The Daily Life of an Aspiring Musician

Weekly Update!

2011-05-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys I hope all is going well for you guys!

Ahh... The Stress of Final Assignments is looming over me, so most likely my next post will be m brand new weekly blog thing on saturday, as this week and last week was absolute hell for me, I will talk about it later!

Thank you for your patience!

Zero :D

P.S. Ill Leave you guys a little treat! :D

"The Machine" Which is 2006's Drum Corp Show of The Cavaliers (From Rosemount Illinois, not Cleveland :P ) which sadly is not the whole show due to it being televised.But Its something! Enjoy!

Drum Corps International

2011-05-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

Ahh.. Drum Corps International. (Abbreviated as DCI) Is what you can say as The Major League of Marching Bands. Ever since I saw this since I was a wee little freshman in high school barely learning how to play saxophone. The first clip is what pretty much inspired me to be someday in one of these corps (These "bands" are not actually called bands they're called corps and they only contain brass instruments and percussion) The corps travel all around the country performing for 25+ thousand (depending on stadium capacity) people almost every day for the summer and ultimately playing for the DCI championship which is held in The Colts Stadium at Indianapolis Indiana, but yes going further to the topic, I want to learn a brass instrument in college (I'll most likely join UTSA's marching band and play horn there) and hopefully next year if I gather up enough money and pocket change I will join one of these corps. In which hopefully I will join my favorite corp and if you guessed it right its the one from the first clip, The Bluecoats. If any of you guys know about DCI, I give you an epic high five.lol. I will be explaining more of this on a later post as I am running out of time and I'ts getting late. Thanks for taking your time for checking this out. I appreciate it.

Zero :)

Some changes

2011-05-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, sorry for the long absence but here i am, as late as ever.

I'm changing the daily blog thing to weekly blogs (In which this case will be looooong as a mile,) but in between the week I will update you on random finds or things I do. I'm going to see how this goes and give this a try.

So therefore as beginning of this week there will be some changes. I appreciate all of you guy's support! Thanks for everything! :D

Zero :D

Rant 4 (5/12/2011)

2011-05-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

They grow inside us, unwanted and intrusive. They take over and put you in a coma of delusional misguidedness, destroying healthy logic and replacing it with desires, needs, and feelings that are purely nonsensical in nature. They rip us to shreds, and yet... they make us human.

It's a love-hate relationship. So many downsides to emotion, we wonder why we don't just cut ourselves off. Or why we evolved into this painful existence in the first place.

But still, they define us. Life would be a black and white moving picture without them. We would wander through our lives, the monotonous trials of everyday processes, without feeling, just going through the motions of true life., never knowing love, sorrow, hate, or joy.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

The world would be much quieter, peaceful for a change. Intense Lust wouldn't whisper in your ear every time that beautiful girl you can never have crosses you in the hall. Fiery Anger wouldn't flare every time that bully opens his fat mouth. Dark Wrath wouldn't hold any more grudges or mess with your head.

It also sounds very...lonely. With no emotion, there is no need for empathy, which is the only thing that connects us as people in a deep manner. No one would care.

I didn't mention Love a minute ago because it's not all bad. Love is absolutely wonderful; a beautiful, light feeling sweeping through your body and connecting you to the object of your sweet affection. But it's also a backstabbing, cunning monster, able to betray you in a heartbeat. Lead you to do stupid things. Cheat on your wife with illusions of loving another. Break up with your girlfriend by momentarily letting its grip on you weaken.

It's a double edged sword, that one.

I guess we would just be robots without this cancer. No fun in that, is there?

Also, there wouldn’t be any danger there either.

My First Song :)

2011-05-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys, Ill make this short because I don;t really have much time. Ive been really busy lately trying to catch up on late assignments from school but here's what I promised. my first song, its a bit minimalistic but I hope you enjoy. Constructive criticizm is highly encouraged :D

Thanks for everything guys :)
Zero :)

Untitled Song by zero skyy

Day 7, 8, 9. Sickness and Music

2011-05-10T00:19:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I am sorry for not posting anything up for the last couple of days, but here we go. haha.

I got stricken with the dreaded swine flu and I have spent the last couple of days in the bed knocked out cold, but somehow I woke up in the middle of the night and I felt great. So I decided to post today.lol.

