This is probably one of the best memes I’ve seen on the internet and it’s so true! So me, indeed!

This is a big part of why I’m so obsessed with music. Whether writing songs of my own and playing guitar or just listening to other music, it’s all I wanna do in life, ya know? Music is pretty much all I care about. I do buy a lot of music and I don’t feel guilty at all. I love buying albums and listening to them. I’ve done that all my life. Ever since I was a child and haven’t changed to this day.

Music really does help you get away from everything and everyone. If you’re tired of drama and negativity that you get in your life everyday, music will help get your mind off all that. Whenever I’m in a bad mood, I’ll put on an album to listen to or just pick up my guitar.

Music is what I do and a big part of who I am and always will be.

Kev

If there was another instrument that I wanted to play other than guitar… I wanted to play piano, bass and now you can add the drums to that list.

The more I study timing and rhythm and metronome stuff, the more it makes me wish I could play the drums but I never owned the drum set. I just started to learn how to play the drums but “digitally”. I just learn to play from that virtual drum set in garageband for the Ipad. I just learn how to play drum patterns from a drummer’s instructional book that I have.

I figure that I would study timing & rhythm and take it more seriously so I can add my own drum tracks to my songs like with a virtual drum kit or a drum machine, you know what I mean?

Someday I’m gonna plan on buying one of those MIDI drum pads, those things where you push a bunch of buttons. I can record drums and percussion tracks with those.

I love studying timing and rhythm patterns. I know most guitarists out there ignore the metronome and don’t bother studying timing but this stuff is important.

Timing is everything in music!!!

I used to hate the metronome but I’ve grown to loving it.

I mean, if you wanna play in a band and play with other musicians, you gotta learn timing so you can stay in sync with the other players. If you wanna play tight and aggressive, gotta stay in the pocket.

Now it makes me want to find an actual drummer to jam with ’cause those are hard to find… finding a human drummer. However, if I were to find a human drummer to jam with… he/she would have to be good. I’m gonna make sure that this drummer is good at keeping time.

As a guitar player, I’ve become an even better rhythm player just for studying timing. I am now able to come up with complex rhythm playing.

Studying timing maybe frustrating but keep doing it and you’ll get to love it. I still got more to learn but I feel I’ve gotten better than ever before.

Kev

I can see why musicians become so addicted in buying music gear and instruments. I like buying new music gear too and I buy new music gear whenever I can and whenever I need to. I just had to get a whole new recording system since I got a new computer and all. The new home recording setup I got now is just a simple and basic setup: new computer, new audio interface, studio monitors, studio headphones and a phantom powered condenser mic. I also have a micorophone pre-amp that I bought last year and never used yet and I’ll try to figure out how to use that.

Sometime in the future, I would like to buy even more music gear. I would like to buy a solid body electric guitar with a whammy bar sometime. I already have a hollow body electric but I wanna get a solid body. I’m also thinking about buying a bass guitar sometime in the future. I would like to learn to play bass guitar so I can add my own bass lines to my own music.

I would also like to get more pedal effects such as a fuzz pedal, an echo pedal, a new distortion, flanger, delay and chorus. All that stuff. I used to be against pedals but after messing around with the pedal effects in the AmpliTube software, I’ve grown to like pedals and they can be useful for different sounds in rock n’ roll. I wanna make full band rock n’ roll someday and to have that badass rock n’ roll tone, I’ll need more pedals. When I make full band rock n’ roll, my vision is to write original songs in the style of 60’s & 70’s rock. You know like what Hendrix, Led Zep, Cream, The Doors and Neil Young & Crazy Horse have done. I want that tight rock n’ roll sound with distortion and overdrive effects… and I’ll be doing a lot of improvised soloing and jams too. I kind of wanna bring back the 60’s/70’s rock style.

I’ll get more gear this Spring/Summer. I’m planning to get some work this Spring/Summer and I could get more music gear with a job. Hopefully I can find a job this year if I’m lucky enough. Yes, still struggling to find work but I’m not letting it bring me down. Life being unemployed is actually pretty great and you don’t have to deal with demanding people everyday. I’m just living life, enjoying it by playing my music and working out.

Kev

Just recently, I have finished watching “House of Cards – Season 3” on Netflix which was a great season by the way. “House of Cards” seems to be getting better and better every season. I won’t reveal any spoilers, of course.

I’ve also been re-watching the second season of “Game of Thrones – Season 2”. I’m re-watching the first 3 seasons so I can catch up with Season 4 which I haven’t seen yet. I do have “Game of Thrones – Season 4” on DVD but haven’t seen it yet but will. I don’t have HBO anymore so I’ll just buy the Game of Thrones shows on DVD. Game of Thrones is my favorite show. One of the best shows on TV, in my opinion.

I’ve also been watching the show “Vikings – Season 3” on the History Channel every week ’cause “Vikings” is my favorite show too. I’ve watched the first two seasons of “Vikings” and now watching the third on TV. “Vikings” is an excellent show. Some of you may not know that I’m a huge fan of fantasy storytelling like vikings and medieval type of stuff. I love that stuff.

