I'm Saying Hello Just To Say Goodbye

What a day of mixed emotions. Today was the day I had my last lessons with Mr. Hii and Mr. Justus. I didn't really think about it before today. I knew it was coming but I didn't dwell on it or really look forward to it. Me and Mr. Hii just talked for our hour lesson. He told me what I needed to do to put myself above the rest of the classical guitar world. What pieces I should play. What I should be listening to. I agree with everything he said. While me and Mr. Hii have our differences, I still do listen to everything he says with an open mind. He gave me the music to Barrios's Preludio op. 5, no. 1. I love that piece so much. Barrios's Bach influence really shines through. He also gave me the music to Mertz's Harmonie Du Soir. My good friend Jesse Goodwin plays this song with such great passion. Mr. Hii said that if I could grab his passion and mix it with my technique and cleanliness, I would be untouchable. A good last lesson. But something happened when I walked out the door. Remember that feeling you got when 3 o clock hit and the last day of your 5th grade year? How stoked you were to finally be done with elementary and moving onto the big middle school? EXACT FEELING. I was walking back to my car just smiling and laughing. I nearly bursted with happiness.

After teaching my students, it was time to make my final trip to Carroll High school. The lesson went as usual. Just me and Mr. Justus talking about random things. He told me that he named a diminished scale "The Razzy Scale" so all his kids would want to learn it. We played through one last jazz song and I headed out the door. While he was grabbing all his stuff, I stood in the hallway and just kinda looked around. That hallway was my home during high school. I would skip out on eating lunch and go practice there. I would lie to my teachers to skip class and go practice there. I would practice there before school started. I had 1st period off my senior year and would just practice around there. I had my one specific spot that I would always sit that I looked at for a few seconds. So many friends and girlfriends/girls of interest sat right to the left of me. Just an incredible amount of memories have come from that hallway. Memories I truley never will forget. I thanked him for everything. He's been my teacher for 5 years now. I will always look at him as the guy that changed my life. Had it not been for him, I would never have gotten into classical guitar or pursued music as a career. He will always be my teacher and if there is ever a point to where I have to thank people or credit people to the potential success I may have, he will always be the first one I acknowledge. I can finally say goodbye to Carroll High School.

I played at Starbucks this past friday again. It was nice. Good ol pal Phillip Hand and Ricky showed up to watch as well as a pretty lady named Bianca. I met the manager Monica and she got all my info because she wants to promote me and the open mic night. So I'm officially going to be playing there every friday night. My set went well. Strings were fresh. One of the barista girls asked if I needed some ice to cool off my fingers. Then I actually saw one of the girls at a friends house the next night. That's Corpus Christi.

No Use For A Name-Pacific Standard Time

What is this the 5th time I talk about No Use For A Name? They're not my favorite band, but I for some reason like to talk about them. Anyway, I saw this video posted up on punknews, told myself not to watch it and then it got me thinking of all the albums I refuse to listen to due to the bad memories they carry. Not that I have a meltdown when I hear them, but I just don't like to be reminded of some things. So I've come up with the list in no particular order.

1. No Use For A Name-The Feel Good Record Of The Year
2. Thrice-Water
3. Thrice-Air
4. Thrice-Earth
5. Smoke Or Fire-This Sinking Ship
6. Lagwagon-Let's Talk About Feelings
7. Bad Astronaut-Acrophobe
8. Bad Astronaut-12 Small Steps
9. Bad Astronaut-Houston: We Have A Drinking Problem
10. The Gaslight Anthem-The 59' Sound
11. The Swellers-My Everest
12. Pedro The Lion-Achilles Heel
13. The Draft-In A Million Pieces
14. Much The Same-Survive
15. Audio Karate-Lady Melody
16. No Use For A Name-Hard Rock Bottom
17. Polar Bear Club-Sometimes Things Just Disappear
18. Hit The Switch-Domestic Tranquility and Social Justice

That's about all I can think of for right now. Damn, mentioning some of those makes me really want to listen to them. I used to feel this way about a lot of albums too. But it wasn't until 3 or 4 years later to where I was ok with remeniscing.

