Dolan’s Blog

Floyd’s ‘Dark Side’ Celebrates Chart Milestone

May 12th, 2006
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon


Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ celebrates 1500 weeks on Billboard 200 charts. This is one of my all time favorite bands. I can still listen to DSOTM and feel the music. My favorite PF album has to be ‘Meddle - simply incredible, especially Echoes. ‘Wish You Were Here‘ is my next favorite album. I love to listen to Gilmour’s solo on Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Two-handed tapping video

May 2nd, 2006

This guy plays two guitars an one time.  Amazing!

LyricWiki

May 2nd, 2006

LyricWiki is a free site which is a single source where anyone can go to get reliable lyrics for any song from any artist without being hammered by invasive ads.

Introductory Look at Home Studio Recording

April 5th, 2006

Introductory Look at Home Studio Recording is an excellent write up with many tips for you to think about if you are thinking about getting into home recording.

While you are there, check out the whole site. Under the lessons link there is disussion about the use of capos, chord progessions, etc.

Hope you find it useful.

RiffCaster Spotlight - Bill Coulten

March 24th, 2006

Riffcaster Spotlight is shining brightly on Bill. He is a phenomenal player with compositions that emcompasses many musical genres. It is impossible for me to pick a favorite of recording of his.

Rawk It is a sampling that he put together in 10 minutes. Imagine what he could do in 20 minutes.

Check out his work here and here.

OLGA Firefox Search Plugin

March 6th, 2006

If you use the Firefox browser and you search for guitar tabs you need to get this Firefox search plugin.

Riffcaster Spotlight - Shredrex

March 2nd, 2006

Riffcaster Spotlight is shining brightly on ShredRex. He is, believe it or not, a shredder. It is a style I do not listen to on a steady basis, but he is extremely good at it. You can hear the strong EVH influence as evident in this song Last Chance. But my favorite tune that he does is Soul Lost. Be sure to visit his site.

Thanks for sharing your talent with us.

Personal Guitar History

February 24th, 2006

I was thinking about my guitars, past and present. Why not get a discussion going about this. How about you? Starting with your present guitar(s) list the pros and cons and then list the guitars you’ve owned in the past with the same pros and cons and some associated memories.

My current guitar is a Royal Blue Ibanez RG321.

Pros

  • 24 Jumbo frets
  • fast action
  • light weight
  • great overall tones for all styles of music that I play
  • inexpensive

Cons

  • None - I love this guitar.

Guitars from the Past

Les Paul Custom

Pros - Great deep rounded clean tones for the blues. An investment!

Cons - H-E-A-V-Y, expensive.

Memories - Sold to take care of daughters medical bills. Well worth it.

Gibson SG

Pros - Without a doubt the best guitar I ever owned or played. I still get teary eyed when I think about getting rid of it. Traded up to the Les Paul. Big mistake.

Cons - None! My all time favorite guitar.

Memories - The guitar I owned when I met my wife. Used to serenade her with this guitar. I guess it worked, we have been together for 31 years.

Fender Stratocaster

Pros - Tones that you can only get with a Strat because of the “out of phase” pickup wiring. Fast action.

Cons - I had a real problem with the placement of the volume control. I do a lot of string muting and even heavy strumming and the volumen control always got in my way.

Memories - I used to think Jimi Hendrix was a god. I know now there is only one true God. But Hendrix is still at the top of my list for guitarist. This is why I had to own a Strat. Then there was Clapton doing blues on the Strat and this list goes on. I bought the Strat and a Cry Baby Wah and thought I would be the next Hendrix. I was young and I guess it is good to dream.

RiffCaster Spotlight - Rick Andrews

February 23rd, 2006

Rick Andrews rocks! That’s it in a nut shell. Don’t take my word for it. The guy just jams out. You must check one of his latest jams, ‘Precious Jade‘ - title inspired by his daughter. How cool is that?

Rebound (this time for real) is a collabortaion with another Spotlighted RiffCaster, Stratoace. Awesome tune.

Keep rocking Rick and thanks for sharing your talents.

I can only imagine the caliber of music we are all in store for once Riffworks 2.0 is released with collaboration.

Guitar Chords

February 22nd, 2006

I’m not sure how much this will help folks, but ChordGuide.com is a site I really love. I don’t read music, so learning is always a challenge for me. I find that taking a ‘D’ chord and just playing it in all of the different variants allows me to hear different phrasing for various styles or moods of a song. Hope that makes sense. Anyway I hope that you can find some use for this.

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    • Jamie Carr: I've got the RG321, been playing about a year. I'm 36 years...
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