Where Love Doesn’t Reach #1
Woooo, I got this take on July 31 so it’s been a couple weeks, but wanted to post this before I finalize the piece (which is probably going to happen this month). This one was on my list for a longggg time, and I ended up caving and buying the book specifically for this arrangement!! (Though I have luckily found some other pieces in the book that I also want to learn lol.) I have not played FFIX, but ever since I first heard this arrangement, I have been VERY IN LOVE with it… more on that later.
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 #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.
Blinded by Light #1
I sightplayed Lightning’s theme a couple weeks ago and am posting now since I’ve started chipping away at it properly. This is another one of those pieces that I’ve attempted halfheartedly a couple of times in the past few years but I always gave up because of hand size (the composer/arranger for this particular collection must have big hands, he uses a lot of ninths =_=). However, at this point, I’m a little more comfortable (and resigned) with the fact that I have to make do with workarounds, and I recently got FFXIII on Steam and am replaying it for the first time in several years, so I figured I’d try learning this piece again! This is arguably one of the most well-known tracks from the game, and probably from the more recent FF games.. still a bop over 10 years later imo.
Kairi’s Theme #1(?)
I’ve been hacking away at “Stand Your Ground” for the past couple of weeks and am still struggling with recording, so here’s a random take of Kairi’s theme, which I’ve been revisiting as a warm up/cooldown piece recently. Also, my audio file turned out really wonky, so it’s phone audio today.. and this was my ONE take of the evening since my phone ran out of storage in the middle of the second one lol. This isn’t quite a genuine First Impressions post, but it’s the first time I’m posting the piece, so we’ll go with it.
Stand Your Ground #1
I’ve finally come back to “Stand Your Ground”- this is an initial recording to gauge where I’m at, but this isn’t a blind sightread since I have worked a bit on this piece before. With that said, it’s been well over a year since I’ve touched this, so my memory is foggy at best.. and a warning that the audio is just phone audio, I never know how long these first videos will take so I just opt for phone-only recordings.
1000 Words #1
This is a first read (and also first.. listen?) of 1000 Words from FFX-2 from earlier this month; I only clocked in like 10 hours as a kid and unfortunately never went back to the game but I know the plot vaguely and FFX also still hurts my feelings so HERE WE ARE!! I got a new piano book and was browsing through things to sightplay and I stopped after the first 30 seconds or so because 1) I was too distracted getting emotional over the chords to READ and 2) I wanted to record my very first sightplay for this. I actually also had not listened to this AT ALL before playing, so.. it was an interesting sightread..
Gods Bound by Rules #1
Okay, first post on the new site, with the shiny new domain!! Still working on fixing up the older posts that were transferred over from the other platform, but wanted to update today with a recording.
Started a new piece from Nier called “Gods Bound by Rules”- I initially wrote it off as one of those pieces that I wouldn’t be able to play due to my hand size, but after several months, I came back to this for fun and decided to try my hand(s) at it (pun intended). Today’s post is more of an overall analysis; subsequent posts will be back to smaller chunks.