I’m not a big fan of Joel Osteen. You’ve probably heard of the guy. This guy is everywhere. When you walk into a bookstore, chances are you’re gonna see a book of his on the shelf. When you’re in facebook, chances are you’re gonna see people re-sharing his posts.

Even though I’m not a big fan of Joel Osteen, this is a great post and one of the best things he have said. I agree with it.

I get people saying negative things about me all of the time. No matter what you do. No matter what you say, people will always have something negative to say about you. Best thing to do is ignore it all. Thank them for it and take it as a compliment. Be flattered for all the hate. I gotta learn to have a thick skin. I have been learning over the years as you can see and getting better at it. I’m always gonna have haters.

Like I said in a post before, when you’re having people talking all kinds of shit about you, there’s gotta be something special about you that they don’t like. They gotta be jealous of something.

Some of you may ask, why do people get so obsessed with talking shit about me??? In my opinion, I think it’s either my popular web presence, my music or my fitness physique. Maybe a combination of all three??? It’s gotta be something. I don’t know what it is but when you get people attacking you it isn’t because you’re a bad person. You probably are a good person… it’s just that you can’t please everyone, ya know???

You gotta ignore this stuff as best as possible. Live life the way you want to, be yourself and keep pissing people off. You don’t have to be how they want you to be.

When people say negative and opinionated things about you, just don’t respond to it and smile anyway.

I’m always gonna get people attacking me in social networking, youtube and in this blog. I just delete the comment and ignore it. Responding to personal attacks and negativity is just giving them more attention they don’t deserve and it’s gonna make them feel victorious. You gotta have a thick skin and be above the hate.

If so many people are talking about you good or bad… like I said, you’re on the right track… that’s right where you wanna be.

Kev

I don’t see myself as an alternative/indie artist but I’ll take it! Better than being looked at as a folk music artist which I am not! HA! I can’t tell what my genre of music is. I just write songs and see what I come up with. I guess, I just let the people decide what genre my songs are.

Maybe there is hope of me getting recognized in this area after all. I just gotta keep writing and writing which I will.

http://blog.timesunion.com/localmusic/?p=12972

Kev

The message that this guy sends in this video is so good that I felt that it was worth passing along. This guy who’s name is Matt has a dating channel that’s called, “33 Secrets” but he just made a new channel that is designed to teach men how to be Alpha Male’s. This guy’s new channel is not just about giving dating advice, it’s about Alpha Male stuff. That’s one thing that I need to get improved on is learn how to be an Alpha Male.

If you’re too lazy to watch this video, this guy explains that in order to be a confident man, you should detach yourself from judgements and opinions about you from other people. Like if people are judging you, slandering you, hating you, bashing you, etc.You don’t ever wanna listen to those people. He also says that when you get a lot of people judging you and saying all kinds of opinionated stuff about you, it’s not making you weaker, it’s actually making you a much stronger person and I agree. If so many people are talking about so much shit about you, that’s gotta say something, right? It probably means that there is something special about you and people are hating it.

I get people judging me and saying all kinds of opinionated bullshit about me all the time and I still get that crap today. It used to bother me about criticism from other people but it don’t really bother me anymore. I just learned to ignore all criticism about me and continued to be myself.

I think jealousy have to be the no. 1 reason is why people talk shit about you. There’s gotta be something that they are jealous about. If they weren’t jealous then they wouldn’t have been talking about you in that way.

I get so many people telling me how much of a loser I am and I get so many people telling me how bad of a guy I am. The last thing you wanna do is listen to them and don’t ever let them control you until you satisfy them. Like I’ve said, I’ve had way too many people over the years who thought it was okay to change me. So because other people are telling you that you are a loser or a bad person, I’m pretty positive they are no different. Nobody’s perfect even though some people think they are.

I’ve seen a facebook meme going around sometimes that says, “Before you judge me, make sure that you’re perfect” and it’s true. I mean think about it, right. People are always saying all kinds of crazy things about you… thinking they know everything about you when in reality they don’t know shit. When they judge you… you should ask, “Okay, name one thing that is perfect about you?”. I bet they won’t be able to come up with anything and they’ll be silent after that. I’ll say it again, that when people are telling you that you are a loser or a bad person, they are no different. Chances are, they are losers themselves and you know, they will never admit it.