In case you did not know I play the saxophone, and later in this month I am playing at The Texas State solo and ensemble contest in Austin, Texas. I will be playing my solo which is one of my favorite contemporary songs which is Paul Creston's Sonata. I will be playing only the first movement because sadly, we are only allowed to play one movement (due to time regulations) but here it is

(note 1st movement ends around 4:05)
The contest is on the 30th (i think, not too sure) but I feel excited about it due to the fact that college saxophone music majors usually play this in their final recital in order to graduate from college (I'm not that good though... I'm well above average but not in the epic beast status range.) any-who, that is all I really have today. I will be posting up the very first song I made officially. I'll be blunt and honest. I think it sucks compared to other people's songs, but it's my first song so bear with me. haha. I still need to learn how to use the effects rack and the special fx thing, all I pretty much did is add notes to VST's (which is ''Virtual Studio Technology'' or tracks that make different sounds) but I did not add super echo or anything like that.

Any-who, I'll ask you guys one random question. What's your favorite genre in music? mine is Ambientish Techno (If that exists,lol) and Industrial. Hope you guys had a great day :)

Zero :)

Q and A From Some Fellow Followers (5/8/2011)

2011-05-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone.

I decided to make another blog section to answer the questions you have all asked me. I appreciate all of you so much from reading this and taking your time to read this. Now I am going to answer all the questions you guys give me (I will try my best to answer them as clearly and comprehensive that I can so please bear with me:) ).

First question comes from Rick (You can check out his blog in this link if you'd like. I love his blog http://typicalinsanity.blogspot.com ) and he said in quote.

"How do you like going to school in Texas. I used to consider going there, I think I would like Texas. Hit me back!"

I'm looking forward to college so much due to the fact that my high school is bad; it's horrible. I don't mind the teachers, they are great teachers. We don't have the most advanced technology or books, but our teachers and staff are the best. The reason I hate my high school is the students there. In my senior class (and all the past senior classes also) about 45 percent of every senior class goes to college. Around 70 percent of that 45 percent of that senior class drop out due to impregnation of a girl, or blowing all their college aid money on which usually is a brand new sports car or party supplies ( I live in a poor community, high class in my community gross around 40-50 k a year, my family earns 20k, and yes we can afford internet, barely.). Now the remaining 30 percent of that 45 percent that went to college, only 15 percent of that actually end up with a college degree. (which ends up being around 20 people per senior class actually graduating with a degree) I don't blame the teachers or the school for this, I blame the teenagers of my age. (To go more in depth you should check out my newest rant about teenagers,lol.) Also no on gives a crap about sports or academics, etc etc. Except Marching band in my school.(In which I will talk about that later.) I honestly think it's my community (who is never involved in anything, we can literally get taxed 100 percent and no one would do anything.) For the poor showing of the teenagers and the success of my school. So therefore I think Rick meant about college, but I have not been in college yet so I cannot quite answer that question yet. lol; but I gave my answer about high school here and it's fine except the people here in which hopefully is different in other schools.

Second Question comes from Charles Winthrop ( He has an awesome vodka/gummy bear experiment going on so you should definably try it, I can't since I am still underage,lol. his blog is here and the instructions to the gummi bear project http://justadayintheworld.blogspot.com ) His question is in quote (I'll try not to ramble on this time.)

"You're doing Insanity? I saw an infomercial about it a couple days ago. It seemed... well, insane lol. How is it? I've been thinking of trying it out. Let me know."
Yes I am doing Insanity and it is great! It does not really teach you how to work out, it teaches you the limits and how much will you have; and it develops and grows bigger and better. I just finished my first week of insanity and I'll tell ya that I already see a difference in my body, not a huge one but it is noticeable. My chest is actually starting to form like a buff guy and my arms look stronger, that's the only difference I've noticed so far, but it is definitely worth a try. The hardest task for Insanity is just to stick to working out every day. It can be a hassle but that is the only problem I have came up on. The exercises aren't that bad and they are easy to learn so definitely give it a try. it feels so great finishing a workout from insanity while you go 100 percent. (Be warned, you will not keep up with the people there unless you are a huge fitness freak in the first days.lol)

Last Question and it is short and sweet by Rockinrule (He plays the sax and I play the sax! He is awesome, check out his blog here :) http://gotmeabadphone.blogspot.com ) His question is...

