Musical A.D.D.
Growing up with a baby grand piano in the house, I was regularly exposed to music and quickly developed a sensitivity to it. I didn’t actually try music for myself until 15 when my dad got me my first guitar and I entered the rock/metal phase throughout high school. It wasn’t serious study by any means, though I had a great instructor and the obligatory garage bands!
I dabbled on our piano every now and AGAIN since then, lured by the pieces my dad would play. But, it wasn’t until 2004 that I “started” piano. Though it was only a few years of formal training and music theory at a community college, it pretty much hooked ME for life. Bill Evans was my main draw and I would only approach the piano for music that inspired me. At that time I also spent a few years learning classical guitar and some Villa-lobos!
However, I’m mostly self-taught just by listening to all sorts of music and trying to work it out on piano by-ear and dissecting it in Sibelius and now arranging and composing in Cubase with VSTs.
Now, I make piano arrangements, sheet music and MIDI for music from Video Games, TV and Film as well as original ensemble works in the style of Video Games, TV, and Film on YouTube.
I’ve always been especially moved by the soundtracks of video games, TV and movies and have been hooked ever since I started dissecting my favorite themes on piano and VIA MIDI. I transcribe tracks as piano into Sibelius then import them as MIDI into Cubase where I tweak the notes, tempo and dynamics to give them a living depth, then apply virtual samples (For Piano Covers: Galaxy Vintage D & Colossus Steinway B) (For Originals: EWQLSO, Symphonic Choir, RAVST, Galaxy Vintage D and Colossus VSTs). I try to keep each arrangement as faithful to the original as possible so people can learn to recreate themselves what they found so inspiring, but you will also hear personal musical flair.
This can be quite tedious and time-consuming as a perfectionist ;) Arrangements may take as little as 1 day to as long as 1 week to complete depending on how complex the work is. I also work another full-time job, but I basically spend every other second working on arrangements (when I’m not playing vadeo gaemz :P).
My recent projects include an Arranged piano album of favorite tracks from The Witcher III: Wild Hunt as well as a piano collection from Final Fantasy XIV that contains 36 tracks from A Realm Reborn and Before the Meteor OSTs I’ve transcribed for piano--many well before the official release of the game and official soundtracks.
I also have ~50+ piano sheet music PDF’s and MIDIs I’ve done from Aion: Tower Of Eternity, World Of Warcraft, Final Fantasy VIII/IX/XI, Onimusha 2, Merlin BBC, Robin Hood BBC, Smash NBC, Lineage II, Ip Man, Guild Wars 2, TES:V Skyrim, Dragonheart and Chrono Cross.
I also have 11 original tracks in the style of Video Game/TV/Film music and 7 more waiting to be arranged. They are currently stream-only, but I’d like to release an album of them eventually.
