Suspense.

So I made a goal last Sunday at the 4th pwning life meeting to have all the guitar parts to all my songs recorded by the next meeting. Now I’m laying on bed bursting with energy wishing tomorrow would hurry up and get herd even though I haven’t started on this goal yet! I injured the fingernail on the index finger of my left hand, so I had to wait for it to heal. But it feels better now, and I’m stuck trying to sleep!

Meh, I’m sure I’m not the only one whose experienced this :/.

Also, in a week or so I hope to be leveling up my video making ability considerably. Got a lot of content that o think you’ll all really enjoy . Well, at least I will!

I suppose once I get the vids rolling again I’ll look into making this blog more active as well .

Follow up to my last post!

With a video this time too, check it out .

It’s basically just me asking you people what you want to see from me! Guitar lessons? Bass lessons? ect..

I’ve also got like 4-5 instrumental songs nearly completed.. In addition to just the tracks to buy I’ll also be posting performance videos on youtube of each of them. You’ll be able to listen to em and decide of you wanna keep em .

Anyways that’s all for now, I’m out.

So like a phoenix…

I rise again.

Though I never really burned out in the first place, but I’ve slowed down on my online adventures lately. After my last two videos I realized that I really enjoy making them! Here they are, part 7 and then 11 respectively of the epic 101 part series of 101 uses for a T-shirt! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HVYxBU2bj8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBlp0XzZaOE

Changed my mind!!!

Screw re-learning to read music. I’m just not inspired by it, nearly all the progress I’ve made on bass/guitar has come from practicing technique, learning to play what I want, and developing my original sound.

So, that’s what I’m going to teach about . One thing that stuck with me from the Steve Vai masterclass I attended a few months ago was something he emphasized: Take something you’re good at, then exaggerate it beyond all reason.

Basically, when it comes to developing your own creative “self”, or sound in this case, your best bet to fostering that is to focus on your strengths. It’s okay to be well rounded, but making that your goal results more in imitation rather than originality.

The first step I think is learning how to “just play,” and this applies to any instrument. It’s great to be able to read a piece of music, or to learn a song and play along to it. But so many times people are unable to just pick up their instrument and jam. In my next video(ETA soonish), I’ll show you some things that helped me be able to .

Online vs local tribe building.

I started thinking about what type of tribe I’d want to be a part of locally, and I realized it basically mirror’d a lot of what I’m into online: Video games(mydeadxbox), and winning at life(miltownklan, pwninglife). I don’t think it would be that hard to find people around here who are interested in this stuff, and I figure now that I’m in college, it’s a good time to start working towards it.

I also thought about how these common interests could be used as a business model to make extra $. I’m not sure all that the the organization would involve or what the final result would be, but here are some of the basic ideas:

Some kind of monthly/weekly video game event where people can bring their laptops and have a lan/console party. Now what this would start out as would probably just be some friends coming over and hanging out at my house.. but those friends could all come together and organize a huge lan party where people pay a small fee at the door then have access to super fast internet in some kind of entertainment center we’ve rented out.

Now here is where the online aspect comes in. Imagine a “brand” of association being attached to it(like mydeadxbox or something) that connects with an online community as well that could organize tournaments between different areas. Imagine a Milwaukee vs Birmingham halo Reach tournament .

I’m sure this kind of thing already exists, but I think it would be cool to create our own anyways.

Now the example I used here was that of video/computer games. But it could serve as a model for the structural organization of other services like education.

Food for thought!

Quick update :D.

So hows it going everyone?

I’ve been in my own bubble for awhile now, and I’d like to share why: BOOKS.

Been reading/rereading so many books lately:

Atlas Shrugged
Fountainhead
The Return of the Primitive
What the Dog Saw
Outliers
The Peace War
A Fire Upon the Deep
The Wealth of Nations

Now I -try- to focus on just one at a time…but I always end up reading a bunch all at once lol. Also, I’ve been brainstorming about my “wants” list…many of you made one when we started this owning life blog-army of justice but I didn’t for whatever reason. I’ll start writing it all down later tonight, and perhaps a bit later this week I’ll post a bigger update.

PEACE!!!

My Pwnage Manifesto.

I think I owe my understanding and excitement towards tribes/social media to Miltownkid. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have started making youtube videos, and beyond that I would still be caught in the trap of what other people define as “the real world.”

The TRUTH of the matter is that every institution and “system” that we have, is no more an aspect of the “real world” than anything else that is within the realm of possibility. Ten years ago, did the average person think it was possible to have a device that fits in the palm of your hand, yet does everything from taking high quality pictures/video to calling people and browsing the internet at high speeds(and so much more)? And yet now we have people buying iPhones and Droids and using them as a part of “everyday” life.

Now, what I want to do is a lot simpler than inventing the next smartphone. All my “dream” involves is becoming self-sufficient to the point where I don’t have to worry about my basic needs, and have enough free time to hang out with friends, play video games, talk about philosophy, and create music.

And from talking to various people, I’m finding out that this is “all” that most people want for their lives. The things they want to spend their time on vary, it may be fencing instead of video games, or dancing instead of music..ect.. but the basic idea is the same. They all have a strong sense of inner value, and define their own standards and don’t seek sanction from a society that has nothing to offer them except finding the lukewarm balance of working a job that is something they want to do and is also “practical.” The tragedy is that many will just buy into a hopeless mentality, they think they have to go it alone. They forget that there are thousands(millions?) of people like them who just want to live freely in a life that is beautiful. Where they are free to live life in a conscious, non-contradictory state of being and are free to pursue any passion to their highest potential.

First music lesson!

Well, my first video lesson is uploading! I’m fairly pleased with how it turned out, and I’m pretty excited about doing my next one. I’ll move pretty slowly through everything, keeping each lesson concise enough to where even someone with no past music experience can follow along. This also gives me time to brush up on the more intermediate stuff, so eventually everyone will end up ahead .

Now if there’s a specific topic you want me to cover, I love taking suggestions, so lemme know on here or on the youtubes and I’ll be more than happy to address it(if I can!)

Now for the more general pwning life update:

So it’s really been a week?

I guess I got all caught up in gearing up for college this fall. Unfortunately I’ve completely neglected my office space!!!

To be fair, this mess was a two-man effort between Will and I, but I really gotta do something about it. That’s a lot of desk space that I could be utilizing for productivity!

I’ve begun outlining the music lessons…and I’m thinking I’m going to have the first one out by this weekend! Also, I want to clean this whole room up and just re-organize…do all my laundry, ect…You guys keep me accountable on these aight? DEMAND EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS!!! I wanna start focusing in on specific goals now. Instead of just “practice guitar for 30 minutes”, it’ll be “practice sweep picking(NOOOOO) for 15 minutes, and create a new riff”.

So-

1) Clean office space/room/laundry
2) First music lesson by Saturday
3) Write down specific goals and show checklist next Monday.

Time to hit the hay .

Epic idea(s)!

I’ve decided I am definitely adding “music studies” to my daily routine. I really want to teach what I know, but I need to brush up on the theory side of things . What I’m going for is to post easy to follow music lessons that teach the fundamentals of theory in a way that’s fun and memorable. I’ll basically cover a single topic per video, then after I finish a “series” of topics, post a recap video showing how they relate and build off each other.

My goal is to make this accessible to anyone, but useful and refreshing to those who do have a beginning-intermediate understanding.

The bulk of my knowledge comes from taking AP music theory in high school, and music fundamentals in college(basically a repeat of the high school course). But over the years various teachers/books have helped me apply that knowledge to various instruments.