"Where do you want to go, anyways"

That is University of Texas at San Antonio. Not a prestigious school but I love the atmosphere there, better than the middle of nowhere place that I live; but I really chose there because of the atmosphere.

That's it for all. Now I ask you guys something. Short and sweet.

How was your day? Enough of me now I want to hear frome you! :)

Thanks again guys for reading this. Take care.

Zero :)

Oh. By the way I wanted to share this with you guys. If you don't think my school is horrible enough we came out on CNN last year with all the wrong reasons :)
(You can also ask questions about this video also :) !) I'll be glad to answer them.

Thanks again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pta7wsQtMbk

(that's the video link, it did not let me embed it for some reason)

Rant 3 (5/8/2011)

2011-05-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

Today's teenage society are an ignorant, apathetic nation of losers. We have more opportunities than ever before. What has all of the hard learned lessons brought us? We're fatter, lazier, and stupider than ever. We are the Dark Age of America. You ask why. Here it is.

1. We have reality shows so we can experience life without having to put down our Big Macs.

2. Books are made into movies, shortened for our commercial attention spans.

3. Pop stars (no longer can most be rightfully called musicians) rewrite the same crap to a different computer generated beat.

4.In a few years, the teenagers of today, whose heroes are rappers and the mindless elite, will be able to vote.

5. No teenager gives a crap about Iraq, North Korea, or any of those unpronounceable countries somewhere on the other side of the globe. "What's Britney doing today? Or the cast of Jersey Shore? Did you hear about Lindsey Lohan getting out of rehab? Again?" (quote from a typical teenager)

6. "Why should I vote? My neighbor will do it. My one vote won't count. And I may miss (insert popular TV show for this month here)." (quote from another typical teenager)

7. "I don't even have to leave home to buy groceries any longer. Everything can be delivered and paid for with credit. Paper money and credit cards will never lose their value, right?" (eff, this all the quotes are from a typical American teenager)

8. "What's a library?"

9. "Who is Thomas Jefferson?"

10. "My brain is screaming with the influx of ignorance around me. Should I give in and join the drooling throngs of the American culture?"

11. "Do they give lobotomies on request?"

Is there a secret place out there, a paradise, that Thinkers have found? When will I be notified? How do I get there? I need to escape from this society before I rip out my brain (or someone else's). I long for intelligent debates, real conversation, art, literature, everything that redeems humanity, and proves that we're better than dumb animals. Passion, creativity, they give life meaning.

Why do people work as little as they can for as much as they can steal? What has happened to us? You are not entitled because you are you. Stop whimpering about your life if you are not going to change. More, more, more. Greed, greed, greed. Work hard. Do more than expected. Help your fellow man experience life!

There is so much out there! I long to see and do it all. Life can be amazing, but not from a recliner. You can not have a fulfilling life in front of the TV or a cell phone. Turn off the technology that is keeping us apart. Get out there and socialize. Learn about others, care about others, and your life will improve dramatically!

Take an hour a week and turn off the TV! Invite your neighbor for a walk. Take cookies to the old man down the block (cliche', I know), volunteer, help out a classmate. Do something for someone else.

I want to see if my faith in humanity can be restored, someday.

Day 6- WTF Insanity... WTF.

2011-05-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I appreciate you guys reading this once again. Sadly my day was dull and boring to talk about, so I will inform you about my future, if you don't mind. Wait I forgot, Today was my recovery day for Insanity and I had to do a workout and that thing was still intense, I was drop dead on my floor once I was done with the workout. I Laughed quite a bit because of the fact that the recovery workout killed me; but any who. One of my fellow people Rockinrule asked what university I was going to. The answer is The University of Texas at San Antonio. Not a prestigious school but I just love the atmosphere and everything in general there, it's a great place to live and everything. Now I;m gonna go and I'll try to write something better in a couple of hours, It's really late and I have a long day ahead of me. I'll tell you guys about it in the end of the day. Thanks for reading! :)

Zero :)

Days 3,4 and 5 - The Decision I've Been Trying to make up for a year.

