Category Archives: Performance

New performance and composition – A Moment of Safety

Leave a reply

Hello, everybody!

This week I have a performance of my latest composition, titled “A Moment of Safety”. It’s inspired by the safe room themes of the Resident Evil games, which provide a few safe areas in the games. The music reflects this but simultaneously creates a sense of tension, a small dread that you’ll have to go back out into the danger eventually. That’s what I’ve tried to capture with this composition.

The chords used are Am11 and Gm11 – they don’t relate to each other, but being so extended softens the contrast between them as they actually share a lot of notes. I chose them for this reason, as together they sound pretty relaxed.

The sense of unease comes from the rhythm between the hands – only occasionally do they sync up. While they aren’t actually playing in different time signatures (although the left hand sounds like it moves between 6/8 and 3/4), there are enough stressed notes falling apart from each other that some rhythmic dissonance is created, in my opinion. Let me know whether you agree or not!

This exploration of creating certain feelings, atmospheres or emotions is one reason I love composing so much and also why I enjoy teaching composition.

Performance of Main Theme from Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

Leave a reply

It feels like I put out a lot of videos last week, though there were only three – the additional two were things I was too excited about to wait for the usual schedule.

This week’s video is me performing a cover of the main theme from a game called Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. It’s a really cool, 2D Soulslike game with phenomenally good music which I think more people should hear!

This piece is also a great example of making a few variations on a theme – you get the main melody harmonised with simple chords, then an octave lower with a busier left hand. Then there’s my favourite part, which switches the left hand from 3/4 to 6/8 time and is polymetric when the right hand comes back in. Later we get a similar chord progression, but with a much heavier left left hand with a hint of Dorian mode.

Clockwork Sanctuary (orchestrated – variation 1)

Leave a reply

I have a third new video this week! Another orchestration, this time of my piano piece Clockwork Sanctuary.

This is a location theme for the game that I’m making. As the player moves deeper into the level, the piece will change, with more instruments and sounds related to clocks and industry getting added in. This is just the first version that will play upon entering the area.

It took me a while to settle on instrumentation for this version – I had a rough sketch of it recorded about a year ago but wasn’t happy with my choice of instruments at the time, or with my ability to make them sound good. I’m much happier with this version, especially with the string quartet at the end of it. All of the instruments are physically modelled and thus can be played in a very expressive manner (they’re the Audio Modelling SWAM Solo Strings and the SWAM Flute, Oboe and Bassoon, for those interested in specifics).

Here’s the original piano version for comparison. Please let me know what you think of each version! If you enjoy my music, please consider subscribing to my channel!

Performance of my composition, Grief

Leave a reply

Hi, everybody! I have a new video on my YouTube channel – me performing my own composition, Grief. This piece is a variation on another one of mine called Innocence – they’re both themes for a character, but Grief is the minor key version of Innocence. Not all is dark and depressing in it, though – I aimed to capture how it feels to work through one’s feelings of Loss, and memories of good times gone by.

If you enjoyed the performance, please consider subscribing to my channel!

New performance video – Ju-on: The Grudge – main theme

Leave a reply

Hello, everybody!

A new video is up on my YouTube channel. This week, it’s a cover of the main theme from the film Ju-on: The Grudge. It’s one of my favourite films – it manages to create a feeling of deep melancholy and inevitability, and the music and sound design play a huge part in that.

I think this composition is wonderful to analyse, to see why it’s so effective. In my opinion, it comes down to a few elements: the harmony, use of chromatic notes, and the tonic pedal.

The harmony is pretty simple – it’s in E minor and most of the chords are diatonic: Am, Em and F#m7b5 – only the third inversion Fmaj7 near the end is out of key (and only one note of it). However, melodically there’s a fair amount of chromaticism and in the original there’s a high part that is very chromatic which creates the unease.

At the beginning, there’s an immediate sense of sadness but as the theme progresses, I think it captures a feeling of hopelessness. The use of the tonic pedal helps create that feeling of not being able to move forwards.

If you enjoy the performance, please subscribe to my channel! There’ll be more performance videos of both covers and my own compositions, plus new compositions will usually end up there before release. I’m also in the process of scripting some teaching videos.

Time of the Oppressed – performance video

Leave a reply

Hello, everyone!

I have a new video this week, which is a performance of one of my own compositions – the one that started my journey as a composer. I actually wrote the initial draft of it back in 2013 and it’s gone through multiple revisions over the years before I settled on this one. If you’ve listened to my recent album, you’ll know it already. Despite having written it so long ago, I think that it’s still one of the strongest melodies that I’ve written.

When I first wrote it, I was experimenting with polyrhythms – I didn’t have much experience with them but knew that I wanted to use them to increase the sense of something not quite being right in the repeat of section A in this piece. Writing them into was pretty easy, but I struggled with playing them at the time.

Since then, I’ve explored how to practise polyrhythms fairly extensively. I’m in the process of writing the script for a video dealing with how to effectively practise them, though it’ll take a while because it’s the first of this kind of video that I’m planning to make. Does anyone have any notable polyrhythms that they struggled with (or are struggling with)?

Also, which other topics would you like to see teaching videos about?

Performance of my composition, ‘An Ill Presence’

Leave a reply

I’ve been asked in the past by prospective and current pupils about videos of me playing. I recently decided to start experimenting with different types of videos for my YouTube channel, so here’s a performance of one of my own compositions, ‘An Ill Presence’. Nothing tricky, but I hope I managed to capture the atmosphere of the piece with the lighting. I’m planning to make more performance videos in the future (including some covers) and will also be making videos about learning music and how to simplify the process.