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Summary of my 2017 activities

What have I accomplished this 2017?

As usual, Im proud of my band Subtle Culprits. We had few gigs this year but managed to write songs although we haven’t recorded it yet but we’ve finished 3 songs as a band and performed it live during our gig in Portsmouth through Pilot Promotions at The Edge of the Wedge last May 12.

I managed to release an album called Trance Fusion where I remastered my songs from my album Key Note and then added bonus tracks from previously unreleased singles/EP. This is available on CD Baby, iTunes, Deezer and Spotify.

Another achievement for me was enrolling myself for a private guitar lesson with Laurence Henderson. It's never too late to start something and learn something. I've learned more about modes and improved my timing and reading notes. It really help me understand more and improved my guitar playing.  Also I started re-learning keyboards, which I totally stopped for almost two decades. And then bought books and shared what I learned to my son, my niece as well as our friends' kids on how to play keyboards. I also managed to publish an ebook called I Want To Learn The Guitar Book 1. And Im still working on Book 2 which is going to be published soon.


I've put more effort on my blog which is I Am Homebased and my post How To Setup Your Asda Onn Clock Radio got a consistent views and searched online. Im proud that it helped people around. Also I focused more on my own YouTube Channel (Vincent Ryan Borres) and did reviews, demos and guitar track. And, I am very pleased that my video on Zoom G1xOn Tutorial Hacks/Tricks went viral on YouTube which got almost 10K views in just few months.

Another good thing that I did was re-learning Joe Satriani’ssongs as well as Guns n’ Roses songs that I gave up on doing for more than a decade. It made me proud that I can play the songs from start to finish and do the guitar solos clearly and improved on some of the parts that I really struggled a lot before.

I met and jammed with other musicians, guitarists, singers and had fun making music either online or meetups. My social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter account reached over 1K followers. I gained lots of subscribers on YouTube and I started using Instagram.

I upgraded my guitar, put new saddles on the bridge, replaced the stock pickups (neck and bridge) and a Total Guitar Makeover -- had a paint job courtesy of my friend Dave from my workplace. Bought new amp, second hand but I mean new acquisition and it's Park G10 by Marshall. Bought new 1/4 Valencia classical guitar for my little boy and other gadgets which either for music or just general use in the house.

I gave up on some things like my Borres Radio Okay Ka, Tsismis4Business and Jambol Webs. I loved doing lots of things and all sorts but it was a bit too much for me to handle plus it didn’t really workout for me in terms of revenue or generating income. Also I said goodbye to ArtistSignal which I was a member for a long time and met lots of new friends, shared my music, gained followers and also monetary reward each month.

Also another tick on my list was my first ever camping here in the UK. We won a ticket to Camp Bestival and that was really a lovely experience. From camping to performances, to heavy rains and mud, and the activities plus the grand finale fireworks. It was worth it.

I also managed to go on holiday. After 6 years, I managed to come home in the Philippines and even it was just three weeks it was really fun. I was over the moon and of course my family was very pleased. It was actually my brother's wedding and we already told them we couldn't come because of financial difficulties. But my other half really tried hard and find means to come up something so we can buy tickets and come home. All our family were surprised. We even managed to give our little boy a birthday party in the Philippines.

And now just before the year end, I am reviving my old blog/webpage which is this one www.vincentryanborres.blogspot.co.uk where I post my journey in music as an online diary and then my old YouTube backing tracks which is www.YouTube.com/VinnyBorresBackingTracks. My blog and my YouTube channels are the ones that makes me feel happy at the moment and are my stress reliever from work. So the journey continue…… Thank you so much for all your support.


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