April 23, 2010

“Fina’s Theme” Video and Sheet Music, from Skies of Arcadia

A long time ago, I received a request to play “Fina’s Theme” from Skies of Arcadia. I’d never heard it before, but upon first listen, I absolutely loved it and wanted to cover it someday. This was fun to arrange and I took a lot of creative liberties with it, even composing my own melody at 1:21. Hope you enjoy!



Fina’s Theme
Format: PDF
Difficulty: Intermediate-Advanced
Info: My interpretation of the lovely piece from Skies of Arcadia. (hear the original.)


April 15, 2010

“Zora’s Domain” Sheet Music, from Zelda: Ocarina of Time

You asked – and here it is, finally. Enjoy!



Zora’s Domain
Format: PDF
Difficulty: Intermediate
Info: A relaxing piece first heard in Ocarina of Time, that appears in several Zelda games. (Watch me play it or hear the original.)

April 14, 2010

Space Junk, No. 1 & 2

I never wanted to be one of those kids who’d open up GarageBand, lay down tracks in twenty minutes, then call the end result music, but admittedly I’ve been dabbling in exactly that – and it’s so much fun.

These are two short melodies that I improvised, both strangely in the middle of the night. Think of them like an artist’s doodles in a sketchbook. I’m calling them “Space Junk” because 1) the name seems appropriate to my love for Super Mario Galaxy, 2) the two improvisations are named after celestial bodies, and 3) the songs are junk. They make me smile, though.


No. 1: “Hello Moon” 
December 30, 2009

This was my first time messing around on GB. I won’t lie, there was a little bit of Bomberman and Mega Man on the brain.
The first thing I “doodled” was the chordal texture, then the drums, melody, and lastly the twinkling countermelody. The idea here (and with my thought process in general) is something that my dad taught me about prioritizing: imagine trying to fill a jar with stones, pebbles, and sand. The most productive way to do that is to start with the larger stones, then fill in the gaps between them with the pebbles, and finally, when the sand is poured into the jar, it’ll naturally fill in the rest of the holes. For me, texture and harmony are the stones, and my main priorities: they determine the overall feel and movement within a piece. The pebbles are the melody: of course I value a good melody, but I think a line of single notes provides a lot more flexibility than a line of chords. And finally, the countermelody is the sand: its main role is to complement all of the elements that are already there.
This method of composing seems better suited to certain kinds of music (like GB doodles) but it works for me, especially when I want to get an idea out there quickly.

No. 2: “Skylights and Stars” 
February 6, 2010

I remember waking up in the middle of the night, feeling a little sad. I ended up opening my laptop and recording this tune, before falling asleep again. I think my subconscious influence here was the Tekkon Kinkreet soundtrack by Plaid (which is fantastic, I should mention.)

It’s pretty fun to see how I make music when I’m sleepy and uninhibited. Thank you, GarageBand!

April 1, 2010

Reason For My Treason: Blood Knight

Hi everyone! I wanted to apologize for my silence over the past few months – I promise I haven’t left you all. I’ve been a little swamped by life’s happenings and musical projects, and it’s been quite exciting around here!

Since December, I’ve been working on the music team for an upcoming game called Blood Knight, an epic RPG for the iPhone being developed by iPwn Studios. My partner in crime is my good friend Stuart Nishiyama, along with other talented musicians who contribute and keep us in check. It’s been an interesting experience so far – sometimes smooth, sometimes extremely stressful when there are aesthetic disagreements and tight constraints over our creative liberty. But this soundtrack is turning out to be cool, and I have no doubt that everyone’s hard work will pay off.

So I’m still around, and I’ll post new covers to YouTube as soon as I get a chance to practice and record them. There are a lot of great videogame tunes on my queue and I hope you’ll all enjoy what's to come, when it comes. Thanks for all of your patience and support and see you soon! ♥

(Side note: I’ve been trying to be more active on Twitter, so feel free to get in touch if you want to say hi or see what ol’ me has been up to.)