I'm in love with life right now. I can't even explain why either. I'm just super happy with everything. I finally got new music for the first time in nearly a year so. I forgot this sweet feeling to have new music. To have a new project. It's exciting and I've already learned the first page to the Barrios prelude. I have to be in San Francisco August 18th. Start a countdown!

So Many Nights, So Many Nights I Wish To Live Like Them

There is so much great punk music out there that I haven't listened to. Like the Descendents for example. One of those legendary punk bands that I just never took the time to thoroughly listen to. I had heard a couple songs and enjoyed them but never took it past that point. My older brother Roy got me "Everything Sucks" by the Descendents back last winter which was pretty much the perfect definition of my life at the time. I really really enjoyed it. So much so that I've recently picked up "I Don't Want To Grow Up" and "Milo Goes To College." I asked which was their best and a bunch of kids on punknews argued between mainly those two. I'm also going to give Alkaline Trio a try. There are some absolute die hard fans of this band out there and I'm interested to see what they are all about. I got "From Here To The Infirmary" by them. I'm also getting lots of Dillinger Four and Dead To Me. ALSO the latest Bomb The Music Industry. I will only listen to 2 of these albums at a time though. I hate overloading yourself with music then eventually picking favorites and neglecting an album when you shouldn't. So two albums every two months? Sounds good. Hit The Switch finally comes out with a new full length in late May. Stoked. I'm set till the move to San Francisco!

Guess what? I'm teaching guitar again. Getting paid $240 a month for doing it! It's pretty sweet. If I get another student it will be $400 a month. One six year old girl and one five year old girl. I feel like little girls are more likely to listen and focus rather than young boys. You have no idea how creepy I feel saying "little girls and young boys." But anyway, I'm stoked to be teaching and stoked to finally get back on my feet financially. Maybe I can start making it rain like I did back in my junior/senior year of high school where I threw down money for everything. Funny thing is my junior year I just never spent a dime of that money on my then girlfriend because I didn't know you were supposed to. That's youth?

That's all. Done with Del Mar performing. I had my last guitar recital on Wednesday night. A fair amount of people showed up. I'm never satisfied with my playing. Never. It's impossible. I played the 996 Gigue surprisingly well though. I play this piece by Giuliani called Grand Overture. I play the song really really well. I've been playing it for quite some time now. It was my closer because the ending cadence is super strong. Well I went back on stage to perform it and realized halfway while walking out, I forgot my grip pad for my thigh. Are you kidding me? I need that thing. My guitar was slipping and sliding all over my thigh so it was super hard to focus on what I was playing. Thus, I screwed up big time in the middle section. But I played it off and finished the last section pretty strong so I guess it was ok. We had a reception afterward and it was fun to see some old friends. Random people were asking for my autograph which I thought was hilarious and flattering at the same time.

Mr. Justus told me that I should take a picture just like jesus on a cross because that's basically what I have become to the Carroll guitar department. So someone should photoshop a picture of my face on that jesus on a cross picture and put a classical guitar on me. Apparently they have this thing in their classes to where they always ask "What would Razzy do?" It's pretty awesome.

I had my lesson with Mr. Hii this passed Tuesday. He told me Mr. Justus said to him "What did you do to Razzy? You turned him into a monster." A guitar playing monster is what he was referring to. Hii then went on to give me a speech to always be humbled and never be cocky. He told me a few months ago before I told him where I was auditioning that I wasn't cocky. Well I had my lesson with Mr. Justus later on and he brought up the story and said that Mr. Hii replied to him "Yeah, he's a bit cocky isn't he?" Such a hypocrite. Way to be a man right? He thinks that I'm cocky just because I'm leaving to a bigger and better school. For the last time, I'm not cocky. I'm confident in my abilities, but I know there are tons better than me and I want to be the worst guitar player when I get up to San Francisco. I don't believe that there is such a thing as peaking at guitar. I know each and every day I can get better and that's what I plan on doing.


Hit The Switch-Imperial Horizon

Do you want to know what summer sounds like? Take a listen to that. I listen to that and think of when times were fantastic. I had just gotten over a girlfriend. Started getting into talks with a future girlfriend. Started consistently partying with my friends. Played lots of poker. Played lots of basketball. 2006 summer was great man. I mentioned that these guys are coming out with a new album a couple paragraphs up. Really stoked about that. It's the definition of melodic punk music. Some people have compared them to Identity Crisis Thrice which I %65 agree with. Great band and I can't wait for it to be my summer of 09 anthem.

