The blues is the most overlooked and ignored genre of music but it is an important genre. Why? Whether you all listen to the blues or not… the blues has influenced all of us in many ways. The blues is where rock and metal originated from pretty much. That was how Black Sabbath invented the heavy metal genre ’cause Tony Iommi was very blues influenced. Sabbath started off as a blues band originally. All the rock guys we all love started off playing blues that includes Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, etc.

I’ve listened to blues music pretty much my entire life. All my favorite bands that I love: Led Zep, the Allman Bros., Joe Satriani, Neil Young, Eric Clapton… they are all blues influenced musicians.

Of course, I do listen to real blues music like Robert Johnson, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buddy Guy, T Bone Walker, Lightning Hopkins, etc. I’m a huge fan of SRV too.

If you notice with my own songwriting, a lot of my originals are blues influenced.

Blues maybe boring music to listen to but if you give it a chance, you would love it. Many of your favorite bands and artists wouldn’t be around today if weren’t for blues music.

Whenever I play lead guitar, my lead guitar playing always seem to sound so bluesy. Can’t help it. That’s how I seem to always play.

I just think listening to the blues a lot will help you become a better rock guitarist. A lot of musicians today would slam the blues, accusing it of being boring and just guitar players noodling. It’s just a bunch of bullshit. A lot of the blues guys can be very talented and a lot of blues stuff can give you pretty big goosebumps.

Forget listening to fuckin’ John Mayer. John Mayer maybe a talented blues guitarist but that’s all he is, in my opinion. You should listen to real blues artists like the ones I listed above.

If you haven’t heard Robert Johnson, then you really need to get educated with music. Most of the classic rock bands we all know and love was because of Robert Johnson. Eric Clapton picked up the guitar because of him. Led Zeppelin was Robert Johnson inspired too. Same with the Grateful Dead, Cream, etc.

I think every music lover needs to listen to the blues. I think I would wanna play more blues music on the guitar myself more. Blues will help you become a better musician and songwriter. It shouldn’t be ignored. Listening to Robert Johnson is recommended. Once you do, you would see why so many famous rock legends look after him.

Kev

Another one worth re-sharing.

The tough thing about being a blogger and all that stuff is that you will have to deal with all kinds of drama, spiteful criticisms and misguided opinions about you. I’ve dealt with all kinds of shit from people over the years. I’ve dealt with all kinds of crazy shit from musicians and non-musicians. I’ve wished I’ve known about this advice years ago. I’m usually blamed for “starting stuff” but it’s not true. It’s just that people can be crazy lunatics in this world. Period. End of story.

This should be helpful to others so definitely worth re-sharing.

Kev

I know I’ve been posting quite a bit today ’cause I had a lot to say but I think this will be my final post for the night.

Earlier this afternoon I decided to finally re-string my hollow-body electric guitar and then re-tuned it. Plugged my electric into my amp and I’ve been noodling around. Just playing electric riffs and some leads.

Ya know, I think I am capable of playing good guitar solos that will be pretty face-melting. I know the scales, the techniques and all that stuff but the only things I need to practice and work on are the phrasing and ear training. In lead guitar, you don’t even need to be all technical about it. You don’t need to learn over 20 scales. All you need is just a few scales… the basic ones like the Minor/Major Pentatonic, The Blues Minor/Major Pentatonic, the Major Scale, and the Modes. I already know most of that stuff but I still have a lot of learning to do on the Modes which is getting worked on.

One thing I’m admittedly not very good at yet is the improvisation and ear training but I’m working on that too and practicing really hard. Once I improve my music theory knowledge and improvisation skills… pretty soon… you’ll hear me do some face-melting guitar playing that other musicians (and hopefully non-musicians) will enjoy.

I believe I’m pretty good at rhythm guitar and riffs but lead guitar I wanna get improved on and that’s what I’m most focused on. I love guitar solos and long jams. That’s the kind of stuff I prefer to listen to and that’s the kind of stuff you’ll hear if I ever get my own band going. I love listening to music where the band plays a song and it extends into a long jam. That probably explains my obsession with music artists such as Led Zep, Hendrix, Neil Young, The Allman Brothers, and Joe Satriani.

I like to write long songs between 7 – 10 minutes sometimes ’cause I can’t help it. I get that by listening to those artists above. I try to write short songs but I can’t help writing the long ones. That’s how I always play. It’s amazing what music does to ya. If you’re the type of musician who plans ahead of how long a song should be… then you’re doing it wrong. You should never really be able to tell how long a song is. A song stops when it wants to and that’s the end of it, ya know what I mean?

Kev

Another good facebook meme worth posting. Like I said before, I seem to attract a lot of negative people and haters. Avoiding them is the best way to go. Why is it that you attract a lot of negative people and haters? Probably because they know you’re a talented person, smart, and a good person. They just want to see you fail at life. I think that’s pretty much it. Whatever you do in life, and if you’re a successful person… if you got all kinds of negative people coming after you… they are probably jealous. I’m sure you’re good at something whether you play music, an artist, carpenter, writer or whatever hobby you have… people are gonna attack you out of jealousy ’cause of your talent. The same thing with successful people in life. If you have a good family and good job and all that stuff… people will still attack you out of jealousy. People will be jealous of you of being happy and staying strong. Don’t let that stuff get to you.

Ignore negative people. When people treat you like garbage for no reason, pretend they’re dead. Act like they don’t exist to you. It works for me all the time. I used to defend myself from negative people but it’s pointless ’cause you’ll never win. If you have heated conflicts and drama with your friends and even your own family members… lose contact with them immediately. Get negative people out of your life.

In facebook, you see so many people complaining and ranting about negative people in their lives and that isn’t gonna make things better for you if you keep defending yourself from negative people.

Avoid the negative people and surround yourself with the good ones. That’s what I do. Surround yourself with people who do care about you and have your back and loyal support, 100%.

When I talk about this stuff, I don’t just do it for myself… I do it to try and help others… thanks to the Ultimate Warrior for this inspiration.

You don’t need to get yourself involved in drama of any kind. Like Warrior says life matters. Make the best of it in life.

Only support the people who love and respect you in return. Believe me, I’ve got plenty of kind people who have had my back throughout the years. Don’t focus on the negatives and enjoy life.

Kev