I cringe at the video quality on this, but I was surfung around looking for a Prince guitar solo to show you guys when I ran across this excellent video of Prince playing live with Larry Graham in 1998 in New York. It made me want to break out my own guitar and try to learn again, so I thought I’d share. Try to sit still while you watch it - it’s impossible.

Do you read the blog? If not, you aren’t getting the whole story! Did you know that openthegrave, mamanfie and fartlord all just won awesome prizes from Altec Lansing? Did you see that video of Michael Jackson beatboxing to Oprah? Or that I’m collecting photos from users? Most importantly, did you know we do fun things there all the time? Come out and play!

Sir Nigel Tufnel shows us around his room full of guitars:

So it seems you guys aren’t overly fond of making up destructive rumors about ficticious people. That’s cool. Good to know the crowd here is so wholesome, haha. At any rate, I am very happy to announce the glorious Fresh Prince of Flatulence himself, fartlord as our Kenny Reynolds winner. Not only did he re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-mix this song, he wrote lyrics! The Fartster has been contributing such great interviews, comments and music to Splice since the beginning that it’s extra nice to be able to send him a prize.

He sent me a prize, too! You see, I’m collecting photos for my slideshow, and his was first in my inbox. And so, here you have it, the man and the legend, in all their ginormous glory:

Fartlord is going to receive some AHP612 wireless headphones from Altec Lansing… We hope they work ok with that hat.

Solar You was a contest dear to my heart, as it’s really the first song I’ve ever made on my own using nothing but a computer. I had this idea that Splicers just need the right kinds of loops to get creative with, and hey - I was right! I had so much fun making the song that I’ll probably continue to build on it as time goes on. If you didn’t hear the original, it’s here.

I expected it’d get remixed, but the variety of songs that came out of it was really what made me laugh with delight. As always, choosing a winner was extraordinarily difficult. There are a at least a few here that will be making regular rounds in my playlists, but SOMEONE has to win, and that someone is the ever enthusiastic mamanfie. I chose this one because it’s such a different take on those sounds. Solar You is a sad song, but when I play this one, I can’t stop bopping around in my chair. Nicely played!

Our lovely and delicious sponsor, Altec Lansing, is going to be sending mamanfie a shiny new M602 Powered Audio System, and we think that’s awesome. But like always, there were MANY amazing entries for this contest, and I have to show you some more or I will implode. You all know groovebox, infamous for his ElectionDay contest winner PartyBoy (still one of my all time favorite songs, and not just from Splice). Well, he’s done a marvelous guitar fusion rendition of this song that had other Splicers emailing me with a link, going “Hey, did you hear what groovebox did with your song? It’s really good!”

In another mood entirely, necrodigits put some glitch beats to it. I’m still new to the world of glitch. I don’t know a lot about it, but I do know that I like it. This song was no exception:

And again, we have gurdonark, everyone’s favorite weirdbient musician and all around good friend to this site, who submitted a lovely piece called “The weekend before we broke up.” That really stood out to me, as my original (and previously secret) inspiration for this song was a long, quiet weekend with someone I knew I wasn’t going to see again for a very, very long time. I knew gurdonark was great at making music, but until now, I had no idea he could also read minds. Impressive! This song just washes around you like waves… I can almost picture people sitting outside under a tree while the sweetness plays in the air.

I want to personally thank everyone who entered this contest. It’s an inspiration to me to hear my ideas expanded in so many directions and it’s what gets me moving on dreary mornings. You guys are awesome. If I didn’t have so much work to do right now, I’d sit here and write you 50,000 more loops to play with.

Rock the Bach was one of the best contests we’ve had to date. You guys really went to town on that loop I made and I had a lot of fun hearing all the variations on it! There were a lot of entries and some heated debate among the staff as to the best one. My favorite got ousted, but even the queen can’t have her way ALL the time.

In the end, we decided that openthegrave had a hit with this number here, which is fitting for most zombie movie soundtracks:

We’ll be sending openthegrave a sleek IM500 portable speaker system from Altec Lansing. Rock on.

We had a lot of great entries, though - more than any contest to date - and there are others which bear some mentioning:

Creepy must have been a theme, because gurdonark even named his song “Filming a Bad Horror Movie on Location”, which features the voice of our CEO, Wendell Davis, as he tested our recording feature:

I particularly loved this one from somabid, as I really love that drum loop that comes in after a few measures:

There are a lot of great ones, though. You should go have a listen!

I know you’ve all been waiting to hear contest results, and I personally apologize for the delay. We’ve all been working like crazy people to bring you the next generation of Splice (wait until you see it… you’re going to squeal like a little girl), and yours truly has had the flu something awful. However, we’ve had some great contest results that each deserve their own entries, so I’m going to make a post for each of them. Stay tuned to hear some of the best Splice songs to date!

I get a lot of comments on the slideshow in my profile. This is fun, but you know what I’d love? I would love to make a slideshow of you guys playing music, and especially of you playing music on Splice.

If you would like to contribute to my upcoming new slideshow, email your photo and username to amiee@splicemusic.com.

Rock on.

It’s estimated that the first guitar-like instrument was created over five thousand years ago. From those first delicate strings right up to the invention of Guitar Hero, people have been rocking out ever since.

We’ve been getting a lot of requests in the forum for some contests that promote good old-fashioned rock’n'roll, and we’re listening. I think it’s spring fever - the weather is good, the sun is finally shining and there is nothing better on earth than driving in your car, blaring some rock song you’ve loved all your life.

I want Splice songs to be what you’re blaring this summer, so it seems a contest is in order. Bust out your axe and show us your best riffs and licks. We want to find the next guitar god lurking around a profile here.

1. Upload or record your best guitar solo.
2. You can use other sounds from Splice, or add your solo to existing songs.
3. Tag your song with GUITARGOD to be entered

Contest ends at Midnight CST on Sunday April 1st, so don’t wait!

Mike Tremblett, otherwise known as trembmic, has uploaded a GREAT song entitled “Words”. Not only is the song fantastic, it’s uploaded in 8 different tracks so that you can easily sub in your own parts (or just add more - he’s left you room to work.)

The really interesting thing about this is that trembmic is a music teacher, and has his grade nines remixing this for a school project. Here in the office, *THAT* is music to our ears.

I really love to hear that educators are using Splice. When I worked as a music tutor and piano teacher, I learned that a good music teacher has to constantly be looking for new and interesting ways to captivate and inspire their students. It’s my hope that Splice can do exactly that, with a very attractive price tag of ‘lots pf interesting goodies for the low, low bargain price of free.’ (Having worked in elementary and high school ed programs for years, I realize that budgets are generally very tight.)

If you are an educator who is using Splice, drop me a line. I would be very interested in hearing what you’re having your students do with the site, and also in how we can make it more useful to your classroom. You can reach me at amiee@splicemusic.com.