This Is A Fable Far Too Real. We Somehow Still Cling To.

I just wish I could have ONE semester at UT Austin. I went up there for the weekend for the 3rd or 4th time this semester and I never have anything less than an amazing time. Fuck, why can't I just go get a delicious Tiger Blood snow cone with Ryan and Michael every day when I feel like it? When I dropped my car off on Dean Keaton, I just looked around and got excited about San Francisco. Austin is no San Francisco but still, being in a big city atmosphere got me thinking. I just wish there was a way I could be like "hey SFCM, I know I got into your school, but I also got into UT Austin and I really just wanna party for one semester with all my friends. Cool? K. See you in spring 10'." Even aside from being able to have weekends like the one I just had, I'd love to just be a part of UT. I'm a huge football and basketball fan and going to the games would be so awesome. But I guess partying with your best friends may not be as important as going to one of the top music schools in the country. Whoever made up logic sucks.

Propagandhi-Potemkin City Limits

Remember that feeling when you heard Big Wig's Reclamation? How disappointed you were that they pretty much failed at their attempt to be aggressive(although "A War Inside" is still a great song)? Well imagine if they had succeeded and you would have Propagandhi's Supporting Caste. I've never been a huge Propagandhi fan. Always enjoyed what I listened to but I never went out and bought all their music. I put the song "Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes" on a mix back in 9th grade and then got around to listening to that album my senior year of high school. I was pretty shocked when I heard this. I knew they were always aggressive and had that real noise-punk sound but damn, the first two songs blew me away. It's heavy stuff. I'm dumb for putting the one poppy song up because people watching the video and reading this will probably be questioning my definition of heavy. So I highly encourage you to visit their myspace.

This Is Me Moving On Without You. This Is The Last Time I'll Be There.

Tonight will make the second night in a row that I sit down in my room on this lap top with a full suit on being super hot (in both ways) because I'm too lazy to take it off. Why you ask? No big reason really. Last night was the annual Del Mar Guitar Ensemble concert. The guitar ensemble plays x amount of pieces and then we are joined by high school within the city then the ensemble plays another x amount of pieces. I've been doing this concert since I was in high school and never has there been so many high school kids. Atleast 50 kids from all the high schools made it out this year which isn't really a good thing. The whole concert went like this: forte forte forte forte forte forte forte. No musicality whatsoever. You would never guess we're music majors. But that isn't our fault. Our instructor just said to hell with dynamics and it resulted in a very boring concert. Playing the high school songs was fun because I just never looked at them until a couple days ago so it was pretty much sight reading. But the part I enjoyed the most was when Mr. Justus took over to conduct the Del Mar and high school ensemble. It feels so right. I'm so used to it. It feels so natural and I guess at home. But that was the last time that sort of thing will happen which is pretty depressing.

In the middle of the concert, my guitar instructor recognized me for getting into San Francisco Conservatory as the top selection. There was a nice applause and when he mentioned the top selection thing I heard a few "aw!" and more applause. That applause of approval is pretty sweet. But what wasn't sweet was the fact that he recognized me when he's given me so much crap about going to that school. Hypocrite? I wish he would have recognized me and then told the entire audience what he thought. Because last I remember, he "tells it like it is, no matter who it affects." After the concert I checked my schedule at HEB. It needs to be said on this blog how much I hate my job. But i'm stoked that I got the weekend off for an Austin visit. I stood in the parking lot for nearly an hour after having a fantastic conversation with a lady.

Why am I in a suit tonight? Well yesterday I was standing outside with friends like I usually do and Dr. Flory called me inside and asked if I could play at the reception for tonights concert so I said sure. It was an interesting concert. It featured the composition teacher from UT Austin and a former student of his, Ryan Gee. I really enjoyed Gee's "Tiger." Very junglish. Then Dr. Flory has a performer play a suite for unaccompanied tuba and yes it was as non-climatic as it sounds. But overall, it was an interesting concert. Me and Shawn played for the reception afterwards. Good food, good people, good time. Shawn brought a couple easy duets which are always fun to sight read. Sight reading is a musicians way of living on edge. This was nice though. It's nice to get asked for things like this. This is the second time I've been asked by a faculty member(other than my guitar teacher) to play for some sort of event.

