My road to becoming an “actual” musician takes years of hard work and lots of learning but it’ll pay off. I’m still trying to learn. I know a lot of musicians dream is to become a master improviser but you can sit there and read all kinds of instructional stuff all you want to. That won’t help you become a great improviser. To become a great improviser, all it takes is having a good ear. There’s no other way around it, sadly. The trick to becoming a great improviser is memorizing the sound of each note in your head. Memorizing the pitch and the feeling of the note. How do you think all of these great virtuoso’s (like Hendrix, Duane Allman, Clapton, SRV, Satriani, etc.) came out to be??? They became great improvisers ’cause all they did was try to copy licks off of their favorite records. Most of them practiced by playing by ear most of the time.

For my lead guitar playing, I’m not gonna become all technical like Yngwie Malmsteen or Al Di Meola.

All I’m gonna is do learn all the music theory basics and learn all the basic scales.

In other words, all I need are:

– Good music theory knowledge

– Memorizing the notes on the entire guitar fretboard (important!)

– Learn the basic scales: All you need is the minor/major pentatonic scales, the minor blues pentatonic scales, and you need to learn the 7 modes.

– Learn arpeggios

– Having good phrasing (meaning sounding musical, you want your lead playing to sound like it’s singing a song)

That’s pretty much it! You don’t need to learn all the technical stuff and you don’t need to memorize like 20 scales.

I’m just trying my best to become a “real” musician so I can be taken a little more seriously.

Thanks to the Ipad… this tool is helping me with all the music apps that are on there. I have a few apps that teaches you music theory and ear training apps too. I also have a few guitar instructional e-books on the Ipad as well. Today, I just picked up, “Fretboard Theory” by Desi Serna from Ibooks. Just started it today and it’s a cool book so far.

I’m trying my best to become a more advanced musician and that has always been my goal for years.

Whenever I think I’m ready and think I’m good enough, I’ll start playing in bands and start jamming with other musicians. I can right now if I wanted to but I’m taking my slow time and trying not to get too ahead of myself.

A lot of people think they can rush into playing in bands when they are not a good enough guitar player yet. Not with me, though. I just don’t wanna rush it. It is why I don’t have too much band experience ’cause I felt I wasn’t good enough to be playing in one. So I decided to practice, learn more and take the instrument more seriously so I can hopefully rock out in a band.

I’m a good enough rhythm player. I understand timing and rhythm pretty good now. I’m trying to get better at lead guitar. In youtube videos you clearly heard me try to do a few solos… so I’m learning and trying.

A lot of musicians neglect music theory but it’s very important to learn. If you’re gonna play in a band especially on a professional level and not know any music theory, then you’re in trouble. You gotta know your shit, you know what I mean?

For years people have accused me of being a hobbyist/amateur kind of musician. When you get people calling you that, you have to step up and improve. Prove them wrong that you can play professionally and that’s what I’m doing. It’s time to show people that I can be something “musically”. I’ll show ’em.

Kev

Another great meme worth passing along.

The simple point that this is making is that if you’re getting negative people treating you like crap, don’t be afraid to cut them off. Remove them from your life. If you’re getting people always hating on ya and disrespecting ya, you don’t need to deal with them.

I do this all the time and it works. People treat you like garbage, just pretend they’re dead. They’ll leave you alone once they realize you don’t care what they have to say.

You know who your true friends and supporters are when they show you love, respect, support and friendship. They don’t waste a lot of time hating on you. Trust me, I do have plenty of people who really care and stay pretty loyal to me. I’ve got family, fans, supporters and people from Greenwich who are actually pretty caring. Just because one person says you’re a bad person doesn’t necessarily mean everyone else will agree.

If people wanna have negative and hateful opinions about you, just let ’em have at it.

Just keep living life and keep being happy.

Kev

This is so true and this is so me. One thing I never did was go around acting like I’m better than others. I don’t go around acting like I’m smarter than everyone else. I don’t go around acting like I’m a better musician than everyone else. It’s just dumb and a waste of time.