2011-05-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

Hello once again everyone, I am sorry for the delay of my daily what's going on with my life. You ask why the delay? Because there was actually nothing interesting to write about, except for today. I gathered all these 3 days altogether and made it into one post.

I finally decided where to go to college. One month before I actually get out of high school (yeah I know it's late) but the college I wanted to go is my dream college, in which since my parents are in a really low income earning family (my parents only rack up 20 thousand a year) I was able to qualify for almost full financial aid, and I got 2 scholarships from them in which one is for students that their parents earn low income, and a top 20 percent scholarship, which combining everything I only end up paying only food, necessities and books. (Which I predicted to be around 3,000 per year). In which is better than staying at my local university that I would have to pay around 4000 a year and their music program is really mediocre. (Ironically the graduate school is slowly turning into a prestigious program) but everyone for music in my local university is going for one man, which is the associate director of bands (second in charge of the music program/ the graduate school professor and the one in charge of the marching band/ pep band). I thought about it for about two days until it got to me. People (friends that went to my school, my band director, and parents) wanted me to go there, but I didn't, in which matters the most. (also the fact that I went to their end of year concert and they played poorly for being a college band) so the cons piled up instantly. Also I finished day 3 of the Insanity workout, and that thing is gruesome, but its well worth it. Every time the workout ends I feel great for doing my best and the results are quickly showing. Now I'm going to leave you guys one of my new influences that I someday want my music to sound, it's a work in progress but it's getting there. I hope you guys enjoy and I'll see you guys next time! :)

Rant 2 (5/4/2011)

2011-05-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Mainstream music is retarded. It's understandable why most of the population loves mainstream music, I mean; we've all enjoyed (and most of us still enjoy some) mainstream music. It's catchy, easy to listen to, and especially easy to forget. So, why is mainstream music so *bad*, mister pretentious music listener?

Because mainstream music is without emotion.

As I've told some of you, music is emotion. It's the emotion the band and or person can manage to shove into the song, and the emotions you pick up.In which this case mainstream music takes the emotion, the ESSENTIAL IN ALL ART, throw it out the window like a used condom, and make music that sounds like it was made on an "assembly line". Mainstream music is not even music. It's a business.

They find some hot plastic surgery infested bitch who can "kinda" sing if the mood's right and you're drunk enough to puke yesterday's lunch out your nose, shove her into a studio, auto tune the living, limping crap out of her voice, slam on some beats they made in fucking "Fruity Loops", and take it straight from the ass of the record label, and shove it in the mouths of YOU, the mainstream listener. If you taste closely, instead of just skimming over it like you do with all music, you can taste the crap. You can taste that something's not right here.

Perfect Example: The Black Eyed Peas. Kesha

What the fuck is that. Seriously. I'm sorry if you like them but what the hell is that. They even admitted when they made the albu, with the boom boom crap that they just did that for the money, they don't even give a shit about their fans, when was the last time they ever even communicated to their fans with Facebook or even twitter? I highly doubt it because they have too much time blowing their money on idiocy and if you actually get a reply from them its most likely a representative hired to reply on their networks! when's the last time they ever even touched an instrument and actually played something on their own! It is not how it works! >:( Even kesha or ketchup whatever her crap name is

the same crap. I doubt that kesha poured her soul on "waking up in the morning feeling like p diddy". Bullcrap, its not even music and you are also teaching children the wrong thing! Now kids these days think they are the coolest kids ever singing to spank that booty hoes and actually doing things in the songs for all the wrong reasons...

Mainstream music is sterile, with the sole only purpose of making money. And when art is made purely for the sake of money, it's not art anymore; it's just this lifeless shell of what it could be. Music "can" be amazing, music "can" revolutionize an entire life within 4 minutes, but you goddamn idiot listeners keep going back to the same shit that sounds good then and there. That's really the only appeal to mainstream music, isn't it? That it's catchy and easy to get into? And, dear god, isn't that just PERFECT for the MTV generation? We can't sit still for 5 minutes, let alone 5 seconds. We need ?music videos" to accompany our songs. We have AUDIOBOOKS. We don't like spending time, apparently.

Is this really what you want to listen to? Do you really want to listen to music so sterile, so mass produced, that it all has the EXACT SAME BUILD?

