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.
Missing You~ Naminé #1
Longgggg time no post!! Long story short, Q1 is where I crashed and burned hard lol and it took me MOST of Q2 to get back on my feet- but at least we’re here now. I took about two months off from piano due to various reasons and then have started playing from April on and off, but I haven’t really committed to anything solidly. A friend asked me about the chromatic gliss in this piece so I figured I’d try my hand at the whole thing to try and get out of this slump! And I wanted to post before month-end since it’s been… a long time.
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…
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!
Fisherman’s Horizon
Hello, hello! Here’s a piece from FFVIII (which I haven’t played) that I picked up near the end of December- I’d originally wanted to have it done by Christmas since it’s got some cozy holiday vibes in my opinion, but… that didn’t pan out. But hey, it’s still winter, right? It’s still winter… with 87F degree weather…
Those Who Fight #0
I’m finally starting “Those Who Fight” from FFVII properly after MONTHS- there are a lot of sacrifices I have to make and live with because in all honesty, I really am not suited to play this with my hand size, but I REALLY WANT TO TRY IT ANYWAY!! This sightplay take is from May 2020… I actually bought this book specifically because it has this arrangement and I couldn’t find the FFVII piano collections book for a reasonable price for years, but I actually just found a copy of it for a good price recently? So I got it. But… still glad I got the best of book since it has a bunch of pieces from other FF books I don’t plan to buy. Anyway!! Onto “Those Who Fight”. I’m not going to review the entire video in a ton of detail because it’s over 20 minutes long (hence the “#0”), but I do want to write out my thoughts before I start posting progress.
2020 Review… and 2021 Preview
This was the first full year where I’ve tried to maintain a blog with regularity, so I thought it’d be nice to look back at everything I’ve tried my hands at this year and maybe look ahead to next year, too.
Tender Strength
Happy belated Holidays and Happy New Year for 2021!! Here’s my last piece for 2020; I played a lovely piano arrangement of “Tender Strength” from Genshin Impact (link to the arrangement!). I never got to meet Venti in-game (my run with Genshin lasted exactly one evening), but his backstory is extremely Emotional and this piece also has such a bittersweet vibe… which is exactly my brand so I had to play it haha.
![Shadowlord [END]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8d4cdcd1b55c3b6d305756/1608627882979-0KFMH4YJU6RL0F2LT7T0/Shadowlord.png)
Shadowlord [END]
Finished “Shadowlord” from Nier earlier this month! I’m happy I was able to reach the finish line with this piece in a relatively short amount of time. It was a fun piece that wasn’t super challenging, but it still offered some hoops to jump through.
A Place in the Sun
A few months later, Alvin and I return with another collab!! This time we played “A Place in the Sun” from Xenoblade Chronicles II- haven’t played the game, but I found this piece in a playlist by chance and when I realized it was just cello and piano, I got super hyped lol. This wasn’t my best performance since I was a bit time-crunched (my bad), but I did hit all the notes so I guess that was my first priority. It was a faster project than the one from before, but it was enjoyable all the same and I learned a lot!