So I picked up my guitar for the first time in 6 months...

Six months is a long time to not do something that requires practice.

I finally found some time to pull out the ole "gitters" and fool around a bit. I had to muster the energy though, because life as it is demands much of me. My son is 8 months old now and is really starting to explore his world through crawling. He looks like he's ready to start walking despite barely mastering the crawl! The job has its own demands as well, especially that of being awake all night. I felt like I could still rip the frets like I did this time last year, but I knew that the lack of practice was going to take away from the expected outcome.

I broke out the cherry sunburst ESP LTD first, since it was recently maintained and I hadn't played it since that date. My fingers started to hurt really quickly as the gauge of the strings is heavier than I'm used to. I could feel the urgency of my body as I tried to whip out some quick licks. Settling down a bit, I set my metronome to 80 beats per minute and patiently built up my speed and accuracy for that particular block of notes I needed to improve upon. Shortly I was able to play the part at around 115 bpm, but the song plays at about 150 bpm! I decided to give that a little break and move on to something else. Out came the 7-string ESP LTD guitar and while I recently replaced the strings, the fretboard was a bit dry and overall needed some cleaning. This made playing a struggle; sliding up and down the fretboard was akin to a car skidding down the roadway after the driver slammed the brakes. The sound from my very old practice amp also annoyed me to the point that I simply had to stop.

I'm going to go back to basics here and try to tackle some new concepts while my old (bad) habits are still out for retirement. I hope that very soon I can get back to playing the way I feel I should. Hopefully, videos will return to the blog and the original vision of this site will be restored!

Hopefully.

First post of 2012... the short

It's been a long long time since I updated the blog. I've been very consumed with life and all the elements that enrich it. Band's been in a slump, and my (recently deleted) previous blog post doesn't ring true anymore. Rocafuerte's in search of a new bassist and drummer. On the good news end of things I am the proud father of the cutest young boy EVAR (forget what ya heard). I'm rather tired daily as a result of fatherhood, which is one of the best roles I can play in my life. As a result, I'm going to end this update here. I hope to add updates later - and throughout the year - with some audio, video and images relating to the subject (just look up there) of this blog.

Meager updating

Work is hectic. Sleep schedule is screwed up. I managed to fit some cool things into my schedule, though. I did manage to meet Vernon Reid from Living Colour (see last year's Central Park blog post!) at a jazz club last week. We had a chat about several musically related things and I have learned much from the wise guitarist. I hope to present some of these new ideas in future blog posts and videos... I have been seriously negligent on making videos. For now, though, a picture:

I've been listening to a lot of Rhapsody of Fire this month; I caught up on their newer albums because they're finishing up the concept they began with way back in the 90's, 10 albums (!) ago. I can't get enough of their style of writing and Luca Turilli is a monster on guitar. If you like high fantasy and old school battle hymn style speed metal, definitely give it a try.

I bought a Nintendo 3DS on launch day, March 27th. You've got to see it to believe it, but you will probably either come off amazed or unimpressed. The 3D effect is really cool and I hope that the platform matures quickly. I'll probably have more info on that later.

Off I go then, off to work. April shall see an update early! I promise!

Another new year arrives...

2011 is here! Happy new year to you, my reader. I hope that, as everyone usually says, the new year brings new opportunities for greatness and success for you. I also hope that I may achieve some greatness and success myself while achieving some (make that many) goals I have set for myself. Before I look to the future, I would like to share a little bit of the past.

December 19, 2010 marks the release date of Rocafuerte's album, entitled Vuelo Letal. It consists of 8 tracks that the guys and I have worked on since the creation of the band. The album is available in a limited run disc format (only 300 copies right now, selling fast) and in MP3 format. The disc is available by request for only $5 (contact me or visit Rocafuerte's website or Facebook page for details) and at least the following music vendors:

• iTunes
• Amazon MP3
• Zune
• cdbaby

During the same weekend I recorded some guitar for a Michael Jackson tribute track sung by my cousin E.R.I.C. The song sports a pop/R&B flavor and I throw in some bluesy licks and a rocked-out solo to color it further! The video for the song Crazy Love has been released and is available on YouTube. The EP, "GROOVE" will release March 2011.