You can change. You can try music that's original, music that doesn't follow in the same patterns over and over and over, (in which now people judge music now based on mainstream crap which is ridiculous) or you can try music with EMOTION, good sir or madam. All you have to do is listen, for once in your life. /end of rant.

Day 2- The End & New Beginnings

2011-05-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

I am currently writing this while all the fuss about Osama Bin Laden getting killed and etc, etc, etc. I also read something else, due to Osama being dead the oil prices are going down and the stocks are going up? I don't get this, I know his family owns a huge oiling company but I don't see them doing a radical change or anything, and how do stocks go up by the death of a man, this makes me think that everything that involves with stocks and businesses are all a set- up and a scam. Please someone explain this to me with further depth because I do not understand this at all. But any-who, a brother's friend of mine loaned me his DVDs of the workout Insanity. I have always wanted to do this and get back in shape how I used to be. I used to be in the Varsity basketball team at my high school my freshman and sophomore year, but I ended up quitting in the end of my sophomore year due to lack of playing time and ridiculous favoritism by the Varsity coach. I was around 5'11 at the time and weighing in at 160 pounds, and now i'm six foot and weighing 180 pounds and most of it is fat and before it was just muscle almost. Now i'm just a tummy filled man and i want to get back in shape. So that's one of my new beginnings. The other one is after saving up for about 6 months I was able to buy FL Studio for my initiation of my musical career. Now onward to the FL studio tutorials and to Insanity. Day one of Insanity begins tomorrow! :D and as of also tomorrow there is 1 month 3 days left to the graduation of my high school. That's all I have for today and Ill see you guys around :)

zero :)

Rant 1 (5/1/2011)

2011-04-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

What must we do, to open our minds? To learn who we truly are inside, to discover our place in this world? Why is it that while we can accept ourselves, others cannot, refuse, and shun those who we are? Where is the line between truth and lies, reality and fantasy, the world and dreams? Why is it we cannot live in both, to cross those lines and remove the chains that tie us to life? Must our minds be so decisive, concrete, set in stone and time, all while the world changes right down to the last spec of life? Where is the line between fantasy and reality? Its right there and we cross it everyday without even knowing.

We chase and struggle to find happiness, yet happiness is already before us. We reach for the stars when heaven is right in front of us. We struggle to discover, to change, and to learn; yet everything is laid out in before us. We fight and take, when everything we could ever need is already there. We change and adapt in order to become accepted, by our peers, by our elders, by the world; yet we must truly learn to accept ourselves. We cross out our mistakes, edit our typos, and check for errors to make our final drafts perfect; but nothing is ever perfect, that’s what makes it so perfect. We tear ourselves apart; lie awake through the night, to find the logic in the logic-less; yet where is the logic in making sense of the senseless? We procrastinate to answer the riddles of life, yet the only riddle we must solve is our own. We pray and hope for the answers, yet the answers lie within us. We ask ourselves, “What is the meaning of life” and we hear nothing, because we are too busy looking when the answer is already there.

Why do we laugh, when something amuses us? Why do we cry, when something breaks us? Why do we smile, when something brightens us? Why do we frown, when something angers us? Why is it that we humans bottle ourselves up when cannot accept the light and its honesty? Why is it that we humans find safety in such darkness when all it does is give us pain? Why do we experience love when we know it may lead to great loss? Why do we hate when we know it fuels even more hate? Why do we try so hard when we know that it might lead to our downfall? Why? It is because we are free.

Day 1- The Beginning of it all

2011-04-30T23:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

This is the first day that I am starting this, in which hopefully someone will be actually reading this (chuckles). Well I am one month away from graduating high school and yet I have not decided where to go to college. It has gone to 3 choices, Local University, Local University's Rival University which is an hour away that I live from, or my dream university that I got accepted to (which in this case is in state but 8 hours away). I'm currently deciding to go to my dream school because it is a fresh new start and there is much more opportunity after graduation, but if I stay local the costs will be much smaller since I will be able to stay home, but time is only my enemy as i have to decide by the end of the month. I am leaning towards my dream school and only my enemy, which is time will tell. I will be an aspiring music theory major and that's all I have for today, I'll see you next time! :)

Zero :)