Letters To Our Younger Selves? Inspiration For The Kittens

Ed Seith said:

Well, then, the idea here is to try and learn from the regrets of us old fucks and not make the same mistakes.

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Lot if truth right there brother

To my younger self.







As you get older you will learn that you mom is much older than your dad..its not a big deal but it will cause family problems later,your grandmother dont approve of the marriage and will always treat you like the blacksheep"as a matter of fact your whole family does"dont dismiss those feelings let them out.



Your parents are old school so they will be hard on you..they dont say i love you alot...it will make you a better husband and father but not without lots of work.



You use drugs and alcohol to cope with your first wife...the night you realise you have a gun in your mouth is a turning point for you.



Your second marriage is better with two great kids which is how you get into the metal scene and finally feel like you belong...you will be a lot nicer to peoole and treasure the friends that you make.



You wont have time to practice like you want to but the syn gates forums will be your escape....i love you all



John

To my younger self.







As you get older you will learn that you mom is much older than your dad..its not a big deal but it will cause family problems later,your grandmother dont approve of the marriage and will always treat you like the blacksheep"as a matter of fact your whole family does"dont dismiss those feelings let them out.



Your parents are old school so they will be hard on you..they dont say i love you alot...it will make you a better husband and father but not without lots of work.



You use drugs and alcohol to cope with your first wife...the night you realise you have a gun in your mouth is a turning point for you.



Your second marriage is better with two great kids which is how you get into the metal scene and finally feel like you belong...you will be a lot nicer to peoole and treasure the friends that you make.



You wont have time to practice like you want to but the syn gates forums will be your escape....i love you all



John

Jak Angelescu said:

For the record, I'm glad you didn't pull the trigger. My life wouldn't be as happy if you did, and you deserve to live

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Awww thank you,Im glad too..i wouldnt have met you or holly or anybody in this forum and that would have been a tragedy

Yo I know I'm 16 and I started 5 years ago and that's not really interesting but there's a few things I wanna tell to 11 years old me.

Hi, you're 11 years old now and your parents finally agreed to let you go to a music school. You're really lucky. If it was today you wouldn't be that lucky. Your days in that school will be the best days of your life. Your mates will become your best friends ever. You'll find friends for life there. You will be one of those kids that have just one lesson per week, but you will go to the studio everyday. The best moments in your life will be when you open the school's studio's door and you look around you and you see so many instruments or when you find your best friends there. You'll love those days Live every day as if it was the last because there will actually be a last day. Yeah, I know that makes you feel very sad. But don't worry, you will live 3 amazing years, almost 4.

Buy a metronome. Start practicing exercises with it. Right now it sounds stupid to you, you're like, who the hell needs that?. But believe me, it will make a difference. Please do it. If you don't, when you're 16 you'll regret that.

Try to learn harder songs. Your teacher will give you easy songs to play, and you'll learn them in 20 minutes. Because of that, you'll think that you are really good. So try to learn harder songs. That is probably the only bad part about your teacher is that he gives you too easy songs. Try to play harder songs.

As you have your lessons you'll learn fast and you'll join in the school's official band. That will be an amazing experience for you. Your mates are your best friends and you'll play in cool places in the city. But just because of that, it doesn't mean that you're the best ever. Remember that there's other people in the school trying to learn guitar too. Try to help them as many times as you can. Once again, being in that band doesn't mean you're the best. Try to help others and stop being kinda stupid.

One day the school will close, your teacher will move to Canada and some of your mates will move too. You'll be kinda lonely and you'll think what the hell am I going to do now? I don't have gigs now.
Don't give up.


Lastly, be more confident with the world outside of the music school. Don't be always trying to look cool to other people. Look cool to yourself.
Be happy. You're too happy that sometimes it annoys people, so because of that, be even happier. You're a great kid. You have an amazing passion for music. You'll spend entire days playing guitar. You'll spend entire nights playing guitar. Sometimes will be raining a lot and there you go with your guitar walking like 4km to have you guitar class or to jam with your friends. Your other friends will invite you to party's and to go out and you'll say no because you have to do something but what you'll really do is play guitar. You'll do crazy things for music, you'll look too crazy, but don't worry, you're doing it right.

