing the guitar as a songwriting tool. They just throw some chords and riffs down and that’s it. Not caring about the heart and passion in your playing. What about playing guitar with more power and more aggressiveness? What about playing with more heart? When you hear me play my acoustic guitar, you probably notice that I always sound pretty tight and aggressive quite a lot. That’s because I wanna focus on being the guitar player than a songwriter. It’s probably because I listen to too much rock and metal which is where I get that style of guitar playing from. That’s why my performances are pretty energetic.

Someday, I’ll become something in guitar playing. It’ll take some time but I’ll definitely get there.

Kev

This is a great video by E.T. Williams aka the Dr. Of Common Sense which is one of my favorite youtube channels.

This video is good advice for everyone and worth a watch. Do you feel like one of those who feel like a slave to facebook, family and friends? Yep, I know I’ve had. We’ve all been there. I’ve been controlled and backstabbed by a lot of people too (not naming names, ya know?).

I’ve had people try to tell me who I should be and who I shouldn’t be. I’ve had people trying to tell me what I can and can’t post online. I still deal with that bullshit.

I also deal with fake people. Ya know, those who claim they love you but in reality, they don’t. I’ve had plenty of people who bashed me publicly & privately online but when I see them in person, they’re all nice and friendly to me all of a sudden. I deal with that shit all the time. It’s weird ya know. I mean, it’s like if you got something to say about me… why don’t people say it to my face instead of hiding behind a keyboard? I’m sick of that shit. People bash me and tell me how horrible of a person I am on the internet, yet they are afraid to say these things to my face.

You see, the thing is, I don’t deal with drama of any kind. I just ignore it all and just continue to live my life the way I want to. The secret to not dealing with fake people and drama is not giving a shit. Just be yourself and be who you wanna be. I’m done listening to people and done trying to please others.

It’s amazing how life is full of drama and negativity. I just stay out of it. All of it. Drama has never been my thing. I can’t stand dramatic people. Wanna be all dramatic? They’re just gonna get ignored. Don’t have time for any of it. Nothing wrong with being who you wanna be. Screw the world. Just be yourself.

Kev