I’ve also been watching “The Following – Season 3” on FOX every week, the serial killer show w/ Kevin Bacon.

That’s all the shows I’ve been watching so far.

I don’t watch too much cable TV. I’m not a TV junkie like most people are. Once in a while there will be a cool show that I like that will come around. I’m more into movies than TV shows, obviously.

Kev

Well, these new speakers did come with RCA red and white cable so I hooked that up with the speakers and hooked up the speakers into my computer instead of the audio box. With these speakers hooked up into the computer now, I tested them out by listening to a few songs from my Itunes library and these new speakers the PreSonus Eris E4.5 sound really great! You can hear music in a different and new way with these speakers. You can hear every detail in the song and the bass is loud too.

I still need the balanced TRS cables in order to hook these speakers up to my new audiobox which I will soon. For now, I’ll just leave these hooked into the computer.

I’m happy with these speakers, though. They are great for a small room. Hopefully these speakers will last a long time and they won’t break on me. I probably won’t be using these for listening to Itunes or watching youtube with, I’m only going to use these for recording music only probably.

I still gotta get those TRS cables so that I can hook these up into my Focusrite audiobox.

Kev

Well, I finally got those speaker monitors today! These are the PreSonus Eris E4.5. I got these monitors ’cause they got nothing but positive reviews all over.

I can’t turn these on and test them out just yet, though. I need to buy a pair of balanced TRS cables which didn’t include in the box. So I’m gonna have to buy the cables myself separately. Only problem is, there is no Radio Shack anymore. Most of the Radio Shack chain stores has went out of business in America obviously. There’s even no Radio Shack stores in Greenwich and at the mall anymore so I don’t know what to do.

I think next time I go out to the mall, I’ll see what Best Buy have for cables. They gotta have something since they are well known for selling audio stuff. I’ll check out Target too.

The reason these speakers took so long to get here ’cause I tried ordering them at amazon but they were out of stock and they never came so they cancelled the order so I ended up ordering these from Sweetwater music instead.

Once I get those TRS cables, I’ll hook them up and will start making original music again. I want to release my debut album soon to sell on bandcamp or Itunes or both. Before I release the album, I should send it away for copyright and stuff, it’s a good idea.

My first album will probably be acoustic. I’ll make it a mix of acoustic rock to ballads. I’ll include vocal harmonies and guitar solos. I’ll try to make it a guitar album. An album with good guitar playing. I’ll try to make it the best sound quality as well that’s what I got these speaker monitors for.

My new home studio setup is pretty much complete.

Kev

Man, I really like videoblogging for youtube. I think I’m definitely gonna try to do it a lot more this year. Notice how videoblogging is becoming the next big thing? Why? Simply because speaking on video is a great way to speak your mind on things. It’s a great way to rant. Get things off of your system. It’s good for people to hear you speak your mind on things by your speaking voice instead of a typed text on a blog. That’s pretty much why videoblogging is becoming a big deal these days.

That last video I put out, the one about that Top Ten list turned out okay except… I should have moved my face a little more to the left if I’m gonna use “Picture In picture”. My face was behind the “picture and picture” and I should have moved over a little more so you can see my face. I’ll keep that in mind next time.

I was also trying to loop the background music in Pinnacle Studio but couldn’t figure out how to do it. I’ll figure it out though so you can’t tell that the track is being played over and over. The background music was just a quick thing I did with cellos in garageband. Look like I’ll have to loop it in garageband.

Videoblogging is fun but it’s kind of challenging to do. You can tell that I try my best to try to speak every word clearly and perfectly as I can which takes a lot of practice. Took me a lot of takes to get it right.

I’m pretty new at the videoblogging bandwagon but I’ll get the hang of it and get better at it.

Kev

In this day and age, it seems that being yourself is a crime. It seems that you can’t be yourself anymore. If people don’t like who you are, they’ll do their best to try and label you as a dislike-able and horrible person. I’m sure everyone has gone through it, even myself have gone through it everyday.

People would make claims that I’m a likeable guy off the computer but online some find that I am horrible. I never saw how you can separate the two. It doesn’t make a bit of sense to me. I think people only say that just so they won’t make me feel bad. You can’t separate me from the online world from the real world. It doesn’t make a bit of difference. I’m the same guy whether online or off. All of this is me. So when people trash my online web-presence, that means you are trashing me as a person. I have seen people that have bashed me online but when I see them in person, they act like they’re all nice and friendly to me as if they were pretending that they forgot how they treated me online. Keep in mind that I won’t forget. All this online stuff I do is who I am as a person and human being. So if you dislike me online, you’ll probably dislike me in person too. I’m the same guy online and off.

I’ve had way too many people trash my online web presence over the years but that’s okay. I’m used to it so I just ignore it all and let it slide right by. I can’t please everyone, ya know? I’m not here to please every single person on this planet. If you’re trying to be yourself and if other people are complaining and bitching about who you are, they weren’t worth your time anyway.

Just keep being yourself. That’s all that matters and there’s nothing wrong with it. Be who you wanna be and fuck everyone else and their opinions. I’m not gonna allow people to change me ’cause you shouldn’t either.

