Slashdot Mirror
The Video Game Pianist
Neil Halelamien writes "Many enjoy listening to video game music arrangements, like those offered by OCRemix, Project Majestic Mix, or the Minibosses NES-rock band. A newcomer on the scene is the Video Game Pianist, an accomplished performer studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His skills garnered the attention of some in the industry -- he performed at the 2005 Game Developers Conference and will also be playing live at E3 this year. His web site offers some amazing performance videos (many with him playing blindfolded), downloadable albums, live internet concerts, sheet music, and other goodies, all for free. His albums and videos include several selections from the Mario, Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Final Fantasy series. Fans of his work can also donate to support his music."
I can only give you two great URLS:
http://remix.kwed.org/ for c64 remixes and the homepage of a SID-metal band: www.machinaesupremacy.com. You can find there free great songs to download!
Gah, looking through the comments I'm starting to regret adding in an explicit link to this guy's donation page. I figured I was doing him a favor and trying to make up for the inevitable slashdotting, but looking through the comments, the donations link seems to have been received rather poorly.
The impression that I get from him is that he plays video game music because he truly enjoys it, and hopes to broaden the popular perception of piano. I don't think he really cares about the donations very much, just that they help keep things running smoothly. I thought his work and efforts were worthwhile enough to give him $50, but your mileage may vary.
I watched some of the videos on the site, and now my opinion is that his newest videos are much better than the old ones. He seems to keep his tempo much better now. And according to his biography, he seems to be taking a pursuing a Bachelor degree in piano playing.
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
Check out the whole site. There's a video of him plaing Lennon's "Imagine" facing away from the piano with arms stretched behind his back, there are mp3s of him playing more traditional fare alongside the game tunes... this guy is damn talented.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
It's not, I'm not even that accomplished and I hardly look down when I play, if ever. I also touch type on the computer without looking, which I think is somewhat more complex than the basically 1-dimensional piano keyboard.
After all, if you have to look at the keys, how the heck do you read the music??
This is not exactly the case. Musicians use visual cues all the time to judge timing and distance to the keys. It's true that dealing with the blindfold isn't that difficult for a lot of musicians, but it does make things tricky for many others.
This is the reason why Bösendorfer makes a special black cover for the extra keys at the bottom of the range -- so pianists used to the regular 88-key Steinway keyboard don't get confused by the extra keys at left.
i was going to say, isn't the only songs he play mario tunes, but then i found his list of recordings:
Mario Fantasy
Release Date: February 4, 2005
Total Playing Time: 33:23
Download size: 17.5 MB
Track Listing:
01 Super Mario Brothers 1 - Overworld Theme
02 Super Mario Brothers 1 - Underworld Theme
03 Super Mario Brothers 1 - Castle Theme
04 Super Mario Brothers 1 - Star Theme
05 Super Mario Brothers 1 - Underwater Theme
06 Super Mario Brothers 2 - Ending Theme
07 Super Mario Brothers 3 - Overworld Theme
08 Super Mario World 1 - Title Theme
09 Super Mario World 1 - Ghost House Theme
10 Super Mario World 1 - Ending Theme
11 Super Mario World 1 - Air Platform Theme
12 Final Fantasy VI - Kefka
13 Final Fantasy VII - Prelude
14 Final Fantasy VII - Cid's Theme
15 Final Fantasy VIII - Balamb Garden
16 Final Fantasy IX - Melodies of Life
17 Final Fantasy X - Away to Zanarkand
18 Final Fantasy X - Lulu's Theme
19 Final Fantasy X - Silence Before the Storm
20 Final Fantasy Ending Theme
THE VIDEO GAME PIANIST PIANO COLLECTIONS
ARTIST: Video Game Pianist (formerly known as The Blindfolded Pianist)
TITLE: The Video Game Pianist Piano Collections
RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2005
01 Super Mario Brothers 1--Overworld Theme, Underworld Theme, Castle Theme, Victory Theme, Underwater Theme, and Star Theme
02 Super Mario Brothers 2--Ending Theme and Super Mario Brothers 3--Overworld Theme
03 Super Mario World 1--Intro Theme, Donut Plains Theme, Yoshi's Island Theme, Vanilla Dome Theme, Forest of Illusion Theme, Star Road Theme, and Valley of Bowser Theme
04 Super Mario World 1--Castle Theme, Koopa Kids Theme, Victory Theme, Mario Die Theme, Game Over Theme, Air Platform Theme, and Countdown Timer Theme
05 The Legend of Zelda--Overworld Theme, Link Die Theme, Labyrinth Theme, Item Theme, Secret Passage Theme, Magic Recorder Theme, Triforce Theme, Final Labyrinth Theme, Ganon Appears Theme, and Ending Theme
06 Zelda 3--Dark Overworld Theme, Rescuing Zelda Theme, and Zelda 64--Intro Theme
07 Zelda 64--Temple Theme Songs: Minuet of Forest, Bolero of Fire, Serenade of Water, Nocturne of Shadow, and Requiem of Spirit
08 Sonic the Hedgehog 1--Green Hill Zone, Stage Complete Theme, Labyrinth Zone, Marble Zone, Sonic Drowning Theme, Game Over Theme, Starlight Zone, Chaos Emerald Theme, Scrap Brain Zone, Spring Yard Zone, Game Over Theme, Extra Life Theme, and Ending Theme
09 Sonic the Hedgehog 2--Emerald Hill Zone, Chemical Plant Zone, Boss Theme, Sonic the Hedgehog 3--Boss Theme, Sonic the Hedgehog 2--Ending Theme
10 Earthworm Jim--Banjo Race
11 Halo 2--Main Theme Mjolnir Mix
12 Final Fantasy VI--Kefka
13 Final Fantasy VI--Celes
14 Final Fantasy VI--Kids Run Through the City Corner
15 Final Fantasy VII--Prelude
16 Final Fantasy VII--Cid's Theme
17 Final Fantasy VIII--Balamb Garden
18 Final Fantasy IX--Melodies of Life
19 Final Fantasy IX--Ending Theme
20Final Fantasy X--Away to Zanarkand
21Final Fantasy X--Silence Before the Storm
22 Final Fantasy X--Ending Theme
23 Final Fantasy X--Suteki da Ne (Isn't it Beautiful?)
24 Transcendental Etude No. 10 in F Minor
25 Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor--Presto
Super Mario and Zelda music composed by Koji Kondo.
Sonic the Hedgehog music composed by Masatu Nakamura.
Earthworm Jim music composed by Tommy Tallarico.
Halo 2 music composed by Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori.
Final Fantasy music composed by Nobuo Uematsu.
Transcendental Etude composed by Franz Liszt.
Piano Concerto No. 1 composed by Felix Mendelssohn.
I'm in the middle of downloading them (links are on the above mentioned link) so I don't know if it's worthy yet to call him the video game pianist
HD Trailers
I can do it better than he can. So this post is just flamebait.
I'm also a graduate student at Julliard. I took a look at the sheet music, and those arrangements are nothing exceptionally difficult.
They are on the level of a 5th or 6th year student.
Playing blindfold is a stage-trick without any real merit.
Strictly speaking, yes this is copyright infringement. However, despite at least one incident of Nintendo's lawyers being overzealous (and eventually reined back in), I'd say that Nintendo would be fine with this. I remember reading Nintendo Power as a kid and they seemed to love printing examples of overzealous fandom.
Nintendo could ask him to pay money to license these works, but you can't get blood from a stone and he's promoting Nintendo nostalgia, which is really Nintendo's best asset.