I’m really glad that I decided to go with Acoustica Mixcraft ’cause it turned out be great. I messed around with it some more earlier this afternoon. Testing it out and recording guitar and vocals to see how it works. The program seems like a piece of cake to use and not too difficult at all.

Most importantly of all, the sound quality of my guitar playing and singing sounds so much better! More clearer. No unwanted background noises like hissing, humming, etc. None of that stuff. It’s a perfectly clean studio sound that I’ve been trying to get after for a long time now and I think I finally got it.

Now I gotta start writing some new songs. Will these new songs be full band music? Probably not for now ’cause I wanna learn how to do all of this MIDI stuff on “Mixcraft”. So for now the new songs will just be for acoustic and my voice.

I will be able to create band backup for my originals finally. If I were to make rock n’ roll songs, I would just use drums and bass. Acoustic songs and slow ballads, I could add piano, orchestration and all that stuff.

I will also make some instrumental backing tracks for guitar jams, that way I can rock out some lead guitar over them and practice my soloing. That’s another thing this is good for.

I will also use Mixcraft so I can create background music for my videoblogs in youtube.

For Mixcraft, I will not only make rock n’ roll and slow ballads. I will make all kinds of music. Maybe I will try to experiment with a little electronic and techno music.

I’m glad I got Mixcraft.

Kev

Time to get my youtube channel going this year. I’m gonna try to make more videos more often. Maybe a video or two a week. It’ll be more than just music. Video blogging stuff too to talk about anything and everything.

Enjoy.

Kev

Now that Obama’s un-patriotic presidency have finally gotten out there, a huge debate sparked online whether Obama loves America or not. Well, I think it’s a pretty good idea that I should join in on this debate by making a youtube video about me describing everything in detail of how Obama hates America. Maybe it’ll help give people an idea of why Rudy Giuliani said what he said. I know Rudy is backing down now which he shouldn’t have… he’s bowing down to Obama supporters like a coward and he was doing so good, I’m so disappointed in him.

My video rant about Obama’s so called patriotism has the potential to go viral. I’m hoping but if not… at least I got the word out. It’s gonna be another video that liberals and Obama supporters aren’t gonna like at all but the truth needs to be said.

It’ll come soon and I’m gonna start writing the script for it today.

Kev

I was at Best Buy yesterday browsing around the store just for fun and to kill some time before the movie. I was looking at the PC software section to see what they have for DAW software for musicians and surprisingly enough, Best Buy DO have “Acoustic Mixcraft 6 & 7” the boxed editions sitting on the shelves. They have both Mixcraft 6 & 7 for $50.

Mixcraft 7 is brand new. Just got released this year so I think I’m definitely gonna get Mixcraft 7 soon and I’ll pick it up next time I go to Best Buy. Probably in a couple of weeks.

Mixcraft looks really good. Mixcraft makes all the other DAW’s out there looks bad. Mixcraft has everything a musician would want. It’s not just a recording program… it also has mixing and mastering which is what I need. It also has video editing so if I get this, I won’t need to get separate video software for the PC.

This software also allows you to make MIDI backing tracks whether you have a MIDI controller or not.

Mixcraft is pretty close to Apple’s Garageband but even better, in my opinion. So in a couple of weeks, next time I hit the mall, I’ll go to Best Buy and pick it up. I’m glad Best Buy has the Mixcraft software and I won’t have to download it from the website.

Mixcraft is getting very popular in the musicians community and I can’t wait to check it out myself.

I still didn’t get my studio speaker monitors yet. Amazon said they won’t be shipping more until Feb. 20 which is this Friday. So I’ll probably get the speakers either this week or next week. Probably next week. I think it’s a good idea to have studio speaker monitors so I can create a good sound with my music, ya know?

My new mini home recording studio is just about complete. I just need those studio monitors.

Kev

This video has gone viral in facebook so I thought it be cool to share here too. A hot blonde wearing nothing but bra and panties dancing in a car.

What do ya think? Do you think I could date beautiful chicks like that? The 9’s and the 10’s??? I think I can get women like that. Watch me!

Kev

A lot of guitarists out there neglect improvisation. In my opinion, I think it’s the most ignored technique as a musician. If you want to become a better musician and if you even wanna play in a band, ya gotta be good at improv and ear training ’cause if you’re not, you’re gonna get lost. I learned that you don’t become a good improviser over night. It could take years and hours of hard work. Becoming a good improviser on guitar requires a couple of things: 1) Good listening skills and 2) Dedication.

To become a good improviser there are tons of perfect pitch trainer courses out there and I work with one called, “Complete Guitar By Ear” by Mark John Sternal. It was a CD instructional course that I picked up from the old Borders store years ago and I still have that CD. Still work with it too.