Sure, some people might be successful in life like for example… having a significant other and kids, your own home, a day job, and successes with your talents (like music, art, writing, etc.) but all that stuff doesn’t make you better than everyone else. You should focus on trying to become the better person instead of trying to compete with everyone.

My life isn’t perfect and yours isn’t either. Nobody’s perfect. Perfection is overrated.

Some people wanna see me as the loser type of person but I assure you, I’m not a loser. I got a lot going on, I don’t care what y’all think of me. My life is a good one. I’m all about focusing on being the better person I was in the past and moving forward to better and bigger things. Anybody who calls me a loser and thinks I have no life; chances are, they are losers themselves.

I’m living life. Enjoying it. Being positive and happy.

Kev

Inspiring post written by Carlos Santana, who is one of my favorite guitarists btw.

Hating is pointless and a waste of time. I don’t go around hating on other people because I’m better than that. Well, I may hate on Barack Obama but I have every good reason to. While I don’t agree with hating… it’s fine to hate unless you have a good reason to. If people commit crimes or do something bad… that’s when it’s okay to hate but hating on innocent people is a waste of time and life.

If all you’re gonna do is talk shit about the same person… one day you’re gonna regret it and feel guilty about it and I hope you do. To those who does nothing but talk shit about the same person, you should feel ashamed of yourselves. Seriously.

I’ve been mistakenly accused of being a whiny crybaby but you’re being the same if all you’re gonna do is whine about me. I’ve also been called a hypocrite by a lot of people which is like I haven’t heard that before. I’ve been called a hypocrite by a lot of people for a long time. I just ignore it. Sorry haters but you’re the biggest hypocrite out there. It makes you wonder why I sometimes resort to name calling ’cause that’s all you guys do to me.

It won’t kill you to be positive, happy and joyful. I’m sick of negative and hateful people. Like Carlos said why can’t we get along and what are you afraid of?

If all you’re going to be is a negative person, then chances are, you have a negative life.

Kev

In my personal facebook page, while I do have quite a bit of people in my friendslist, I hardly ever reply to other peoples status’s in my newsfeed. I have to be forced to read so much gossip and drama everyday. You can’t escape from it. Sometimes I just read that stuff for entertainment purposes and just don’t reply. People in facebook are big time gossipers and drama queens. Mostly local people from my hometown of Greenwich (not naming names). They’ll start rumors and start talking about other people.

Like for example, when some of their friends get in trouble with the law in the local news… that story goes viral and gets passed around everywhere with my hometown of Greenwich in facebook. When tragedy happens or one of their friends get arrested, they’ll gossip about it. Those guys can be something else, I tell ya. I try not to get into that gossip and drama stuff. Not my thing. If you get into it, you’ll never win. If you have a different opinion than everyone else, you could upset a lot of people. That’s what my hometown of Greenwich seems to be like. They seem to support and side with their friends, defend them no matter the situation. Even if it’s proven that this person is bad news, they won’t get over it. I don’t get myself into this stuff.

Ya know if people in my hometown get in trouble with the law, that doesn’t mean I have to side with him/her ’cause he/she is friends with everyone else. If they break the law or do something bad, I don’t have to respect them.

I try to keep myself out of all facebook discussion in other people’s newsfeeds. Sometimes I’ll reply to someone’s status if it’s interests me but it usually don’t happen much. I always keep my own focus on my own facebook page. If I were to reply to someone else’s status, I would reply to something positive and fun. I just don’t reply to people’s negativity.

Facebook is crazy, ya know?

On my personal facebook page, I don’t talk about my life. I use my facebook page as a positive and family/friendly thing. I use my facebook page to talk about movies, music, politics, etc. The same topics I post on here. I don’t use my facebook for personal stuff at all.

Sure, my blog maybe controversial and a little dark on a lot of topics but it’s just my way of keeping the controversial stuff off of social networking. I know what I’m doing. I use my blog as a way to discuss whatever I want but in social networking… I try to tone it down.

