DUUUUUUDDDEEEEEE

One of my favourite ever orchestral pieces covered by a metal guitarist? How did I not find this earlier?????

I just got some somewhat fond high school memories

Now give this video a short watch:

Oh crap it's that first soundtrack. I remember playing Pineapple Rag for year 12 but I had to give up and choose a different piece because my hands were too small. That's all I want to say, really xD

Probably my favourite orchestral piece ever

Been since 2017. And it's this one:

Lemme first say that I just LOVE the sense of doom and the threatening aura that this one has, even during its more optimistic moments. And especially more of its moments that I'll describe as sour, falsely hopeful, bittersweet, and straight up fear-inducing. I should definitely do some research on this one, and heck, I should probably check out the rest of this symphony, too. 

I'm back into blues

Fortunately, I'm not currently feeling all that bad right now, but man, do I miss this genre. Glad I found this smooth blues mix :D

Also, I should also mention that bowed instruments in blues is such an underrated concept. Here's one of my favourite demonstrations as to why. You can FEEL the bluesiness there! (And I may be slightly inspired to try learning violin someday xD)

One of my favourites from The Sims 4

This one's one of the ones that plays during the map view if you have the 'Seasons' pack. It's honestly one of the most pleasant tunes I've heard from the franchise. My personal favourite of the variations for this is #6. I can gleefully listen to that to sleep .

Found some new pieces!

So, I've been browsing the sheet music library in my university's library and man, it's packked with stuff. I found a couple to get back to piano with and learn after completing Sonata K.545 (Mozart).

Here they are:

"Sonata in B-flat Major, W62/1"
Bach (one of his sons, actually)

"Sechs Leichte Variationen"
Beethoven

Revisiting Lapfox Trax/Halley Labs

Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of this record label recently. Fun fact: Laptop/Halley has actually been a pretty significant part of my listening history since 2014! I've been listening to a lot of the Renard and TQBF aliases recently.

Here's one of the album streams I listened to:

It's been some time since I last listened to vapourwave...

I honestly don't remember the last time I did, actually. And I don't believe that the last time I did, I listened to it as often as all the other genres I listened to. I guess that just makes now the time to give this genre another chance! And it's good! Still doing my assignments, and I know I've mentioned it before that fast, chaotic music is my go-to for background music, but sometimes I'm in the mood for something slower to work to. Kinda funny!

Anyways, here's the mix I'm listening to right now:

Revisiting the 'splittercore' genre

Just as the name spells, 'splittercore' doesn't sound very inviting to the ears. And I can't say it necessarily is. I found this genre back in, I believe, 2019 when I was really in the mood for more brutal electronic music genres. And as it turned out, I did end up liking it :D

Revisiting it now, I guess for me it kind of scratches a certain itch in my brain, sometimes giving me a little wake-up. Like other genres I listen to when I work on my assignments (breakcore, cybergrind, etc.), it creates a "current" for my loose thoughts so I can concentrate on my work better. That's basically how it feels like.

Here's what I'm listening to right now. Like some other genres I've mentioned on this blog, it's not for everyone, but I like it just fine.

Recommending pilotredsun's 'Achievement' album

Lovely electronic instrumentals that hits just the right spot for nostalgia, even when you hear it for the first time. Sends you drifting into a dreamworld from your childhood. Love it.

Why I love Balrog's Theme (Cave Story)

I was thinking about this sometime after I woke up this morning. Balrog's Theme is honestly a great example of representing a character through music. Let me explain why.

First thing's first: Who is Balrog?

This is Balrog. He is an antagonist character from the classic indie game Cave Story.

Most people think he's a toaster, but apparently he's actually a bar of soap.

Now, let's get down his personality. He's described as "Misery's punching bag" and portrayed as "an all-around fun loving dude with a generally pleasant and lax attitude, who takes to his every action with a lot of enthusiasm." (as pasted from TV Tropes xD) He's usually used for comic relief in the game, too, but that doesn't mean he isn't a dangerous enemy.

Now, I believe his theme song reflects that perfectly. And I'm not kidding. Here it is:

Here's how it starts off:

• Kinda clumsy, gives off a sense of stupidity
• Like someone's really TRYING their best to be threatening but it's not exactly working
• You can't take this threat seriously

AND THEN Part two:

• BOOM
• This character means business
• You're in real trouble, now!

