Composition
I've been a pianist for as long as I can remember (though not necessarily in the traditional sense), so pretty much all of my composition work is for the piano--though there's also a whole world of electronic music I've made, which I've written about on the main Music page.
I've had formal teaching--many years of private lessons--but I stopped when I realized I really just lacked the motivation to become a hardcore pianist. I also wanted to head in another direction with my music, so to speak. In any case, my style is more like that of kLuTz than Bach or Beethoven or Mozart or Hadyn or Chopin or...you get the idea. Not that Chopin isn't awesome.
Piano Works
Note: I rarely put dynamic markings, tempo changes, or even pedal markings on my pieces, as I prefer to trust in the performer to interpret the feel of the music for themselves. After all, it won't sound natural unless it feels right. Of course, that doesn't mean you should butcher my songs either--I'm giving you the freedom to play it however you want, but only if it sounds good. =p
My first piece, made sometime between 2005-2006. I ended up giving it to a friend as a birthday gift. As it's my first work, the style and structure is rather unpolished and at times the development really isn't that great, so I'm not particularly proud of it (despite it's somewhat impressive length). I was basically just throwing a bunch of ideas together.
This was written in December 2006, this time as a Christmas gift. I like it. It's short, but good. The title explains the piece fairly well--it's a song in C Minor, written in a bit of an impromptu style.
My latest work, from April 2007. It explores various ideas in a G Major chord progression, meandering until finally it settles upon a peaceful ending. I used Finale for this one, as opposed to paper and pencil, so it looks more professional and all that. =p
There aren't any recordings of any of these up at this time...
Improvisation
I also fiddle around on the piano a lot. I finally managed to get some samples recorded so you can hear what this sounds like...
DDRKirby(ISQ) - 8-4-09 - Music - Improvisation 8-4-09 (1)
DDRKirby(ISQ) - 8-4-09 - Music - Improvisation 8-4-09 (2) (a)
DDRKirby(ISQ) - 8-4-09 - Music - Improvisation 8-4-09 (2) (b)
Transcriptions
I have some degree of perfect pitch (it's not amazing, but it works), and I've previously put it to work by doing transcription work for piano solo pieces--mainly work by kLuTz.
kLuTz - "Happy Birthday (Yura)"
My transcription of kLuTz's beautiful arrangement of the "Happy Birthday" theme. Grab the original mp3 from kLuTz's music page.
Miscellaneous Stuff
"Battle on the Bridge" [page 1] [page 2]
This was my attempt at rearranging some of the music from Final Fantasy Tactics (which has a =phenomenal= OST, might I add) into winter percussion format. I just did a small segment (writing everything out by hand took a while), but I think I did a pretty good job (if I do say so myself). Of course, I've never heard it actually played or anything, so I can't be sure (that would be kinda cool, though). This was for a band project (ugh)--my title for the entire show itself was "Hope Never Dies" (cheesy, I know).
This is a short little snare cadence-type groove that I came up with, intended to be played on marching snare. It's kind of cool--though I've never heard it being played by anyone other than me, haha. The name is kind of silly, really--I just thought "Asclepius" was such a cool word after learning it from Trauma Center. I guess maybe I was thinking that because it started with 'A', I could write more stuff and get an alphabet thing going, but clearly that never happened.
A composition for one of my music theory classes at Stanford. Our final assignment for the quarter was to compose a short minuet, according to certain rules.