I just like to speak my mind on the internet and give my honest opinions on stuff ’cause that’s what I do. If other people don’t like it that’s fine. The only things I’m interested in talking  about in life are movies, music, politics and maybe bodybuilding stuff too. I’m not really interested in talking about anything else. I don’t get into gossiping about other people and I never get into this drama stuff that people get into. If people wanna give me bullshit, they’re just gonna get ignored. Simple as that. I’m only interested in talking about good stuff  like movies, music, politics and bodybuilding. I talk a lot about politics ’cause it’s what I’m interested in. I’ve always been a big political guy.

I know my “right-wing” politics isn’t gonna make people happy but oh well, let ’em cry. I prefer to stay on the right ’cause I don’t like the views on the left at all. I’m proud to be conservative. Don’t feel any guilt for it and unapologetic for it.

Just keep being you. If people aren’t getting mad at you, that means they respect the hell out of you ’cause they respect that you are being yourself. The ones who do get mad at you for being you like I said before, they weren’t worthy of your time anyway. There will be people out there who’ll respect you for who you are and believe me, I have plenty that do!

Kev

When learning music theory through instructional guitar books and online, instructors would advise you to learn the CAGED System. They make claims that the Caged System is an important skill to learn as a musician. According to these two guys, they say the Caged System is ridiculous and pointless. They say you don’t need to learn it.

http://tomhess.net/WhyTheCAGEDSystemHurtsYourGuitarPlaying.aspx

http://musictheoryforguitar.com/whythecagedscalesystemsucks.html

If you don’t know what a caged system is, you learn a series of chords in the order of letters that are in the CAGED system. Like the C chord is in the C form, A chord is in the A form, G chord is in the G form, so on and so forth. Instructors claim they are a great way to learn scales and arpeggios.

After reading those two articles above, these guys have a point that the CAGED System does seem pretty pointless. I tried to experiment with the CAGED System and it does seem difficult and confusing.

The only thing the CAGED System would be good for is if you’re a neo-classical shredder and if you’re good at sweep picking, that kind of thing.

Learning arpeggios seems pretty pointless as well. So I’ll probably stay away from learning the CAGED System and arpeggios. They are made for virtuoso shredders, in my opinion.

If you wanna learn music theory, the only things you need to learn are all the notes on the guitar neck from top to bottom, the Circle of Fifths, Key Signatures, scale degrees, learn how chords are formed and learn your intervals. That’s pretty much all you need, in my opinion.

While music theory is fun and easy to learn, I too don’t agree with the CAGED System and arpeggios. I think they are just there for shredders to show off that they can play fast, in my opinion. Those things don’t make you sound musical. You wanna sound musical, scales is all you pretty much need.

Kev

I remember the days when local and unsigned talent used to make demo tapes or demo CD’s. Just make a homemade CD with no cover. Bands and artists used to make demos so they can pass around to their family, friends and fans. They also used demos as a way to get gigs. Remember local music anywhere in the US would get gigs this way? That was back in the days when bands/artists were making demo tapes/CD’s that weren’t in the best sound quality. They used to make demos on 4 track tape recorders or even boomboxes just to get gigs. It’s not like this anymore.

Music have changed over the years indeed.

These days, nobody wants to hear music that’s in bad quality. They don’t want to hear music with background hissing, clipping or unwanted noise. Nowadays, everyone wants to hear good sound quality. If you make a demo that is not in good sound quality, your music doesn’t matter to people and they won’t care about you. They will look at you as some amateur who is not worthy of playing gigs or getting yourself heard.

In the past, I used to record music that is not in the best quality and I used to be okay with that. Now I’m trying all I can to get the best sound quality out of my music with a clean studio sound and I think finally achieved that goal. I can make a professional sounding demo or an album now. I’m good to go.

Those days of local bands/artists making demos that are not in the greatest quality and they just make music for the love of it are dead and gone. These days, everyone have to be a “perfectionist”. Everybody is jumping the “professional” album bandwagon in order to get respected. Every band and artist today unsigned are spending a lot of money in studio time and CD manufacturing/duplication.

Everybody wants to release an album now ’cause I blame that on the industry for the most part and all of this new home recording technology is to take part in the blame as well.

I really miss those days when you can just take a piece of shit Tascam 4 track recorder and just record songs on it. Those days are dead and gone. Everybody expects you to record a studio quality record now. Everybody wants you to join the “album” bandwagon by releasing a real album with a CD cover and all. I’m about to join that bandwagon soon but I won’t be releasing physical CD’s. I think all my upcoming album releases will be online only. I could sell my music on Bandcamp which is probably where I’ll go. I think I’ll avoid selling music on Itunes. I hear it’s pretty hard to get your music on Itunes and it’s easier on Bandcamp. Bandcamp looks like a perfect fit for me. You can still download an album on Bandcamp and get it in your Itunes library.

I still do plan on making my debut album at some point, though. Will re-record some old songs for it and write some new ones as well. I’m dying to make my first studio quality album and almost there. Just gotta get those studio speaker monitors here and then I’ll get right to work.

Kev