Me and Josh continued our preparation for our concert by performing at Carroll High School the other day. I love the school to death, but the sound quality for guitar is just terrible. We also played at Kaffie Middle School early this morning which was fun.We Are The Union-We Are The Union - I'm Like John Cusack In The Way That I'm Holding A Boom Box Outside Your Window, Telling You To Fuck Off

I was putting what I thought was my compilation of great songs into my car but it turns out it was We Are The Union's "Who We Are." I usually don't like to listen to this album for certain reasons. It goes along with about 4 or 5 other albums that I'm just not really down to listen to and wont be for a while. I heard the first song and immediatley jerked to press the eject button but then just decided to let it happen. It belongs to the summer of 2008 era. I remember I heard about this band literally 2 days after they had played in Corpus which sucked because I instantly fell in love with them. The reviewer on punknews said it best, "Set Your Goals with horns." Couldn't be further from the truth. High energy. Feel good lyrics. Young. But they don't have 2 munchkins singing and running around on stage like SYG.

I'm so happy I listen to punk music. What would the word "linoleum" mean to me if I didn't? Would I just live May 16th as if it were some other day? Would I find a girl in a green jacket as hott as I do now? Would I still want to say "music" any time someone mentions hot water? Would I drive as fast? Would all my high school memories mean nearly as much with out them being tied to the what seems to be endless amount of great songs? Where else am I going to get that feeling when I hear "And everytime I think about you! I think about how I have nothing!" being yelled?? Like really. There are times to where I feel sorry for the rest of the world that doesn't listen to punk music. That they are all being deprived of the most passionate/real music there is. When I die, along with some of my favorite songs to be played at my funeral(I will sing the requiem?), I would like just a drummer to do a punk beat for about 2 minutes straight because that's basically whats going through my head a majority of the day.

Please Don't Leave Me! Without Saying Goodbye!

I mentioned in the myspace blog that I did an open mic at Starbucks. Well hey! It happened again. This past Friday, me and Josh headed to play at around 9 or so. His family showed up, a few of my friends showed up. Even Sabrina! My ex co-worker/mega great girl showed up. We want to try and make some sort of mini documentary for fun so Josh brought his camcorder to film everything. It went well. The only thing about playing there is that there is hardly time to think about dynamics due to the intense noise of the blenders. All of this is preperation for our concert next Wednesday. We plan on playing at Kaffie Middle School and Carroll High School within this week as well. Afterwards I hung outside of Starbucks with Sabrina and she successfully made my cheeks hurt. God that was gay. Also a real cute employee there introduced herself to me.

For some reason I didn't get the new Propaghandi from my friend so I'm still stuck with Broadway Calls. I looked through my box of CD's and found the legendary Pennybridge Pioneers by Millencolin. Who? Millencolin? Aren't they that band that had that one cigar song on that one Tony Hawk game? Yeah I love them! I got real into that album around my sophomore year of high school. It has some untouchable vocal melodies. I also stumbled upon a mix that I made a long time ago back when I was about 14 or 15. I wrote on top of it "Pop Punk Mix!" And wow was it something to listen to.

1. New Found Glory-Hit Or Miss
2. Yellowcard-Drifting
3. Blink 182-Damnit
4. Allister-Somewhere Down In Fullerton
5. The Getaway-Ex Marks The Spot
6. The Starting Line-Best Of Me
7. No Use For A Name-This Is A Rebel Song
8. The Ataris-San Dimas High School Football Rules
9. Finch-Letters To You
10. The Movielife-Something
11. The Get Up Kids-Impossible Outcomes
12. Story Of The Year-Until The Day I Die
13. Allister-Summertime
14. Allister-Friday Night
15. Brand New-Soco Amaretto Lime
16. New Found Glory-Eyesore
17. New Found Glory-Black and Blue
18. The Starting Line-Leaving
    