The future holds quite a few things for me. Rocafuerte is searching for a new drummer as our original drummer had to part ways to pursue his career. I hope to play many shows to raise awareness of our new album. I will also be practicing heavily this year to improve on my technique and learn jazz guitar method. I also have quite a large and much-desired task of learning much of G.F. Handel's Messiah in time for this year's Christmas season. Non-musically, I will be learning UNIX and Linux while refreshing and improving my database administration skills.

Here's to a prosperous 2011 for all!

Awaiting the Rocafuerte album release

It's December, and as promised, the Rocafuerte album, titled "Vuelo Letal" (Lethal Flight) will be released in the coming weeks. The master has been created and sent off for duplication. We're also working on getting the online distribution set up and generating some buzz about the album on Facebook and Twitter. If you're on Facebook, "like" the band Rocafuerte (found at this link) and if you're a Tweeter you can follow RocafuerteMusic. Once everything is finalized and ready for release, I'll drop the album art and ways to purchase or stream the music!

For the time being, you can find the first single off our album entitled "Pensando En Ti" (Thinking of You) on our Facebook page (http://listn.to/RocafuerteMusica takes you directly there) or the band's website. You can stream the song off the web site by clicking "Escucha A Rocafuerte" in the lower left of the main page. Share the song with friends and family!

A sad bit of band related news comes in the form of the departure of our drummer. He's gone off to Maryland to pursue his career in chemical engineering, a field in which he's worked hard to obtain a PhD. We wish him well and much success. We are in the search for a new drummer and hope to make that a quick and easy process. Finding a suitable drummer never is quick or easy, though.

This month is proving to be a very busy one. I have some other things I'd like to share but it's just not the proper time yet. Until next time!

A November Update

October has been a very busy month. Rocafuerte finished mixing the album and moved on to mastering. Currently, the mastering process is just about finished and our release bracket of mid-December 2010 is still in place. I've been doing a lot of overtime at work. Games are movies are piling up at home. I had the sudden urge to finance a PC upgrade because Final Fantasy XIV ran terribly on the configuration. As of now, my PC upgrade is complete and everything runs ultra-smoothly on it. I yelled like a mad man when I saw FFXIV going between 40 and 60 frames per second (smooth-city baby), so you could say I'm pleased. I spent just over $300 on a new motherboard, a memory upgrade and a larger and faster hard drive along with a newer model DVD drive. With any luck, I will recoup those costs by putting all of my old equipment into another case and selling that!

For the past 2 weeks I've been listening to reference versions of the Rocafuerte masters and everything is coming together really well. I can't really say much because I want the experience for all listeners to be fresh, but I will say that it sounds absolutely amazing. We should be starting the replication process just after Thanksgiving.

In other news, I'm working on building a low-power, low-cost computer to practice some database management and improve my knowledge of UNIX (via FreeBSD) so that I can expand my career knowledge and make some crazy money (not by driving a crazy taxi) in the near future.

Ahh this probably sounds boring. I'll have more exciting news once the album is released!

Recent Musical Reflections...

My Zune's Car Pack (the car-lighter adapter plus RF transmitter) died on me a few weeks ago, so I've been restricted to listening to CDs in the car on my commutes. I used this as an opportunity to put some quality time into some new CDs I purchased over the month of August as well as become more familiar with Judas Priest, a band that I truly feel I have a musical connection with. I've been using my Zune Pass song credits to buy Priest albums (thank goodness they're mostly 9-10 songs minus the bonus tracks, which I'm not wholly interested in) and those albums have been subsequently burned to CD-R for my listening pleasure.

In addition to Judas Priest (which really doesn't need any explanation; their music is really good) I have been listening to the new Maiden album, the two recent Disturbed albums (Indestructible and Asylum - released 8/31/10) and Chinese Democracy - you know, that album by Guns n' Roses that is probably still a Best Buy exclusive on disc.

