vgPiano - Disturbed (Mark Dillon)

Another May has come around and Anime North is now over. This year I enjoyed my time even more than the previous years and it made me realize how much more I could do when it comes to video game music on piano.

Performances

I played three times each for a coulpe of hours this year. One performance was Friday afternoon to evening in the TCC (toronto congress center) when I first arrived. I really enjoy playing in the TCC because large groups of people stop by every few minutes. The sheet music I brought to hand out went very quickly and I filled as many requests as I could.

The next performance was a scheduled concert in the Renaissance. In the past scheduled concerts have not normally drawn as many people as just stopping and playing somewhere but this time there were so many people that there were not enough chairs (I will request a larger area next year). I really enjoyed having such an enthusiastic crowd it gives me all the more motivation to practice and learn new pieces.

The third performance was similar to the first one in the TCC but was in the doubletree hallway instead. Overall I would say I had the most fun this year of all the AN conventions I’ve attended and I look forward to coming again next year.

To do

I made a few commitments while interacting with all of you and don’t think I’ll just forget it. Below is what I intend to do next after getting feedback from everyone at my concerts

1. Post sheet music for my mega man arrangements
2. Arrange, perform and post sheet music for the “prologue” from the final fantasy series
3. Pick and arrange a Konami tune like contra, castlevania, turtles etc

Let me know if I took any other requests from you that I did not list here.

Once again I will be performing live at Anime North. I will be there Friday May 22nd, Saturday May 23rd and Sunday May 24th. I never plan out all of my performance locations and times but I will know (soon) some of them and I will post them as soon as they are confirmed. Feel free to stop by and say hello.

If you follow any of the work I do on piano you probably noticed that my site was dormant, with little content and infrequent updates for the past year or so. After a lot of time spent thinking I decided to put some priority back in my music and one of its’ foundations has always been arrangements of video game music.

I took the time to upgrade my site. Soon I should have all of my old stuff up, for now have a look around and if you want let me know what you think.

OST: Schala’s Theme
Remix: Purple Robe
Sheet: PDF

Inspiration

The dark ages was easily my favourite part of Chrono Trigger. I felt most connected with and to me at the time it was really surprising creativity. Schala’s theme was my favourite from this time (Next to corridors of time) but what I found was it is very enjoyable to play on piano. It’s not that hard so if you play give the sheet music above a try.

OST: Overworld
Remix: Goodbye Link
Sheet: None yet

Inspiration

Just before I went to perform at a convention I was playing through my Zelda Medley and I noticed I really enjoyed the soft part of the overworld so I decided to record a section of it using my Toneport UX2 and the Roland RD700SX I had rented for the performance. I turned out rather nice and I uploaded it as sort of a preview.

Over time as the new Zelda games have come out for N64, DS and Wii I’ve given them a minor chance but not being a kid I didn’t give them hordes of time as I would have before. So I guess I felt like my time spent with Zelda was now only in the past.

OST: Maridia 2
Remix: Piano Maridia
Sheet: PDF

Inspiration

It doesn’t take much to turn this almost written for piano song into a piano solo. When I got to this part of the game I was really surprised how trapped the background music made me feel. All metroid games have the feel of being lost in the depths as you play through them but for some reason this song really made me feel it.

OST: Item collect
Remix: Item collect
Sheet: Item Collect

Inspiration

I had always liked the soundtrack to super metroid. When I first came up with the idea of vgPiano I tried to get some albums together and one of them was super metroid. However, if not for metroid metal I probably would have never picked this song.

OST: Title
Remix: Metroid Intro
Sheet: None yet

Inspiration

This remix was one of those times where you sit down a keyboard and just start playing. I never intended to remix this song but I picked it up quickly and figured what the heck I’ll hit record. I’m glad I did.

Remix: Kraid Three
Sheet: PDF

Inspiration

When I launched my first version of my vgpiano page I wanted to have one good version of this song since at the time I had so many floating around. So I sat down and recorded what to be honest I still don’t think captures what I was trying to do but until I revisit this song (which I doubt I will for quite a while as this game has other good un-covered tracks) this will have to do.

OST: Sanctuary, Overworld, Kakariko
Remix: Before the Mirror
Sheet: Kakariko, Overworld, Sanctuary

Inspiration

In 2005 I started looking for remix competitions because I was really enjoying tracking compos. I found a competition on RPG Gamer called Sound Test. This competition featured an “On the Keys“  section. There were basic rules but it had to be from an RPG and on a keyed instrument (organ, piano, etc). I always figured that Zelda for SNES was a bit of a stretch to say it was an RPG but I guess that 1 town was enough to make an RPG so I was more than happy to do this.

Initially I wanted to do more tracks but I started to run out of time so I called it “Before the Mirror” because all the songs it in take place in the light world. I have always intended to do an “After the Mirror” with songs from the Dark world and maybe one day I will.