19. Midtown-Still Trying
20. Matchbook Romance-Tiger Lily
21. Matchbook Romance-Promise

How much more wuss could I have gotten? Fuck. Some of those were hard to put down. But it really made me happy listening to this CD. I feel like pop punk can actually make someones life happier because there is nothing like listening to catchy/typical hooks on a summer day with friends. But the funny thing is at this time, I was also really into Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, Satanic Surfers and other legit punk bands. I was a troubled kid. I made mixed CD's like this all the time back then. A lot of the times I would make extras and give them to friends/girlfriends/girls of interest and it was sweet because like I mentioned in a previous post, pop punk was still kind of the "in" thing and people were usually pretty accepting. But I'm glad I went through that pop punk stage. Much better than being a 14 year old dipshit who thought he was super punx because he listened to The Misfits and The Casualties.

Millencolin-Fox.

I recently found out from San Francisco Conservatory of Music that I'm the highest paid incoming under-grad. Whats going on with all this? Why did they even accept me in the first place? Especially as the top selection. It's all pretty awesome. I was reading that there are 2 competitions within the school a year, a international competition held once a year, and apparantley the guitar ensemble travels all through out California performing so I get to compete and hopefully see the other major Cali cities. I'm so stoked to be attending a conservatory. I want to be the worst guitar player. I want people to wonder how I got in because I live off competition. I want to be better than everyone else. Not in a personal way. It's just self motivation. Never stop getting better. Never stop making personal goals. Never stop believing in yourself.

I'm just so stoked with life these days. I'm happy.

Lying Is Like Murder, It's Easier Each Time.

In every music department no matter what school you go to, all the orchestra kids are the same, all the band kids are the same, all the choir kids are the same, and all the guitar players are the same. Guitar players are typically very calm and easy going guys who usually don't get involved with the band/choir/orchestra crowd. And most certainly, we never have a problem with other guitar players. So there's never really any "drama." Del Mar College is the exception to the rule. Lots of things went down last week. I'm fed up with the personal attacks from my teacher just because I'm bettering my music career. I'm fed up being used to make him look good with my playing. I'm fed up with the way my teacher has handled situations with other students. I left school on Friday in pure rage after the studio lab. The arrogance. The immaturity. The hypocrisy. It's just unbearable sometimes. I told my teacher that I did not want to play the guitar concert for him, but I would for the rest of the ensemble because I'm 1st part and it's vital that I play. I told him how I felt about everything completely straight up. Something happened today in ensemble that got my heart racing. I wanted to just walk out. I'm glad me and a few people actually have the balls to stand up to him and speak our mind.

But what seems to bother me the most is that there are snitches among the guitar players. Guitar players who will do anything just so the guitar instructor will take it easy on them in ensemble, lessons, lab, juries. It's sickening. Some have snitched when asked which is bullshit because it is not their place to say anything about anyone. But there is one in particular that was actually listening in on conversations or what was said in the middle of ensemble and would report it to the teacher. Are you kidding me? Suck up all you want, your not going to get anywhere. What are you going to get? Respect? Do you think that's what your getting? No, it's not. He's using you. Stop and think about it. Think about your lesson. He goes on a rant about another student or trying to get dirt on another student right? What happened to your lesson? What happened to the money you paid so you could get teaching from this all mighty guitarist? It went out the window because he doesn't care enough about you or your playing to even consider taking you seriously. Next time he does that, try to dig real deep in your stomach for your balls and say "Hey, how bout we learn something about guitar?" Or not. You don't have to. You can keep being a doormat the rest of your life. You can stay stuck at Del Mar. You can continue you to be someones bitch. You can continue you to play ROMANCE WITH TREMELO.

3 rats running around the music building. What sucks is that 2 of them are guys I considered to be somewhat friends. It's just shitty when you think you know someone or when you think you have that guitar player bond and would never expect them to talk shit about you behind your back. They know who they are. I'm making it quite clear to them how I feel. I'd like to thank the other guitar players for this semester. There is a handful or two of them that have really made this semester entertaining and that have had my back.