And then it loops! That's literally the best way I can describe it xD And that's all I really got left to say.

I think I *really* like double harmonic major now

I think double harmonic major is next to dorian in my list of favourite scales! I've already described it in an earlier post, but if I've got to sum it up in one word somehow, from my perspective, it sounds really "sour". And I love it.

I think it really hit the spot when I was listening to this hard rock & heavy metal radio station and a song that played this one riff (am I using the term correctly? xD) gave off this double harmonic major sort of feel. (I didn't check to see if it actually was in that scale, but it still got me to really notice its greatness, nonetheless) Plus, the song really reminds me of this one character I'm writing (Eyn), so that's a bonus, too!

Here's the song: Ruthless - Nonpoint

I discovered a genre: Cybergrind

It's an interesting genre of music! I would've definitely listened to this a lot in year 12. Also, I'm doing some homework right now and I find that it's something I can use to help me focus when I'm doing my readings. I also find it to be quite cathartic!

Here's where I found out about it. Warning: It's very LOUD

UPDATE: This is now also added onto my list of music genres to help me stay awake while I work. I'm so flippin' tired right now and this helps my mind stay awake xD

Re-learning an old piano piece

I've wanted to get back to playing pieces again, but the damper pedal of my upright piano's broken at the moment. So, I guess that means the best approach to this situation is to learn some pieces that don't require the pedal, and lots of classical, baroque or basically harpsichord-era (or whatever) music doesn't need the pedal. Right now I'm re-learning Sonata K 545/Andante by Mozart. It's a comfortable enough piece to get back into.

A breakcore mix I listened to

It's not for everyone, but getting back into breakcore helped me get through 3 readings! Here's one of the mixes I listened to:

My hands will be forever small

I flip the birdie at my piano at 4 AM

I've got a piano log notebook!

Thinking too much and feeling a bit guilty

I feel like my experience with piano could've been better. Obviously. I mean, for the longest time I've said, "I've been doing piano for close enough to 10 years, yet it only feels like I've been learning it for 5 years". Weird. You wanna know why?

I took piano lessons from 2010 all the way to 2014 and then stopped throughout 2015 and 2016. I didn't start piano lessons again until 2017 to 2019. Now this information's down, let me explain something:

An important thing to note is that the main reason why I got back to piano lessons in 2017 was because it was required for me to take them for my music subject. I had to perform pieces to get assessed in class. Back in the years 2010 to 2014, I didn't have that. It wasn't required. In other words, I was just learning piano for the sake of it; almost none of the pieces I learned were learned so I could perform them for assessment. And because I was learning a lot of my piano pieces for the sake of it, all that time was spent polishing my musicianship. I didn't get that chance when I took piano lessons in high school.

Every piece that I learned in 2017 to 2019 was there for performance. Sure, learning those pieces also helped me develop my musicianship, but it's not only there for practice. Think of it like this: say I'm part of a competetive sports team and the only practice and warmups I'd ever get to do were all my official games. Sounds like crazy talk, if you ask me. I didn't get the opportunity to dedicate lots of time to doing piano warmups and smaller pieces, as well as studying music theory with my tutor.

And guess what? All of that would've been cleared off if I only did piano in the years 2015 and 2016. Yeah, I'm feeling kind of guilty about that. But what can I do now?

Shinyyyy

I heard this for the first time in the film and I immediately loved it. It's honestly about time I decided I'd finally listen to this on loop.

Probably the only classical piano piece that doesn't give me bad performance memories

I find this quite calming, actually.

I guess that's also because it heavily influenced some of my musical ideas.

This one, in particular:

https://idiskeda.tumblr.com/post/182446825862/heres-a-wip-of-a-thing-i-reckon-will-sound-real

Doing some music theory self-study

Doing this for probably the 5th time already. But I'll try to be more focused and consistant this time, really!

My music theory book. Nothing much to say about it
except it's bigger than my usual A5 notebook.

Also, if I actually do get back into piano lessons with a tutor again, I can also use that as an opportunity to learn some music theory, as well. But I've also been suggested to do a music theory course at my university if using a private tutor isn't going to happen. I don't know exactly which direction I want to go right now, but man, I really want to get better at this.