No matter what people think of me, I’m not a loser or a bad person. I’m living life and enjoying it. That’s being a winner, in my book. That’s probably why people hate on ya ’cause they don’t like the fact that you’re happy and enjoying yourself. When people talk shit and judge you, chances are… they might have a lot of problems in their personal life.

Simply put don’t listen to other people’s bullshit and drama. Just continue to be you. Live your life the way you want to and fuck everybody else. That’s how you become a confident person. The more you live under this attitude, the more people will respect you for it and you can make new friends this way.

Kev

My goal as a guitarist is to become a master improviser. I wanna be that kind of guitarist where I can play anything that comes up in my head. I wanna be able to jam along with other musicians without sounding out of key and not being told what to play. Just play what you feel and hear.

However, you don’t learn to become a master improviser by reading guitar instructional books or learning from DVD’s, you master the art of improvising by listening.That’s pretty much it, really. There’s no other way around it. When you want to learn improvising you can’t expect it to happen right away when completing an instructional book. The key to mastering improv successfully is ear training and perfect pitch. Memorizing the sound of each note and each key.

Sure, learning music theory helps but all that is it’s just a tool. To get great at improvising… you have listen to as much music as possible. Try to play your favorite songs by ear. Download backing tracks from the internet to jam along to. Jam along to your own guitar playing or practice jamming with other real musicians.

That’s why I downloaded the “Ninebuzz Guitar App” for the Ipad ’cause that’s an app that allows you to play guitar along with different backing tracks. I downloaded that app a couple of months ago and it’s great.

Just this weekend, I downloaded several backing tracks from Itunes. Not full albums of backing tracks, just individual tracks. I wanna practice modal jamming so I downloaded a few backing tracks from Itunes that focused on the modes. Playing along with backing tracks is a great tool to spice up your lead playing. As you can see, I have taken lead guitar very seriously. I wanna take it to the next level and get even better.

From this point on when I learn new cover songs, I’m never looking at guitar tab ever again. Everything is gonna be figured out by ear. You wanna become a master at lead guitar… STOP looking at guitar tab and just play your favorite songs by ear.

There are too many guitarists that ignores the art of improvisation and ear training. When cover bands learn new songs, they rely on guitar tab. No offense but when all you’re gonna do is rely on guitar tab to learn new songs… you’re not a real musician, in my opinion. Figuring songs out by ear is definitely the way to go. Sure, I understand that people get frustrated trying to learn new cover songs so they end up looking at tab to help them but if you don’t give up figuring out the song by ear, YOU’LL GET IT. Yeah, it gets annoying as hell playing the song on your stereo over and over trying to figure out every guitar riff or guitar solo but trust me, you’ll get it if you don’t give up and the hard work will pay off.

My 2cents on how to memorize the sound of the notes and keys in your head singing them in perfect pitch. Even if you can’t sing and don’t have a good singing voice, you must do it anyway if you want to master the art of improvisation.

I’m not a pro at improv yet but I’m definitely getting there. I wanna master improv ’cause I wanna rock out and jam if I ever get my own band going. If I ever get a band going, I wanna do a lot of soloing. I’m just taking my time for now.

When you master the art of improv, that’s when you’ll know that you’re a real musician. That’s what it takes to become a virtuoso.

Maybe soon I’ll videotape me jamming on some lead guitar with backing tracks for youtube. It’ll be fun.

Kev

Today I just started listening to Chris Jericho’s podcast series titled, “Talk Is Jericho”. Just listened to the first two episodes where Jericho was interviewing Stone Cold Steve Austin. It was a very good interview. “Talk Is Jericho” is a good podcast. I think Jericho is doing a great job and think I’m gonna be addicted to his podcast. Why? I’ve always been a huge fan of Chris Jericho. Not only that he’s a talented wrestler and a good performer, he’s also an interesting guy. I like the way he talks and the way he thinks. He’s a good speaker and I like how he speaks his mind. His podcast is more than just wrestling too. He talks about music, movies and things like that. I’m new to his podcast series and will listen to a lot more of it soon.

If I were to start my own podcast series, though… I gotta find a way to record it and think of what it’s gonna be about. I don’t think I would want it to be about politics. I think I’ll keep my podcast series more interesting by talking about music stuff and movies. Do music and movie reviews. Give out opinions and rants. Things like that.

