Music Recordings!

Super Mario 64 has some beautiful music in it and I've learned several of them on both violin and ocarina over the years. But I never tried Dire, Dire Docks because I didn't believe I could give it a good enough arrangement with only one voice. Now that I'm doing recordings mixing multiple voices, I realized I finally needed to learn this one. It was well worth the wait!

It took a while to finish this one. But there was a lot going on I was having to deal with, so music's priority went down for a while. It also got delayed several times when trying to record the piano part. I had a problem with my recording setup that I didn't realize until after spending an afternoon on takes. I fixed that but then injured one of my fingers. I got it done eventually!

There was a temptation to break the tune down and record each section separately, combining multiple takes of each voice instead of waiting until I could get a single take without errors. I did that when I recorded Winter Festival, but in that case it was necessary to finish it on the tight deadline I had given myself. For this one, I didn't have a deadline, so my live performance background kicked in. There is a certain pride in doing single-takes, even if it doesn't matter as much for recordings like this.

The final mix uses five takes. The ocarina part was done in a single take. The piano required two takes, but I added the higher register part late in the process which required playing it with three hands, so I wasn't going to manage that in a single take. There were two drum parts, each requiring one take. Basically, each voice was a single take.

For many years, I had focused on learning solos and doing live performances, but I had thought about moving into over-dubbing multiple parts to make more complex recordings. My opportunities for live performance had mostly dried up by this point, so I was really itching to give something else a try. I had the inspiration to finally try doing it on December 22nd while I was at work. I was probably listening to vgm playlists while shelving and noticed this one would be a good fit for ocarina and piano, but I don't honestly remember.

I did the arranging when I got home that evening. I learned and recorded the ocarina part on the 23rd. I had work on the 24th, so I recorded the piano part and did all the mixing on that evening.

I wanted to get it done before Christmas, so that created a tight deadline. The quality of the playing suffered because of that, but honestly, it's nice to sometimes give myself a solid excuse to ignore my perfectionist side and just get something done. This might never have happened without that.

I really didn't want to use synthesized sleigh bells. I originally was wondering if I could acquire some bells before Christmas, but quickly decided I was not under any circumstances going to a store so close to Christmas. I was going to just do the tune without the bells, but it really wasn't working so in the end I decided to compromise. The bells are pulled from the Strawdew Valley soundtrack, so they're the same bells that play when this tune plays in the game.

I never learned any of Chopin's less known works, but this one was one of my favorite piano solos, so I couldn't just not learn it. I started working on learning it shortly after I stopped taking piano lessons. I had started out as a self-taught piano player, so I was comfortable with learning tunes on my own, although this was the most technically demanding tune I learned on my own and I was glad to be able to apply the tools I had learned from my instructor.

I will admit that one of my motivations was that I was unsatisfied with the interpretations I had heard other pianists perform. The fingerwork in the faster sections of this recording isn't as precise as I'd like, but the interpretation of the slower section is pretty close to what I intended.

As far as I remember, I stopped playing piano regularly shortly after this recording. I still dream of going back to piano and relearning these old tunes (or learning new ones!), but it hasn't happened yet.

Unlike with Chopin, I did learn many of Scott Joplin's tunes that many people wouldn't recognize. This one is a collaboration between him and Scott Hayden, who I know nothing about. Upon doing a little (very little) research, it seems most of the tune was primerily written by Hayden, so perhaps I have another composer to study if I ever start playing piano seriously again.

I didn't only learn obscure Scott Joplin tunes. I did learn The Entertainer and the Maple Leaf Rag. Sadly, I only have a recording of the Maple Leaf Rag.

It's the one everyone knows, but it's certainly not undeserved. I'd love to go back someday and learn some of Chopin's other nocturns, but I'm not sad I learned this one.