The top advice I would give to young me:
#1 health, posture, and strength are about a hundred times more important than you imagine it is
#2 be less of a nice guy and be more willing to be amoral or even actual evil
#3 value good friendships above nearly everything else in life. Fortunately I never made any mistakes with this one, and I have no relevant regrets in life, but holy fucc is this a big one. I got super lucky with the friends I've had.

I have nothing guitar wise, but at least some life stuff hopefully.

Hey me from 10 years ago, you fucker. I want you to stop making excuses. Yes school sucks, yeah the people suck. But instead of crawling in your hole thinking you're better than everybody, start sticking to your guns. Stop playing video games. Draw. Every day. Study anatomy. Study anything instead of drawing the same face over and over again. If you don't give up maybe you can actually make a living off of it. Instagram blows up. Learn social media. I wouldn't know because I gave up. Pick up the guitar like you always wanted to. Stop making excuses that you'll "never be good enough to play an instrument" or "you weren't born with rhythm". Everything in life is about trying something and putting in the effort. Be better. Don't wait until you're 24 or 25 to get out of your comfort zone. It's so much harder and more nerve wracking being in your mid twenties not knowing something than in your teens. Take classes that interest you, put the effort into them, and get a good grade. You're smart. Stop beating yourself up over your low grades in physics and math when you don't even like those subjects. You're really good at writing, and working with your hands. Just do something for fuck sakes and stop waiting for it to come to you. The women that come along won't fix that pain of mom leaving, only yourself will. And treat Dad better.

Oh and take your rest days from the track and gym more seriously, my knees hurt and injections aren't fun.

To the me of 6 months ago. Stick to the lessons and record yourself more. Good job on getting a metronome though.

To the me of 2 weeks ago. Unpack the new webcam and mic and get recording already instead of waiting until tonight. Fuck man. Oh and get rid of the fucking crappy amp and get a new one.

Hello, younger self.

This is you in the year 2020, wondering if Emma from Friends is still enjoying her nap. This is a message that should help you understand how things pan out.

Remember the fun and awesome feeling you have while writing songs, by yourself or with your friends? Or remember the time when you fiddled around with old phones that allowed you to create your own ring tones? And do you remember how much you enjoyed those things, even though you didn't know why? Yeah, that feeling is still going to be with you through the years. You will not outgrow it.

You will try to suppress it, but you will fail. Which is good, because you will finally be able to accept yourself as what you really are. Go about your ideals to work as a programmer, but for the love of deities, do not force yourself to believe you are a programmer. You are not. You will hate yourself, you won't know why, but you will. You can do a mean programmer's job, but at your very core, you are not one. Accept it, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this.

You know how you like that Blinded in Chains song from Need For Speed: Most Wanted? Research that band, now. Stop trying to be popular, you hate that and it makes you feel awkward. You will meet your future wife in junior year in high school and you will know it's right. However, break off the friendship with that one previous girlfriend that you do nothing but fight with. She makes your current girlfriends' life a misery. And yours as well.

Do you know how your future wife recommends you listen to that Avenged Sevenfold band? For the love of deities, do it now, there is so much guitar stuff you can learn from that Haner guy that is their guitarist. You have so much time now, you're a junior in high school.

At some point, Rise Against will release an album called Endgame. There is a song called This Is Letting Go which you will immediately love. You won't know why until 5 years later though. Do you know that Dan guy you will meet during your first internship? You will have a very easy time listening to what he says. About work, about how life isn't about programming and while it's something you can do for a while, you should never forget what drives you. The drive to write music is still there. You think it will disappear. It won't. Also, start learning how to sing. Now. Trust me, your voice is not bad and it will get better with the proper techniques.

You will start your first programming job in 2013 and you will think you will love climbing the corporate ladder. Your subconscious will know 3 months in that you don't. Don't ignore it and don't quit just yet.