The Rocafuerte Album...

is almost done! The guitars, bass and most of the vocals are done. We need to re-record one song on drums. Next up will be mixing and mastering and I'm hoping that we can release this baby by the end of September.

Our first run will have 8 songs - the songs we have had on tap from the birth of the band. Shortly after we will have a limited run with a bonus track that I will not announce yet! I do promise that it will be chock full of epic, metal goodness.

In other news, I'm currently absolutely obsessed with Dragon Quest 9 for the Nintendo DS. I bought it the week it was released (week of July 11) and have logged 70 + hours in as of today. I'm near the end of the game but there's so much content and so many goals I want to achieve that it will take a crowbar to pry me off this game!

I also bought a couple of new CDs lately. A few weeks ago I bought Nightmare from Avenged Sevenfold, featuring Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater. The songs are very catchy, great to listen to and Mike absolutely kills it on the drums. Today, I bought Iron Maiden's The Final Frontier (Mission Edition). I haven't listened to the whole thing - half the album so far - but it sounds like I will have to get used to it. It's definitely not a commercial effort (nothing immediately catchy so far) but the music so far sounds like it desires attention. I'll try to set some time up to just listen on my earphones to dig the details.

Oh yeah, and I turned 30 last month. Yay for me!

Here's to hoping I can update sooner!

Living Colour @ Central Park SummerStage 6/5/10

It was a bit of a rough day for me but I ventured out to Central Park (first time in a while... I really need to go there more often!) to catch Living Colour play for the SummerStage free show. I was expecting to see hordes of people and not be able to truly experience the flavor that is Vernon Reid and the boys; to my surprise, there were just enough people to be a huge crowd but not so many that I couldn't get close to the stage. I took some pictures and some video of solos and whatnot that I'll post on the blog soon.

Although just being in the environment was amazing, I was absolutely stunned at the quality of Vernon Reid's guitar skills. Guitar Hero 3 fans -- all that crazy mess in the solo of the newly recorded Cult of Personality is but a figment of your imagination until you see him play it in person. That and the other songs that were performed - admittedly, I know nothing of their catalog but am starting to play catch-up as I write this - were really pleasing to the ear. The music was sometimes fast, sometimes groovy, sometimes really low and heavy. The variety really inspired me to continue what I've been doing as of late; some of the new riffs I've been working on have departed from the old derivative metal formula.

UPDATE: Pictures and video are now available!

Living Colour Central Park 6-5-10

A sneak peek of what's in store... Album TWO

We at Rocafuerte haven't even finished our first album but we have little nuggets of joy planned for our second record already! Have a listen at a song that doesn't have a title, nor any lyrics! The FUTURE of Rocafuerte!

Mini Solo Reel @ Rocafuerte rehearsal

Rocafuerte Recording Outtakes, part 1

While recording some solos, I decided to chronicle how "easy" it is to get a perfect (YMMV) track done. First up to the plate is the ending solo to Inyectame which is really a 7-8 second finger tapping run. Being that I finalized the solo say... that morning, I wasn't exactly a pro on doing it when it came time to do the deed. Enjoy the video below, and look forward to the new version of Inyectame (that's for all those Xavier fans who have heard it before) coming soon!

Recording the new Rocafuerte Album, Day 3

It's time to bang out the solos! I must admit it was a bit tougher than I expected (as was everything else, lol) but I managed to knock out a majority of the work. I also spent a good amount of time doing all the guitars for our ballad "Dame Otra Oportunidad." Some of the more involved solos include the ones for Inyectame and Para Todo Hay Remedio. The songs are really gonna come out great, and I can't wait for the album to be released so the music can be shared with everyone! More pictures are below. I also have some video of myself completely fudging up solos, but they will take some time to be edited. I'll post them for your outtake enjoyment when they're done.