What are the best songs on CD's? The best ones? Well yeah, obviously but I feel that sometimes the best songs are the ones that you weren't consistently screaming at the top of your lungs in your car/shower/room/party or whatever. The ones that you seemed to just enjoy in passing while waiting for the next song to come. Explanation.

I put in Saves The Day's "Can't Slow Down" today and "Three Miles Down" came up. What a rush that was. It made me think of my 14 year old self thinking the world was coming to an end because a relationship didn't work out. Nothing all that special about the song. Just an acoustic guitar and Chris Connelly's voice going up and down like it always does. But these types of songs always seem to have that one vocal melody or one lyric that just seem to drill in your head and you don't even realize it. Another example is of the video above. "Retiring" by A Wilhelm Scream from their first LP as A Wilhelm Scream, "Mute Print." The CD is just FILLED with legendary AWS songs. You can't take a breathe with out screaming like a girl because your favorite song (which is about 8 or 9 of the 11) is coming up. So take "Retiring" as the perfect example. Right between "The Rip" and "Stab Stab Stab." That's like standing between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. It's obviously a very simple song. No crazy shredding guitars like the rest of the album. No epic vocal harmonies like AWS is known for. Really, just nothing all that outstanding about the song. But every time I hear it I feel that rush of nostalgia of my early 2006 relationship and it's a pretty pleasent feeling. Just a good melody. It's the songs that you don't fully appreciate that always seem to mean the most 2 or 3 years down the road. Same case can be made about albums. Smoke Or Fire's "This Sinking Ship" for example. Much The Same's "Survive." Bad Astronaut's "Houston: We Have A Drinking Problem."


Have I mentioned how much I love Joey Cape on this? It's like my love for his music keeps growing and growing and growing even though I haven't heard anything new for a few months now. I heard a clip of this from an article on the org the other day and couldn't stop singing it. You should always watch these videos. They are fantastic and educational. Enjoy.

Your Still All I See

Let's talk about pop punk. Usually if I feel I'm over-playing a CD in my car, I mix it up with some tunes from the past. I have this massive stack of CD's in my glove compartment for this very purpose. I was going through them and said no to Anti-Flag, Lagwagon, No Use For A Name, Bad Astronaut, Gaslight Anthem, etc etc. 90% of the time I go through these CD's, I pass up on the Rufio/Saves The Day mix. This time it was different!

I will always consider Rufio's Perhaps I Suppose one of the all time great pop punk CD's. The lyrics are SO cheesy in most all of the songs and his voice is so damn high pitched. But every single song except "Face The Truth" is absolutely incredible. My favorites were "Above Me," "Still," "In My Eyes," "Just A Memory," "Dipshit," "Road To Recovery," "Selfishness," and "Save The World." Save The World and Road To Recovery are probably the top among those but In My Eyes will always be a stand out seeing as to how it was the first Rufio song I heard. Listening to pop punk back then was different. It was about 2003/2004 and that was when the whole pop punk deal was still really in. I remember walking down halls and seeing tons of the same Taking Back Sunday and Ataris shirts. I had a Rufio shirt! It was awesome. I think about 3 or 4 different girls wore it at one point. Fuck, the shirt was actually with a girl in another country for two years. It's been around. But pop punk was my deal in those young days. I loved Brand New, Saves The Day, Audio Karate, New Found Glory, Punchline, Rufio, even Yellowcard's "One For The Kid's." But at the same time, I was listening to Bad Religion's "Process Of Belief" and Anti-Flag's "A New Kind Of Army." I still really do enjoy pop punk.

Can we talk about Audio Karate? Talk about underrated. Imagine Rufio's music mixed with Saves The Day's vocal melodies but with a much more raspy and emotional voice. I was really big into electric guitar when I first heard them and I remember thinking they were a gift from the God (that I'm not too sure I believe in) sent to me so I could learn their bad ass songs. "Gypsy Queen" is hands down their best song. But it suffers the same symptoms as the NUFAN and Thrice albums mentioned in past blogs. Speaking of NUFAN...



