I recently (end of March, 2022) resumed taking piano lessons. While I've played keys for a few decades, perform in a band, and did have lessons as a kid and in a couple courses in college, I never really "finished" lessons. So, the main reason I decided to go back to classical piano is to reinvent and rebuild myself as a legitimate pianist.

Scarlatti's K.40 and K.32 piece is basically about my current level (roughly Grade 3 ABRSM) after 2 and a half months of weekly lessons (though we had to cancel a couple due to my teacher breaking her arm, and some dental surgery another time) and roughly 1 hour of practice daily on average.  Progress is steady, but starting to plateau as I'm probably now ahead compared to where I was in the past when I stopped lessons/courses.

Scarlatti K. 40

Two months away from the next recital, and this is about where I'm at for this particular piece. Plenty of time. I recorded this on a whim in the wee hours. I'm mostly happy with my overall interpretation, but I do need to tighten up the voicings, and I need to tighten up my pedaling in places. So still a bit of polishing up left to do.  Recorded from my Yamaha YC73 into Reaper via Soundcraft Signature 22 MTK. 

Coincidentally, next week marks the 1 year anniversary from when I restarted lessons as an adult of 43 years. Roughly 10 months ago was when I recorded the Scarlatti piece (K.40 around Last June). When I restarted lessons March 29 last year, I was formally a late adult beginner, probably roughly grade 3 ABRSM. Though in the band and writing, and improvisation, I was probably functionally a higher level. 

Now, 1 year later, I'm performing the B minor prelude, Satie's Gymnopedie no. 1, and Schubert Fugue in E minor D. 952 duet for my recital.  After the recital, I'll be moving to learn my first Bach Sinfonia (no. 4) and Chopin's B Minor Waltz Op. 69 no. 2 Posthumous.  Wish me luck!

Chopin Prelude B Minor Op. 28 No. 6

Updated mix of one of my songs that our band plays. An energetic and driving track that would fit well in the late 90's and early 2000's, and is a bit Muse inspired. This is a mockup as it's all plugins. (We do plan to record this song in the near future.)

Indistinguishable (Updated Mix)

As short series of improvisations I recorded in one shot a few weekends ago. At these are on the spur of the moment and done in one take, they're "scratch" takes, and not polished or perfect. A capture of a slice of creativity done on a whim.

Recorded from a Yamaha YC73, blend of the Hamburg and Felt pianos.

Contemporary - Like

Updated this older electronic track with more modern tools and also added some vocals since the lyrics popped into my head one night.  Vocals might be a bit forward in places. Note: I'm not a trained singer, and this is probably the best vocal take I'm going to get out of this.

Fade Into Black (updated with vox)

Four tracks I put together for a 2 week Game Jam for July 2023's Harmony Game Jam. The music is largely atmospheric/chill, though the Title Theme is a little more upbeat.

TitleThemeFinal

RobotOcean

RobotGotLegs

OnegeonMusic

Kind of a WIP, but another one from my college days that I've refurbished and improved somewhat. Kind of a contemporary orchestral/cinematic thing. Since I've got better orchestral libraries, I went through and added some key switches for the strings to swap between articulations.  I might go back and do the same thing for the woodwinds, but for now, it's sound decent.  I might also need to do another pass to control some dynamics/edit velocity in some spots, and adjust overall sonic balance in the mix. But that can wait.

Musings

Managed to resurrect an old work I wrote back in my college days. It's a Fantasy in B Minor for piano.  Part of the challenge of resurrecting it was editing out/correcting improper notation after porting it into MuseScore (also correcting which hand was playing which notes)  and also connecting up two sections near the end because I cut a chunk out of the middle because I felt it wandered/meandered too much.  Anyway, I'm kinda happy with how it is now, but might still make a small change or two.  Haven't included any numbers for pedagogy yet, and there aren't any pedal markings (but I do intend pedal to be used in places).

Fantasy In B Minor

Satie's Gnossiennes always hit my brain a certain way when I hear them. (In a good way).  I've also been playing a fair bit of Chopin lately, so on a whim (after a nice improvisation session) I came up with something that's maybe a bit on the nose. But it is very much my own original composition, just heavily inspired by Satie's Gnossienne no. 1 

To add interest and more deviation, I decided to embellish things with a little sprinkle of some Chopin-esque flavor with some tuplet figures.

I may still make some minor changes or adjustments, but it's more or less complete. This is the first revision.

(update: revision 2:  Tried to simulate tempo rubato for one section, and changed the tuplet figures for part of that section)

Gnossienne no.1 - Bytemixer

A recent commission for a client. They were quite happy with the work. This is purposely done in the style and feel of the Bridge District Theme from Baldur's Gate 2. So, similar instrumentation, and a binary A/B structure. But it is my original work, and not a remix or cover.   MuseScore instruments were used along with Era II Medieval Legends and Spitfire Audio BBCSO.

Dunmerfall The Open Road

Quick and dirty recording (with some keyboard flubs on my part)minimalist stream of conscious just showcasing a kind of spooky keys/chimey pad I created on the Deepmind 12 synth.

This patch is based on the tutorial video Nick Batt put up on Sonic State, and modified a little.  Filter resonance is used to create a kind of sine wave that is tuned to the oscillators via key tracking.  LFO and mod matrix handle pitch modulations to create the rest.

Yes  know people rag on the deepmind synth, but it's really a steal for the price I got it. I just couldn't say no, and it's a pretty solid, capable synth in its own right.

DeepMind12 StreamOfConscious

A selection of tracks from my Daggerfall Remastered Music Project. 

As much for myself as for others, this project is dedicated to bringing the old Daggerfall midi data files into a modern format.

The goal was to go through all the files, and remaster them to OGG Vorbis format using the various orchestral samples I have access to. (Including VSCO2, VPO3, Best Service Engine, EastWest, and various others) Also, balancing the music so there is consistency and cohesion across the music tracks. 

More info about the project and Daggerfall Unity can be found on the forums:  https://forums.dfworkshop.net/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=921

And the DFUnity project here:  https://www.dfworkshop.net/

Enjoy!

Song Square 2

Song Snowing

Song Raining

Song Overlong

Song Gsnow  B

Song Gpalac

Song Gdngn10

Song Folk1

Song Fdngn11

Song Dungeon

Song 5Strong

Song 05

Song 04

Song 03

Song 02

Composer, Songwriter, and rebuilding myself as a classical pianist, I'll be posting my mockups and scratch takes as I work on them.

Formerly, I was an IT Consultant, later turned recording engineer. I started with Cakewalk Homestudio and working with MIDI tracks in 1996/97, and started getting into mixing and production in 2005. I also provide live recording services to local musicians in my area.

This account holds a lot of my rough, in-progress work or mockups as kind of a catch all.

Bytemixer

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