Recording the new Rocafuerte Album, Day 2

March 13, 2010 - braving one of the "worst" rainstorms in history, I hit the studio to record more of my guitar parts for the album. More rhythms are laid down; 7 of the 9 songs are pretty much done with rhythm guitars. I am finding it much easier than ever, thanks to our excellent recording engineer, Gerardo. I feel very comfortable and able to truly rock out with very few mistakes. Some of the tougher parts took a bit of time, but thankfully there weren't so many of those. I started out with the harder edge songs since they needed fewer guitars recorded; I ended with Inyectame, which involved a whopping 12 guitar parts! A lot of progress has been made, and I will be returning this coming Saturday to do our ballad, Dame Otra Oportunidad, clean up some of the lesser desired parts and begin THE UNDERTAKING -- solos! Enjoy the pics!

Recording the new Rocafuerte Album, Day 1

February 27, 2010 - Day 1 of tracking guitar for the new Rocafuerte album. During my session I laid down some awesome rhythm tracks for Pensando en Ti, Terminara and our instrumental entitled Para Todo Hay Remedio. Need some help with the spanish titles? Run it through a translator! Anyhow, I worked on some solos as well but wasn't completely satisfied with them. I will certainly be preparing to tear those thangs up for a future session. Please enjoy a few choice pics taken by my fearless band leader, Xavier! More to come later.

Happy New Year!

It's 2010... a new year, of course. I got some new guitar equipment and some recent repairs to make them feel all new as well. I hope to master some new techniques or at least be good enough at them to sound fantastic this year. Finally, Rocafuerte will be giving it all we've got to make it a VERY successful 2010! Look for a debut album and some new material. Everyone, be well and make the most out of the time ahead!

What's new?!

I've been busy with work, being a husband and trying to relax through it all. I have been playing games and have certainly been playing some guitar. As a matter of fact, I picked up (no pun intended) some new guitar pickups for my ESP M-207! The ones I got installed in my 7-string guitar are the John Petrucci series from DiMarzio called the CrunchLab 7 and LiquiFire 7. These produce some really great tones ranging from metal/thrash chunk (on the crunchlab pickup especially) to warm, melodic, sustaining flows. I took a little time to poorly improvise in the studio to show off these pickups, the results of which you can find below. Enjoy!



I have also been trying to learn and perfect the rhythms (so far) of one of my favorite Dream Theater songs - The Dark Eternal Night. Here's a short video of how "well" I can play the introduction. It is actually pretty good, but in a few weeks I should have a much better performance!

Dream Theater pix + 1 video 8/9/09

Went to see Dream Theater at the Beacon Theatre August 9th. They headlined the tour with Zappa Plays Zappa and it was a phenomenal performance. I was absolutely blown away. I wish I could have captured more video, but the security was tight down there. Enjoy!

Dream Theater 08-09-09

Rocafuerte!

Yes, it's been a few months. A quick update of my life since the end of May:

* I got married on 7/18 (yes!)
* I turned 29 years old on 7/20
* Rocafuerte had two shows on the streets of Queens and Brooklyn on 6/21

Speaking of that last bullet point, here's a video from one of the shows. This is one of our harder edge songs, entitled "El Gran Escape." I like the groove of it and it's standard but non-standard structure: it has "no" chorus! Technically it does but there are no vocals, just a guitar melody of sorts.

It also started raining as we did this song, visually telling the story and making it feel even more epic!

A May update! I play guitar! I finish games!

I finally found some time to play guitar at home again. I made some videos, but a lot of them were just of me screwing around with a new solo I'm writing for the Rocafuerte song, "Para Todo Hay Remedio." That would be our instrumental. Below, though, is a song I wrote that was never recorded during the Soulstream era. Actually, I never got around to teaching it to the guys before we disbanded. I really like the hectic pace of the song and will one day want to fully arrange and record this song. The lyrics are based in a fictional word where an "angel" is sent to purify the souls of evil men, mounted on his gigantic, flying, blessed holy gun.



Side note: I finally finished Xenogears, clocking in at 66 hours roughly. I enjoyed the game, but some of the dialogue near the end was just nonsensical filler. Lots of big technical words that could easily confuse someone who isn't quite tech savvy. There are also loads of psychology terms that were easily confusing. I got the gist of the story, which really sums up to what most RPGs lean toward - defending against the world's annihilation.

But I digress.

Here's me fooling around with some improv soloing and mindless strumming!