Category Archives: Performances

20.02.24 – Latest music releases

Hello, everybody!

For a while towards the end of last year, I didn’t release much music, as I had so little time to practise/compose/record. Thanksfully, I’ve had a bit more time recently and have managed to release four videos, three of them original music and one cover.

The first release was a piano piece of my own called ‘Let the Scheming Begin’. It’s a character piece and is related to a piece I released at the end of 2022 called ‘Inexorable Force’. It shows a different side of the same character.

Next up was the orchestral version of the aforementioned ‘Inexorable Force’. It’s the music that would play for the final battle with the main villain of a game. It took me a couple of months working on it every night to get the orchestration sounding how I wanted. I expect if I return to it with more experience, I’ll make some subtle changes, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.

Before I started work on that orchestral version, I’d actually made a prog-rock version of the same piece, largely inspired by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, as are many final boss themes in Japanese RPGs. I ended up releasing it a week later than the orchestral version as I’ got so focused on working on that one that I hadn’t thought to release this one. I hope this, the orchestral version, and the original piano solo will serve as an interesting example of how multiple arrangements of the same piece can be made.

Finally, I just released a piano arrangement of Motoi Sakuraba’s ‘Majula’, from Dark Souls 2. It took a while before I was happy with this and there’s still one section that I’m, unsure of. Generally, I’m pleased with it.

While I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep up a schedule of one release a week, I hope to keep things more regular than before.

Piano cover: Evil Boss Pig from Tombi!

Hi, everybody!

It’s been a while since I posted any music. I’ve had relatively little time to practise or compose recently and most of the time I have had has gone into learning to sight read better. That said, I have made a video of the boss theme from the PSOne game Tombi, an old favourite of mine. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it!

Performance of ‘Is It Over?’ and first album available as ‘pay what you want’

Hello, everybody! I have a new performance video. It’s a slightly truncated version of my own composition ‘Is It Over?’. Truncated due to the fact that the ending is designed to run straight into another piece of music and doesn’t work if this one is standalone. I’d noticed that I’d done a lot of covers on my channel recently, so decided to get something original done.

Piano arrangement: Quiet Withdrawal from Tormented Souls

Hi, everybody! I finished a piano arrangement I’ve been working on and just released a performance video of it. The track is ‘Quiet Withdrawal’ from the video game ‘Tormented Souls’. It was a request from someone who follows me on YouTube.

I tried pushing and pulling the timing a bit so as not to be too metronomic – I’d be interested to hear whether people think it sounds good or if it just sounds out of time.

Clockwork Sanctuary (performance)

Good morning, everybody! I have a new video this week, a performance of my composition, Clockwork Sanctuary. It’s far from a perfect performance, but I decided to post it anyway, as I’m tired of the requirement for perfection that is so prevalent when it comes to performances. I much prefer being a studio musician and teaching, and I don’t enjoy performing – these videos I make are a challenge to myself to at least develop the skill of performing a bit.

I hope that you can enjoy it despite the flaws! It’s a lot of fun to leap around the piano, but I’ve practised it so much recently that I need a break from it!

Final Fantasy VIII – Balamb Garden (piano performance)

Hello, everybody!

This week’s video will be especially nostalgic for Final Fantasy fans – if you spent part of your childhood in Balamb Garden, this one’s for you! It’s a piano arrangement of the music that plays as you explore Balamb Garden.

This piece practically arranged itself, as the original version is so well orchestrated. It goes on a wonderful journey through several keys – F lydian, D major and B major, before looping back around to F lydian. I hope you enjoy the performance!

Time to Rest – new composition and performance

Hello, everybody!

I wasn’t sure I’d have a video to post this week, as I’ve been re-evaluating my piano technique, so don’t have any performances ready, and things were going pretty slowly compositionally.

That said, I have been working on one composition this week – a new Safe Room theme for an upcoming EP/album (I’m not sure on the number of tracks that will be on it yet). Safe Room themes originated in the Resident Evil games and are designed to make the player feel safe while also creating unease that they must head back out into danger.

I’d noticed with the previous ones that I wrote, I was tending towards similar chord progressions, so I took some influence from Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu for this one. I actually reworked the whole thing today as it was sounding a bit too similar to the previous ones I wrote. I’d be glad to hear what you think of it – hopefully it’s something relaxing to listen to.

ZERO – Resident Evil Zero (cover)

Hello, everybody!

This week’s video is a piano solo cover of the piece ‘ZERO’ from Resident Evil Zero. I recently started playing through the game and this piece plays in the opening cutscene. It grabbed my attention as it’s pretty creepy and uses a couple of chord progressions that I really like (minor chords moved either a major third or minor third away).

The original has some kind of bowed string instrument playing the melody – I think it still works on piano, but perhaps makes the whole thing slightly less creepy. Let me know what you think!

Performance of Loss

Hello, everybody!

This week’s video is another performance of one of my own compositions, Loss. It’s my take on a funeral march/death scene, which I released last year on my solo piano album, Let the Journey Begin!. The slow tempo is pretty standard for this kind of music, but I experimented with using phrases of varying lengths, so as not to have it feel too measured – I wanted the instability of losing someone.

The piece starts off very diatonic, but as it goes on there is more chromaticism and countermelodies are introduced, so although there’s repetition of the main melodies and long sections over a tonic pedal, there’s always something new being introduced to add variety and interest.

If you have a YouTube account and would like to offer your thoughts on the composition or performance, please leave a comment over there. If you like my work, please consider subscribing.

If you’d like to support me, my album is available to buy on Bandcamp: https://nicholasowen-petch.bandcamp.com/album/let-the-journey-begin

If you prefer Spotify, you can find it here: https://open.spotify.com/album/1sSwz4peeRTZPRMprLfhMR?si=KDV21bzASju-Mque8n-IWw

Performance of Innocence

Hello, everybody!

It’s been several weeks since I last posted a video – I’ve been working on quite a few things musically, but didn’t have anything finished. This week’s video is a performance of my composition, Innocence. This is one of my favourite pieces from my album, Let the Journey Begin!, as I feel that I captured the feeling I was aiming for succinctly.

I had to work on my technique for this one, as I discovered that my arpeggiated chords were nowhere near as good as I’d thought previously – I had to thoroughly explore how to play them well enough to be accurate while dropping them into the main melody. There’s still some work to do before they’re really good, but I’m happy with how they developed during my practice.

If you’re interested in buying this piece, it’s available on my Bandcamp page as part of an album. The album comes with sheet music: https://nicholasowen-petch.bandcamp.com/album/let-the-journey-begin

If you prefer Spotify, you can find it here: https://open.spotify.com/album/1sSwz4peeRTZPRMprLfhMR?si=kWK4HGkiRWm54KA7ekeW1Q