I came up with an idea that I could conduct my own interviews with local musicians but I would need to figure out how to record live phone calls, though. I’m sure there’s a way, I’ll research it.

The podcast thing is becoming a big deal. It’s getting huge. Why? Podcasts is nothing but talk radio, in my opinion, but with a podcast you can listen to it anytime and anywhere rather than listening to talk radio on Sirius or an FM station. There are too many celebrities with their own podcasts like Adam Carolla (which is the biggest podcast ever) which I plan on checking out soon.

Not sure if I’ll start my own podcast or not. I’ll think about it a while and make a decision. I’ll probably go for it. Podcast is a really good way to speak your mind. That’s why a lot of them do it. I got a good enough USB mic for the Ipad so I’m good enough to go. I just gotta learn how to do all this stuff and will.

Kev

For a long time now, I have been trying to learn modes. Learn how to play modes and learn how to apply them with my riffs & rhythm playing. I think I finally getting the technique of learning modes. After all this time, learning modes is not that hard. However, before you think about learning modes, you can’t learn the modes of major scale right away. Learning modes is for intermediate/advanced guitarists. Before you learn the modes, you have to be playing guitar for a while and learn beginner stuff first.

First you must learn the 5 patterns of the major scale up and down the neck. You have to know how the chord progressions go like the 1. Major 2. Minor 3. Minor 4. Major 5. Major 6. Minor 7. Minor flat 5 (which the 7th chord progression and it’s also the Locrian mode which is hardly ever used anyway). Once you get the hang of that stuff, then you’re all set for learning the modes.

Thanks for the “Fretboard Theory” book by Desi Serna which helped me understand the topic of guitar modes. I finally get it now ’cause of him. For years, I’ve been trying to understand modes and how they work and I think I finally got it!!!

Now I can finally start experimenting and practicing modal jams which is what I plan on doing right away today. Today I’ll make a backing track through AmpliTube using modal jams. Maybe I’ll try the lydian and mixolydian jams. I’ll figure something out.

To become a great lead guitarist, you don’t need to be all technical and fancy. Like I said before, all you need to learn is a few basic scales. All you need are the minor/major pentatonic scales, the blues scales and learn the modes — that’s it!!! That’s all you need in order to become a decent lead guitarist.

I’ll have to admit and confess that I wanna become a great lead guitarist. I wanna be that kind of guitarist where other musicians would look after me and be inspired. I wanna become the virtuoso type but it’ll take a long while to get there and I am getting there. It does take years of hard work, practice and patience. Becoming a virtuoso doesn’t happen over night. I’m really am trying to become a more advanced and skilled guitarist. It just takes a lot of time to become great.

This is why I’m starting to get into jazz music. It’s why I started to get into Al Di Meola for guitar inspiration. I’ll get into more jazz guitarists too like George Benson, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, Joe Pass, Django Reinhardt, etc. I’ll get into those guys soon, I just wanna listen to Al Di Meola for a while ’cause that guys music have been addicting to me as of late.

While I’m getting better at lead guitar, I just need to improve the improvisation/ear training part. I also need to improve phrasing and learn to play more melodically. Like I said before, playing fast notes and showing off maybe fun but I wanna focus on melody… make my lead guitar playing sound lyrical… like someone singing a song. If you wanna melt people’s faces with your solos, playing melodically is key. Nobody wants to hear a bunch of fast notes and noodling. They wanna hear music and that’s it.

Kev

I know Apple had their own Podcast section for a long while now, previously they had the podcast section in the Itunes store. With the new IOS 8, they just recently separated the podcast section into it’s own app so it can stay away from the Itunes store.

I just listened to one podcast this morning. It was a podcast about guitar instruction stuff. It was a half hour podcast about a guy teaching you guitar modes and stuff which was pretty interesting.

Now that podcast app wasn’t really designed to make your own. It’s really designed for you to listen to them.

As far as making your own podcasts for Itunes… you can do that too but I’m trying to figure out how to publish your own podcasts on there. The new podcast app is pretty new so I’m sure it will take a while for IOS 8 to figure out how to put your own podcast there. I’m sure there’s a way, I’ll look into it. Maybe I should start my own podcast show, it would be pretty cool. It’ll help get my web presence out there even more.