In 2016, you will literally become a song. You will be so down at work one day that, when you listen to This Is Letting Go, you will realize that quitting your current job is not giving up. It's letting go of something that is destroying you. And that will be one of the biggest turning points which will guide you and allow you to slowly but surely start accepting yourself, good and bad. In 2017 you will feel down again though because something still doesn't feel right about your identity problems.

Luckily, you encounter a video from a channel called A7XEntertainment which advertises something about an online guitar school. You join it and suddenly, shit starts to make sense. It's like the place you needed to find, you just didn't know it yet. You will start writing stuff for them, and foolishly quit because you still think you're a programmer. However, you never forget that this is the only place where someone called you a genius for something that you know and you've studied. Someone appreciates you for you, not for some fake persona you have to put out in order to not get frowned upon in an office full of people you can't help but notice become increasingly more fake, lonely and depressed (they just don't know it).

You will end up quitting that job and taking a few months off to understand yourself. You will reach a boiling point that wrecks your physical health and you will finally, FINALLY understand who you are and what you want to do.

And we arrive in the present day. You have to work a programming job because it pays the bills. However, you understand that, while you are spending most of your time in the office, this is not what defines you. What defines you lies in what you do afterward. You finally understand that you can work a programming job without having to identify as a programmer. And this will lift all the unnecessary weight off of your shoulders. It's gonna suck for a while since you want to get on your feet and figure out how to make a living off of music. But you got this. You got your wife's support and your little one's support. You got this community that appreciates you (just as much as they love Nickelback). It's scary and you don't know shit yet. But you will, in the end.

Honestly guys I see you all posting these inspirational letters and I could really use one of those from my older self right now.

(Edward making a 'Back joke in 3, 2, 1...)

Dear Younger me,

You probably just broke a lamp but I have some advice to you. Let's start with the serious stuff. Try to focus a little bit more on your school and social life, it isn't all about playing guitar. If you spend a bit more time on studying during the exam period, outside the exam period not so much, you can get higher grades and this will make your study life a lot easier later on when you go to university. Another thing I noticed looking back is that you spend a lot of time alone in your room playing guitar. I know that that's because it's all you really want to do but it's important to share some things with friends. Also, when you like a girl please don't be shy and just ask her out, trust me if you don't you will regret it for a long time. Generally, being shy is not necessary at all, everyone has some awesome personality traits so come out of your shell a little bit more.

Now onto your guitar stuff. Please stop focussing so much on speed, before you do the whole speed stuff try to work on your vibrato, bends and some theory stuff. I know Martin told you about CAGED but there's so much more great stuff out there like harmony, cool scales, landing tones, color tones and cool chords. Being able to shred a bunch of scales up and down is only a very small part of the equation, melody/motif and chords are way more important. Try to practice with a metronome and work on your rhythm chops (in case you don't know yet La Pompe is a great way to work on your timing ). Then most importantly, try to be a little bit less ignorant when it comes to music. There's more cool music on this planet than Avenged Sevenfold, I know Syn is your one and only favourite guitarist but try some Beatles, Django Reinhardt, B.B. king and John Mayer. You will love some of those guys their playing as much as you like Syn's so the earlier you start getting into a lot of people the more versatile you will become.

And last but not least, listen to your mom. You may not like what she says but 99 out of a 100 times she's right.

Ed Seith said:

"It's scary and you don't know shit yet. But you will, in the end. "

If this isn't a single-sentence encapsulation of life, I don't know what is. Good stuff!

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That's a line you read in a really good book.

Here we go

"Hey Gabe,

you might want to start getting into that instrument a bit more. it's gonna be a big part of your life and will actually be your career choice. Practice with a metronome and really start understanding theory. In college you get a bit behind because of your ignorance. Start really looking at other guitarists other than the two you like. Jim Root and Synyster Gates are legendary but you need to start listening to what they say and expand your tastes. Just take from other musicians and start developing routines for your instrument. It's a priority and a true form of communication. Show your music love. Stay the same happy kid, don't lose that hope and don't lose that passion. It's the only thing that's keeping me going sometimes. Keep it strong and alive."