I try not get myself involved in drama or anyone else’s business. I got better things to do and better things to worry about.

Kev

https://twitter.com/ozlifeadvice/status/497009688995590144

This isn’t a meme but sort of like one. It’s on twitter instead. I felt that this was worth re-sharing. Love it too much and so true!!!

When you want to do things in your life like set different goals and dreams… other people are gonna criticize you. They’ll call you crazy, delusional and all they’ll do is doubt you. I’m sure you go through it all the time. You’re gonna get critics and doubters but best thing to do is be flattered anyway. They’re obviously jealous and envious of you.

Whenever I come up with a goal or a dream… people are gonna doubt me and call me crazy all the time. For example, when I wanted to get myself into bodybuilding and try to get a bodybuilder physique kind of like Sly and other famous bodybuilders. People called me crazy and delusional. I’ve gotten into bodybuilding like 4 or 5 years ago.. it’s been 5 years now I think and I already got myself a decent bodybuilder physique. I’ve already achieved that dream. Still got a lot of work to do on my physique but I like what I see. I got six pack abs, big arms, my legs are getting bigger and my chest is improving finally too. I’m doing good, I think.

When I come up with other goals and dreams like being more successful with women… sure enough… I get attacked and criticized. Probably because they know that I have the balls to publicly express my goal of being successful with women when other guys don’t have the guts to do that. Whether they want to admit it or not… they probably struggle with women too and they attack you out of jealousy. I have been working on the self improvement and trying to become more confident around women.

Whenever I come up with something like go to college, get my license/car, try to get into martial arts (which is something I wanna do someday) and come up with a huge goal… whatever it is… people will doubt you and call you crazy.

Simply because they couldn’t come up with ideas, dreams, and goals like that themselves. I have plenty of dreams and goals I wanna achieve. Some of them just take time and baby steps.

When people criticize you and make claims this stuff will never happen… they gotta be jealous of you. I can’t think of no other reason. Instead of saying positive things and helping you like, “I wish you luck”… instead they have to be an asshole about it by going something like, “BWAHAHAHAHA, never gonna happen, keep dreaming”.

Seriously, though, I can’t tell you how many times I got criticized for me wanting to become more successful with women. I’ve been told that I won’t be able to get women ’cause some think I’m a creep or unattractive… they made claims that women won’t date me ’cause they think I’m a loser. I can go on and on. I am very positive that I have what it takes to get the beautiful and hot women. I have gotten approached by them lots of times before and I’ve had some women who showed indicators of interest (IOI’s). I used to believe that women won’t date me ’cause they would find me unattractive. I don’t think like that anymore… I am starting to believe that the gorgeous women do find me good-looking and sexy. I just gotta prove the doubters wrong somehow and silence all those nay-sayers.

Yeah, we maybe crazy with our dreams and goals but they are supposed to be. We have to be crazy to get what we want.

Kev

Yes, I am an introvert and quite proud of it. I know that introverts are criticized and made fun of by extroverts a lot but it needs to stop. The extroverts seem to enjoy putting the introverts down. The extroverts think the introverts are a bunch of losers. We’re not. Introverts are actually doing a good thing living the way we live. I’ll explain in this post.

Yes, I don’t have many real friends but that’s okay. I’m fine with that. I’m not anti-social but I am very picky and choosy of who I talk to, though. I don’t really talk to people at random. I only talk to people I know well. When I do talk to strangers though, I usually talk to people unless I’m spoken to first. If people talk to me, I’m willing to respond.

I’m not a big fan of large crowds. I’m not a big fan of late night partying. I’m not the one who goes out partying ’til like 4 in the morning all the time. Honestly, I get pretty bored at parties. Partying is not my thing. When I was younger, I used to party but I grew out of it fast.

There’s nothing wrong with being an introvert ’cause why? There’s a pretty good reason why some of us are introverts. The simple answer is because this world is fucking crazy, that’s why. That’s it. People can be douchebags and assholes out there. We can be just as happy living our lives being alone and have no regrets.