No Use For A Name-This Is A Rebel Song. God this song is amazing. I miss octave harmonies like that. Not many bands do it anymore. I remember the first time I heard it back in 03' and just being blown away. I didn't get really into listening to it till the summer of 04. What a summer that was. Pop punk galore. Good times all around. I should listen to more pop punk music. I feel like those were some of the happiest days of my life. Being young is just something you only get once. I know I'm still 19 and way young but damn, there was something special about being 14, involved with girls, drinking for the first time, and having your parents drop you off everywhere you went.

I have a confession. I'm a dork. I'm a geek. I'm a nerd. All when it comes to music. I always knew that I had a passion for music, but I didn't know I was a geek about it until recently. A few months ago I met a girl and obviously when that happens you get to know one another. I found myself referring just about EVERYTHING to music. Not intentionally. I wasn't trying to impresss. But it just seemed like everything that I talked about had to do with music. I would point out when I heard descending minor 3rds through out the day which is all the time. I would get super excited if I heard Bach or any other composer on TV. I would bitch about theory homework. I would bitch about pretty much anything that doesn't involve music. I would get excited about ear training homework or about how much I practiced that day. I would just refer EVERYTHING to music and I all of a sudden found out that I'm just a straight up geek. Just listen to 5 minutes of a conversation between me and Josh and you'd notice. Think about it. Past present and future of my life is music. I already have a live journal, myspace and facebook, yet I still didn't feel those were enough to get all my thoughts about music out there! Good thing I'm going to a conservatory with hundreds of kids just like me if not worse right? I'm so excited for that. I'm going to be living here. I've elected not to have a room-mate for my first semester.

One more kick ass note. I talked with my scholarship committee and they let me go below 12 hours for the semester! Which is great because there was no way I was going to pass history. Why? Because I hate history and knowing what happened in US history won't help my music career. I skipped the class so much. There was a 2 week period where I didn't show up. And then English? HA! One of the most bad ass moments in my life was when she told me to write a creative essay as to why I didn't do my homework and I wrote a page as to why English doesn't mean shit to me and that I didn't have time for her bullshit stories. That I've got a great career ahead of me and that her class wouldn't help me in the least bit. I haven't been to that class since late January. So I have no academic classes! And I won't ever need them now that I'm going to a conservatory!

I need more Descendents. More Bomb The Music Industry! I need to get "Above This City" by Smoke Or Fire. And a little more Joey Cape never hurt anyone.

The Ramones Are Dead

I have a split guitar recital with Josh Garza on April 22nd. It should be very entertaining. Josh will be playing Villa Lobos Etudes-#3, #11, Johann Sebastian Bach BWV 1006-Prelude, Astor Piazzolla-Adios Nonino, Tarrega-Recuerdos De La Allhambra, and Rodrigo's-Zapateado. I will be playing Villa Lobos Etudes-#2, #12, Bach-BWV 1001-Presto, BWV 1006-Gavotte En Rondeau, BWV 996-Gigue and Mauro Giuliani's Grand Overture. Lot's of Bach! So it should be a great concert.

Remember in the last entry how I mentioned how great life was when my senior year was ending and I was listening to Bad Astronaut, Lagwagon and Smoke Or Fire? Well in that time, I was playing BWV 1006-Gavotte En Rondeau non stop. I haven't played it since then. But for some reason I told myself to re-learn it. The feeling I get is quite nice. It's not the hardest song in the world to play. In fact, I know about 2 or 3 songs much more technical that I could play for this concert. But I love playing this Gavotte and there is nothing more important than that. The picture to the left is a score for Viola. I'm a little confused as to why it's written in the key of A major when it's clearly in E and it even states that at the top. Probably something about the Viola that I'm unaware of so I'll trust that I'm the ignorant one.


This is a video of it played by what looks like a zombie on the violin. Ever see Shawn of the Dead? He totally looks like one of the zombies.

I've been wanting to get back into song writing for the longest time now. Not to try and make it big as a solo artist, but just to do it. I used to always make up fast punk songs when I was 14-16 and really into electric guitar. But ever since I fully converted to classical, I've really lost my desire for it. Making up songs on the electric is kind of out of the question since I never play it anymore. But recently, I've wanted to write stuff like Joey Cape. Or like Pedro The Lion. But my problem is that I think guitar first. I have so much experience with guitar, so much knowledge about music theory and chord progressions, that it's almost an overwhelming thought to create anything. And I've been taking jazz lessons for 2 years now and so even when I want to do a simple chord progession I throw in the M7's or 9ths or french chords or borrowed chords or a neapolitan chord. And before anyone accuses me, of course I know I still have an incredible amount of theory to learn and understand. I'm in my last level of theory, but I don't know it all by any means.

