apiacherie 7/31/21 apiacherie 7/31/21

Lazy Afternoons #1

I am typing as fast as my little fingers will allow so I can get an update in before we roll into August- yes, I’ve moved on from Namine’s theme (for now) and am now chipping away at “Lazy Afternoons”!! I played KH: MoM at a friend’s house earlier this month and we got to this piece in the game and then it just unlocked a lot of nostalgia within me… so I ended up opening up my book to this piece later that week and have been trying to learn it slowly. By the time I recorded this, I’d gotten too far with progress to really do a full “cold” take, so this is the first chunk of the piece.

apiacherie 1/31/21 apiacherie 1/31/21

Those Who Fight #2

Here’s a progress update from this past weekend, which will be exactly two weeks after the previous post. I didn’t make as much progress as I would’ve liked, but I think I did make some sufficient progress, and this will be a good point to analyze where I am before I go any further. It’s a full take with plenty of mistakes and slowing down for newer sections, but a full take nonetheless. I’d say I’m around 60-70% of where I want to be! Volume warning, though- not sure why, but the audio for this take is really crunchy during the louder parts…

apiacherie 1/22/21 apiacherie 1/22/21

Those Who Fight #1

Here’s my progress video from last Saturday- I had one from the weekend before that as well, but I’d made so little progress (literally like 16 bars) that I figured I’d just post this one instead. Making progress a lot faster than I expected, which is nice!

apiacherie 11/30/20 apiacherie 11/30/20

Shadowlord #1

I wanted to update this blog before we enter December so here I am, frantically typing away on a Monday night lol. It’s been a while!! I was just generally in a slump for the past several weeks and I wasn’t in any mental headspace to record myself, much less update this blog.. I also didn’t have the drive to pursue any pieces properly, as evidenced by the last couple of posts here (we’ll call them hit and runs).

But here I am with “Shadowlord” from the Nier series, which I haven’t played (what’s new). I’ve already learned the whole piece so I think the next video will also be the last for this one. Anyway, we’re back to my roots with this one: dark, dramatic, and bittersweet. It’s a pretty rough take by my standards, but I’ve already made so much progress that I wanted to get a recording up (from two days ago) before I polished it any further.

Andrea Kim 10/12/20 Andrea Kim 10/12/20

Eternal Harvest #1

Long time no post! I hit a slump for the past several weeks (IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE) and frankly didn’t really play much piano- like I played piano but I didn’t really practice, you know? I just played mindlessly for the sake of playing, and didn’t focus on any one piece much. But I picked this one up a couple weeks ago while sightplaying through my book and wanted to post an update on it. It’s originally from FFIX, which I’ve never played, but for some reason I was really familiar with this tune.. plus, it’s autumn, and I have no idea if the og game’s track is actually correlated to a harvest at all, but CLOSE ENOUGH!! I also tried a slightly different style of video editing so I hope it’s okay!!

apiacherie 8/28/20 apiacherie 8/28/20

Kairi’s Theme #2 [END]

EDIT: This is the final take for now. There’s one wrong note but otherwise, it was solid enough where I’ll mark it complete.

Last post before the final take for this one! All the notes came back to me, and I worked on refining a few bits. Otherwise, I just played through over and over again.

apiacherie 8/7/20 apiacherie 8/7/20

Stand Your Ground #4

Hello!! It’s been a while, had some personal stuff going on.. but things are resolved now and I was able to take a progress video of the whole piece. It’s not great, but at least it’ll help me gauge my progress.. I’d say I’m about 70% done with the piece, with my goal being 80%. There are some parts that are just physically so beyond me that I am lowering my own standards, but more on that later..

Andrea Kim 7/22/20 Andrea Kim 7/22/20

Stand Your Ground #3

Short update today- brushed up older sections and worked on the next few, but still work in progress. I took a break the past couple of days so I’m a little rusty but I wanted to update this week before I learn any more of this.. and didn’t have access to the usual setup today, so just phone audio. Volume warning!! Also not sure if it’s just me, but a few sections look super laggy on video, so.. sorry for the janky quality all around lol.

Andrea Kim 7/12/20 Andrea Kim 7/12/20

Stand Your Ground #2

Here’s the first.. third or so of the piece, now that I’ve spent a week working on it. This is the section I’ve learned before most, so the notes came back to me easily and it was more a matter of really fine-tuning the maneuvers and also musicality. Still rough, but I think it’s a good progress marker, all things considered. Also recorded later sections that I haven’t practiced yet, but I wanted them on camera so I can look back later.

Andrea Kim 6/9/20 Andrea Kim 6/9/20

1000 Words #3

Hello, hello- today’s post is for a recording from May 28. Haven’t had a chance to get a decent recording more recently, and at this rate, I feel like the next recording will be the last for this piece.. just more progress on the piece from the prelude to the main theme’s first appearance, and this time we go to the end for the first time (on camera, at least).