The extroverts thinks it’s okay to talk about our personal lives publicly whenever they want to and they like to badly judge us by calling us losers (I’m referring to No. 2 in this meme). They enjoy embarrassing us in public indeed. It is very disrespectful and rude. When they decide to talk about our lives publicly, that invades our privacy (I’m referring to No. 1). A lot of extroverts try to force us into becoming extroverts (I’m referring to No. 12). Extroverts also seem to teach us things and give us advice publicly when they really shouldn’t (I’m referring to No. 9).

This is a great meme and I agree with all of it.

Introverts are not losers. We’re just living our lives the way we want to. Extroverts are not better than us even though they think they are.

However, on a lighter note, I would like to change myself into an extrovert and it’s getting worked on and I’m learning. This is part of why I got into all of this self-improvement stuff like with Neil Strauss. I want to learn to be more extroverted and I think his books will help me a little.

Kev

I understand that the reason people get mad at my blogging is ’cause they’re easily offended. It’s true that I have very little patience for the easily offended. The whole point of my blog is offending people. I do it intentionally. If you’re the easily offended type, then my blog isn’t for you at all. Keep being offended, yo!!! Nothing is stopping me from speaking my mind on ANYTHING I WANT just because a few sensitive idiots get offended. I don’t give a shit. 🙂

Kev

I know I posted these two memes before but they are pretty useful.

You see, I don’t deal with negative people, everyone. I just don’t. I am a pretty positive and very happy person. I love life. I make the best of it and enjoy it. I’m not perfect but I’m a happy guy. When assholes out there try to ruin your happiness and they try to put you down, you need to pretend they’re dead. What do you do when you have someone in your family or someone that you know who does nothing but gives you constant drama? What do you do when someone you know really well who does nothing but talk nasty stuff about you? This person swears  and cusses at you like a storm. Calls you every name in the book. This person slanders you and judges you. Makes up all kinds of lies about you. Says stuff about the way you live your life. Bashes you like crazy. Etc. Etc. Etc…. I can go on.

When you get people treating you like shit… they need to go. It would be nice if negative people would stop what they’re doing and apologize like an adult but you know that’s never gonna happen.

You deserve happiness and joy. When people treat you in a negative direction, get rid of them as soon as possible. Don’t wait. Don’t try to talk things over and discuss things with your enemy ’cause you’re never gonna win anyway. Just stop and walk away. DO IT NOW!!! That’s all you need to do. When people treat you negatively for no reason, chances are… they are having personal problems in their life. It’s not you, it shows how they are.

You don’t have to change a thing for anyone if they don’t like you. Be yourself. Be who you wanna be and that’s the end of it.

Kev

Hate is a strong word. Hate is wrong but ya can’t do anything about it, ya know? People are gonna hate no matter how good of a person you are. There is absolutely no reason at all for other people to go on hating you or me. You don’t have to explain yourself to them and I wished I never did that here. That’s what they want you to do and I gotta stop that. They obviously want more attention off of you and if you respond to them, you’re just giving them more attention they don’t deserve. You’re allowing them to be victorious.

When feuds happen between two people, both sides are always trying to tell their side of the story and no matter what you say and no matter how hard you try to defend yourself — you’ll never win over that other person. The other person you’re fighting with will keep arguing and arguing. The hater will always think he/she is right all of the time. You have nothing to prove to haters.

So best thing to do is just ignore them completely. I gotta try that. Please try that. Ignoring people and pretending they’re dead is pretty easy to do.

Yes, my criticism toward local music and other topics may be controversial but I don’t care. I am honest man and that’s all there is to it. If others find it a problem? Who cares.

I maybe critical a lot but notice how I never go off swearing like a storm, losing my temper or resorting to name calling in my posts. I try my best to keep my rants on my site as positive as possible. Of course, you can’t please everybody, right???

Let the haters talk shit all they want to ’cause all they’re doing is showing their true colors and they’re doing a good job destroying themselves. You just exposed them for who they really are. 🙂

Kev