But obviously, that's not what Joey Cape is doing. He's doing standard I IV V or other common progressions. Usually in the key of D major. One thing that I like that he and many other artists do, is play the IV chord and then make it a iv chord then onto the I for the plagal cadence. Along with the plagal cadence, it creates a nice little chromatic line with La Si So. Tony Sly also does it in "Sleeping Between Trucks." And all their music is based off vocal melody. I don't have a terrible voice, but I'm no singer. So vocal melodies never really seemed like too big of an issue to me. But they are. Guitar isn't the focus. I've yet to go through with this attempt of writing music, but I feel that when I get to San Francisco I will.

The Less We See The Beauty, The More We See This Mess

For the past few years or so, I was using myspace to blog about all my performances, competitions and views on music. But that's done now. Kind of exciting.

It's the beginning of April. Usually at the beginning of months, I stop and think about what I was listening to this time last year. The answer to that? No Use For A Name's "The Feel Good Record of the Year." Notice how I did not mention Anti-Flag's Bright Lights of America because it was just god awful. Anyway, I really enjoyed this album. There were a couple parts here and there that kind of bugged me. Like the actual trumpet being played in the trumpet player. But overall, it was damn solid. The songs I enjoyed most were "The Biggest Lie," "Yours To Destroy," "Sleeping Between Trucks," "Pacific Standard Time," and "Take It Home." Later that month I would go on to buy the second half to the Alchemy Index by Thrice. I'll never forget the feeling I got when I heard "Digging My Own Grave." Absolutely beautiful. Thrice is an incredible band. But I won't get into that since I did a while back on my myspace blog. Only shitty thing about both those albums is that they are tied with nothing but bad memories. Which is an unforgivable sin by whoever commits it. I was going through rough times with a person who couldn't be trusted. I was teaching an 8 year old kid who consistently made me waste my gas to go listen to him tell me that as an 8 year old he was too busy to practice.

I have this problem to where I always think to myself that the music I listen to now isn't as good as last years. But then the next year I think the same thing. I think the only legitimate time that was true was last year when I was looking back on 2007's April line up. I was listening to Lagwagon's "Let's Talk About Feelings," Bad Astronaut's "Acrophobe," and Smoke Or Fire "This Sinking Ship." All the while going through the end of my senior year of high school. And the end of senior year was fantastic! Shows, senior party, prom, graduation, gigs, competition, friends, happiness. Can't beat that.

Lately I've been listening to Broadway Calls. Lots of it. I just got out of a Rehasher, NOFX and Descendents phase. I'm still waiting on my copy of the new Propaghandi. You would think listening to Broadway Calls means your the happiest, most care free guy on the planet. Just about last week I was expressing in my live journal that I've got so much going for me. Great friends, great family, only a couple bills, heading to California to a world reknown music school, I don't have any girls to deal with, but all the while, I still end my days with discontent. Why? I couldn't quite figure it out. Someone suggested that I find god. And in the middle of my response of how I've never had god nor do I feel I need "him", it all just clicked.

In year of the 2008, I had a terrible and un healthy relationship. I got so used to being pissed off, cynical, paranoid, pessimistic, and just plain out MISERABLE, that it just became a normal way of living. Eventually, I didn't even realize that I was feeling like that because I was just so used to it. By no means did I ever consider myself close to being depressed. Just discontent. So once it clicked, I decided to change. To not always be down about something. Or look for the negative in any situation. To not be an unhappy person. To appreciate what I have in life. Because I do have a lot going for me right now. Fuck, I was the #1 selected undergrad to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music! I feel that seasons can determine what kind of music you listen to. I usually try to listen to fun punk in the spring and summer. The weather is beautiful. The grass is green. The sun is warm. So now listening to Broadway Calls is just that much sweeter because for the first time since 2007, I'm a happy person.