Kev

I have the Ipad 2. I don’t have an Iphone yet. I would like to get an Iphone but can’t afford one right now. Last night, I downloaded and installed the new IOS 8. It’s a massive update. They added tons of stuff. It took me a long while to get it installed and completed. I like the new updates.

I love how they finally added a “self timer” to the camera… that could be useful. When you take a photo of yourself, you can use the timer and you don’t have to hold the Ipad while taking a selfie.

I also like the new Podcast app they just up. I can start listening to Podcasts now and will. When I checked out the Podcast app, I immediately subscribed to WWE star Chris Jericho’s Podcast show and I subscribed to Glenn Beck’s show.

Could I start my own podcast show? With the new podcast app, it allows you to make your own podcast. I have a professional microphone for that so I’m all set to make my own podcast. What would my podcast show be about? Probably talk about the same stuff that I talk about on my site: movies, music, politics, things going on in the news, etc. I could do acoustic performances on it too. Not sure if I’ll start my own podcast show but it is a nice idea and thinking about it. It’ll be a no holds barred anything goes kind of show. Whatever’s on my mind, it’ll get said, just like I do on my blog.

Anyway, so far so good, no issues on the new IOS 8. Working great so far. However, I’m holding off on the new ICloudDrive. A lot of people have been warning us about the new ICloudDrive so I’m not gonna give that a try just yet. I don’t really need ICloudDrive anyways.

I think IOS 8 is pretty nice. Yeah, there are always gonna be complainers, whiners and haters accusing Apple of a lot of stuff but I have no issues with Apple. Like I said, I used to be against Apple but not anymore. Steve Jobs inspired me to become a proud Apple supporter.

Kev

Without naming names, I have way too many people thinking they can change me until I please them.You know those kind of folks who don’t like you, they will let you know about it? If they don’t like you, they’ll tell you what you can and can’t say. They’ll tell you what to do and all that stuff. They’ll try to control you. Manipulate you. People will complain and whine about how bad of a person you are until you change your personality that pleases them.

My advice is don’t ever change for anyone. I never did. Never will. I will always be the same guy no matter how many dislikes me out there. If you continue to be yourself, ignore everyone’s bullshit and drama… the right people will come around and love you for that. If you don’t change for anybody, people will respect and admire you for that. That’s how you make the right friends.

People like to tell me that I’m a bad person as if everyone in the world will think the same. Not true. I have quite a lot of cool and caring people in my life. I have caring people who don’t take me seriously and personally. Some people make the mistake that a lot of people think I’m a horrible blogger. I’ve been wrongfully accused of being delusional and insane like if I haven’t heard that stuff before.

When it comes to criticism of my online blogging or social networking… it’s only a matter of opinion. I always get mixed responses by people. You either love me or hate me. Not everybody dislikes my blogging and social networking. There are people that enjoy everything I do online and there are some who agree with most of what I say. So just because one person say that I’m horrible, doesn’t mean everyone else will agree.

If other people say that you’re a bad person, the last thing you want to do is listen to them. Ignore their bullshit. Continue to be you.Continue to be yourself and people will love and respect you for that. That’s how you make new friends and fans, just being yourself.

Agree with it or not, I have quite a following of my online web presence. Not everyone dislikes my politics discussions and not everyone dislikes my anti-Obama stuff. I have people telling me that I do a good job on this stuff.

Like I said, the response toward my blogging and social networking is always a mixed bag. I always get a mix of haters and loyal supporters and I’m fine with both.

There’s nothing wrong with being controversial or brutally honest. If that’s how you wanna be, people will respect you for that.

I’m not changing a damn thing for anyone. People find my online blogging or social networking offensive? Good. That’s what I do. That’s what a blogger’s job is supposed to do. If you’re not offended yet, just wait. I’ve noticed over the years of my blogging and social networking that people won’t reply to my posts unless they disagree with something. Nobody wants to get into a back and forth friendly conversation. The only time people reply is if I post something people don’t like. People usually ignore my topics about movies or music but I seem to get people going with my politics and sometimes people reply to my local music discussions if people disagree with it. I don’t like the way this is to be honest with you but it is what it is. This is the internet, people are crazy as hell on here.

If people are trying to tell you how to be what they want you to be, don’t listen to their bullshit. Don’t change for anyone at all. Not even to your closest family and friends. Just continue to live life, be happy and keep on keepin’ on. If you continue to be you, people will want to be your friend for that. More people will find you interesting.

Kev