Thinking about taking piano lessons again

Yep, I'm thinking about learning piano again. For a while I haven't been feeling 100% my best since I stopped learning piano right after I graduated high school. Piano used to be this really regular thing for me and it hasn't been in the past year and a bit. I still really want piano to be a significant part of my life again, especially since I'm really into music (and more than just listening to it, obviously). I hope I get to that, soon.

Portfolio: MIDIs of 'Double Doors' and 'Pondering'

Recommending 'Conversations' by Stuart Rynn

 You ever hear something so impressive you go like, "how 'n the hell do you even come up with this stuff?"

Stuart Rynn · Conversations

Experimenting with the dorian mode AND an irregular time signature?!

So this happened kind of on accident. I was just humming one day in a key that wasn't major. Didn't know exactly where it was headed, but just as long as it wasn't in major, I'd be satisfied. And then a short loop came to mind. So, I wrote it down real quick on OpenMPT.

https://idiskeda.tumblr.com/post/659746459464433664/finally-a-new-melody

I feel like I'm also getting some inspiration from the soundtrack that plays in the forest levels in the game Vagante.

Portfolio: Famitracks from mid 2020

When you've got protagonist duties being slapped right across your face

(I heard the orchestral pad and tubular bell MIDIs and immediately went: that's so corny I'm putting it in just this once)

A lot of my experiments with April's theme soundtracks sound so obnoxiously protagonistic/heroic; it's almost as if it's satirical. But at the same time, that does sound like an idea I could work off of...

Portfolio: 2016 Track Revamps 2019 - ???

Idiskeda · 2016 Track Revamps (2019-???)

I just discovered double harmonic major! (Double harmonic major stuff part 1?)

So, as I've mentioned already (on another platform, not on this blog), I've pretty much milked the major scale of its melodies dry. Now, I'm trying to experiment with different scales/modes and just then I was seeing if I could compose a tune in the phrygian mode. 

I was trying to write down a melody and I remembered someone commenting about the phrygian mode with a risen 3rd and tested to see if it was any interesting, which it was! And then I thought, to make it more interesting, I also decided to raise the 7th note as well. 

The result: 1 ♭2 3 4 5 ♭6 7

Didn't know what the scale was called and now I know its name: double harmonic major.

Here's the short loop that I composed:

https://wethuzz-and-friends.tumblr.com/post/659579965641310208/double-harmonic-major-short-loop

I've never made a melody like this before and I really feel like I can work off of this! Dunno the inspiration for the rest of it though (a lot of my soundtracks are inspired by a character, location, situation that I have in mind, just so you know)

But here's the feel I picked up from this experience:

• It's pretty daunting
• As if you're trapped in a seemingly inescapable dark spot
• You can see that there's some means of escape, but it's hard to reach (if not, impossible)
• It just reeks of dispair and false hope (at least, to me)

Heroic chords

You ever heard some soundtracks and wondered why they sounded so heroic? Well at least from a Wewstern perspective, of course. Anyways, I think I cracked the code. In a lot of heroic soundtracks (and others of similar nature) that I've heard, I've noticed a pattern in the chords used.

The most popular cadence: VI♭ → VII♭ → I. At times II♭ is used in those same kinds of soundtracks, too.

With all that out the way, I'll now show how I believe I've cracked the code for making "heroic" soundtracks: you use major chords with root notes under the parallel natural minor scale of the key that the soundtrack is in.

Let me explain: 

So we have, for example, your basic C natural minor scale here.

Now, if you play major triads from C all the way to B♭, then you get these familiar chords. 

Also sorry if this isn't written right. I literally made this in like 5 minutes xD 

Using a popular example, I'll use this tune from Super Smash Bros Brawl at around 00:29 seconds in.

And another example, from a lesser-known franchise, Spectrobes.

Might add some more examples, later...

WIP of Eyn's 'cutscene' theme probably

https://idiskeda.tumblr.com/post/659377627155546112/sorry-the-qualitys-pretty-crap-but-i-kinda-like

Recommending the Spectrobes series OST

Seriously good music and also a great tie to my childhood.

The first and second games have much stronger melodies compared to the third, which is stronger when it comes to ambience and environment. I'll also mention that a lot of the second game's music is re-compositions of the first one. The third is mostly (if not, all except for one) an original soundtrack altogether. Overall, great soundtracks to listen to!

Spectrobes OST

Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals OST

Spectrobes: Origins OST