If you prefer not to work with perfect pitch courses, there are other options. Stop looking at guitar tab when learning songs and figure ’em out by ear. That’s one way of getting good at improv. That’s how a lot of famous guitarists out there became virtuoso’s ’cause all they did was sit in front of the stereo trying to figure out riffs & guitar licks by ear. Not looking at tab or sheet music or nothing like that.

I’m not trying to become the next guitar god or anything. I just wanna improve and get better. Just wanna take my guitar playing to the next level and move forward. Just wanna play and have fun. Learn new things. I got pretty good rhythm guitar chops but wanna improve my lead playing. I really wanna get good at lead guitar ’cause I wanna jam out and have fun when I jam with other musicians someday.

The key to getting good at improv is memorizing in your head of what each notes sound like. There are only 12 notes of music and if you can memorize the sound of each note, then you pretty much mastered music.

I’m trying all I can to improve and get better so I can start jamming in bands and stuff. That’s what I wanna do. I love learning guitar. I just got tired of playing the same old things all of the time and just wanna get better. I still prefer to be self-taught ’cause it’s better that way, in my opinion.

Kev

Is it just me or is facebook video a new way for your videos to go viral and get more attention? It seems so! I’ve noticed youtube have been getting lack of attention lately. Youtube’s popularity is diminishing. I can see why ’cause youtube is getting very strict on rules, the TOS and copyrights… things like that, ya know? People have been uploading videos in facebook more than youtube. Probably because a lot of people in facebook don’t even go to youtube. It’s faster getting videos out there in facebook instead of youtube.

I’m noticing lately that each time I put up a video I did in facebook, they get a lot more views in facebook than youtube.

With this being said, I’m thinking about ditching youtube and just post my videos to facebook instead… not sure.

I’ll have to admit though that I don’t really like youtube anymore ’cause they are strict with the copyrights when you wanna put up cover songs and stuff, that’s why. Facebook has more freedom.

I’ll have to think about this.

Kev

I haven’t purchased albums from Itunes in a while ’cause I was trying to save some cash for all that recording gear. So I figure I would grab some more albums from Itunes…

Here’s what I picked up:

– Al Di Meola “Casino”
– Al Di Meola “Flesh On Flesh”
– Dream Theater “Images and Words”
– Queensrysche “Empire”
– Joan Jett & The Black Hearts “Greatest Hits”

I’ve got the Queensryche album “Empire” ’cause I’ve always loved the song “Silent Lucidity”. I’ve always wanted that album for a long time so since it was $5.99 in Itunes, I thought, “Hell yeah, I’ll get that one”.

I keep getting more Al Di Meola music ’cause his music is addicting to me.

The question you have to ask is do I feel guilty buying a lot of music? OH HELL FREAKIN’ NOOO!!! Listening to music is a huge part of who I am. Music is what I do. It’s my life. Whether playing my own music or listening to others music, I’m happy. I’ve been collecting a lot of music since I was a kid in high school and still do to this day. It’s what I do.

Supporting music is good for ya, support the artists ’cause they need it. To me, it’s important to listen to as much music as possible.

Kev

I just stumbled upon this excellent video about guitar playing. 7 mistakes that guitar players of all levels make and I’m sure we’re all guilty of some of them. I know I am.

I’ve been guilty of noodling the same stuff, not learning to tune the guitar by ear and not setting new goals. Now it makes you wonder why I haven’t been such a great guitar player in the past so now I’ve finally decided to step up and try to get better. Try to play more professionally and I’ve just started to learn all of these mistakes listed in this video.

If I wanna improve my chops and get better, I gotta stop noodling the same stuff and learn stuff I haven’t learned before which I started to do a lot more. I have started to learn to set new goals and like the guy said in the video you can’t just say “I wanna be a better guitar player”, you have to be more specific.

My goal is try to play a little more professionally. Understand timing and rhythm… get good at playing with a metronome or even better a drummer. I have done that over the past few years is learning timing and rhythm and I seemed to have become an expert at that pretty quickly. Timing is everything in music. I’m also trying to learn music theory and trying to get good at ear training/improvisation as well.

I’m also trying to learn how to tune a guitar by ear which is what I’m practicing on as well. Those electric tuner gadgets maybe great but in my opinion, every guitar player should be able to tune a guitar by ear ’cause one of these days there will be a time where you won’t have a tuner around you, ya know? It’s amazing that there are too many guitar players who prefer to tune a guitar with an electronic tuner and not by ear. Many guitar players are too lazy to tune by ear. They’re too afraid to tune by ear.

I’ve been trying to learn new scales, new lessons, strumming and lead techniques. I’m doing all I can to become a better guitar player. I want to become the best I can be. No matter how much I’ve improved, I will always be learning.

I love studying and learning guitar. I prefer to be a self-taught player ’cause I don’t wanna get anybody’s style. When I first started playing guitar, I did take lessons with a few different professional instructors for a little while to get myself started… then I gave up guitar lessons so I can teach myself. The reason is there aren’t too much guitar instructors in my hometown of Greenwich. Pretty much none around here.

Kev