(warning: these sites can lead to serious time-wasting)
This is one of my favorite music-oriented time-waster sites…there are all sorts of fun modules, with characters and objects that you click on to control various dub tracks and sound effects. The musical theme as the name suggests, is Dub (perhaps generically described as reggae’s psychedelic, instrumental cousin). I recommend “Little Axe” (#7) and Burning Babylon (#8). More info on Dub here.
Ishkur’s Electronic Music Guide
Ever wondered what the hell Acid House or Psy-Trance was or where Drum’n'Bass came from? Ishkur’s guide is an interactive bit of “edutainment” that explains the history of electronic music by mapping out genres and allowing you to hear examples as you navigate. At each stop along the map of genres, you can read snarky comments while you test out samples. And it even covers a bit of Dub, just in case you need a better explanation than mine above. Hours can be spent navigating this thing!
Make your own blues tune with a bunch of basic riffs and vocal sounds and clips. Good times, but it would be ten times cooler if they had a video shot of each riff played on a real guitar.
This one is more what I was hoping for out of desktop blues…but it’s just a little too much at times, a bit odd, and even harder to explain. Just go control the guitar guru and shred out!
Coltrane Tune Gets the Flash treatment
Yes, someone finally designed a flash interpretation to John Coltrane’s famous tune “Giant Steps.” If you like Coltrane (or jazz in general) and especially if you know this tune, this site is a must. The timing is just perfect and really adds an interesting take on his soloing. According to jazz legend, Coltrane originally wrote “Giant Steps” as a practice tool to see how fast he could solo over the changes. Luckily, with the miracles of flash technology, Michael Levy’s creation flies through the changes in near-perfect time with Coltrane’s blowin’…Good times!
And just for kicks:
Remember that song from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure when his house literally cooks him breakfast? (warning: audio starts upon load)
Fan of the Napolean Dynamite? Yessssssss…
I can easily play guitar like this, no problem…yep. Wow, that’s some nasty finger-tapping!
