Still working

Well, I'm here again with news about my current work, and future music.

Next, of course, it's the Mystogan Theme, for piano. I also have a finished arrangement of The Legend of Zelda theme for string orchestra -you will see it very soon.
I also add a new Guilty Crown sheet.

However, I want to focus a bit more on the Youtube channel, because there're only a few videos. Another interesting thing: the other day I watched Arrietty's film and I decided to make some arrangements. The idea is make a piano version / piano duo (with violin or flute) of the most known themes. They look easy, so expect them soon ^-^

I'm working also in the second part of theory tutorials, I hope it will be finished by next week.

And the last thing: I want to know your opinion about ensembles on my blog: are they too difficult? Strange writting? That note is impossible to play on your instrument?
I want to know your opinion, because I only play the piano. I have my instrumentation book and I try to check always my work, but an error is always possible.

So comment here or answer the new poll.

Thank you!

Twitter account for the blog!

Hi again!

This week I've been a bit inactive. However, there's a new piano tutorial video and a new string quartet in the Sheet Music section, Shukuteki, from Rozen Maiden. I hope this week I will finish Guilty Crow sheet and the Fairy Tail also.

I also made a Twitter acount, Victor_Seven7. As you can see, I do not publish a new entrie every time I upload a song or a video. Of course, you can access the Sheet Music section to check if I uploaded something.
However, I think Twitter is better for that: every time I upload a new content (videos, sheet music, music tutorials...) I will tweet it, in English of course, and using the tag #VictorSevenMusic.
You can ignore Spanish tweets, don't care about them. Everything about the blog will be tagged as I said.

Now, you only have to follow or check my Twitter account to know what's new here and in the Youtube Channel. Only open my profile and click in the #VictorSevenMusic tag where is my description, and you will see all the news.

Of course, you can send comments to me, opinions about the blog or if you want, say a song you want me to transcribe. Em, I won't transcribe all the songs you want. That's very important. Say your opinion: if that song is very requested and I'm able to transcribe it, maybe I do it.
For that, use the same tag or mention me using @Victor_Seven7 (Well, you know it... ^^")

I also will try to follow interesting (musical) accounts for everybody. 

Thank you!

I'm here again!

Well, at the end, I finished the course. I'm free again!

That means now I can work harder in new arrangements, and also in make the video tutorials for the channel. Of course, you will see the next chapters of the Music Theory Guide. Here are a list of my current projects:

• Pianissimo, by Hatsune Miku. I'm finishing this. Done and uploaded.
• Another Guilty Crown piano transcription, Release my Soul.
• Rozen Maiden string quartets, some songs, including Battle of Rose. This last one has been finished and uploaded too.
• The Mystogan no Theme. Everybody wants it. ^^"
• Continue with the Music Theory Guide
• Update the channel with all the piano songs, and try to make some interpretations. 

More or less, these are the guidelines for this firsts weeks. The most important now is the new sheet music, because the last sheet was updated a long time ago, and the Youtube Channel. However, I'm not going to leave the other sections.

Thank you!

Youtube Channel!

Hello again!

Today I want to announce a good news: I'm going to upload videos in a Youtube Channel! The main idea is to upload all the piano transcriptions in video tutorials using Synthesia. My channel is:

http://www.youtube.com/user/VictorSevenTrans

I only have two videos now, Erza vs Erza and Hagane no Hakunetsu Sen, both from Fairy Tail. I'm finishing exams, so you will see new sheets and videos very soon.

I also want to mention this guy, Lackias, who plays my Sannin no Dragon Slayer transcription. Here is the video:

It's the first time I see somebody playing my arrangements, so I'm very happy. Thank you, Lackias! ~
If you play some of my transcriptions in, and you have your video in Youtube, send a private message to me at the Youtube channel, and I will add your interpretation in it.

Also, if you have any suggerence for the channel, comment it. Thank you all!

UTAU's Tempo Fixer

Hello again!

This weekend I'm going to upload a Guilty Crown sheet for piano, "RL feat Cyua", which I finished last week.

However, today I'm going to talk of other thing. Do you know Vocaloid? It's a popular voice synth. Hatsune Miku voice is made with this software.
Well, UTAU is the same as Vocaloid, but free. Maybe the voice qualities are not as good as Vocaloid, but it sounds very good.  Maybe you are thinking, "In that case, I will use the cracked version of Vocaloid, Pocaloid". Don't do it. Seriously. It has some good viruses... not a simple worms. They can damage your computer... and steal your money if you're using an on-line bank service.

UTAU, as you know, can import MIDIS. But sometimes the tempo is strange, you can't change it, it's impossible to play the song and the voice at the same time... If you look in the top bar, you will find red and blue numbers. The blue number is the general tempo. The song starts with this value. The red numbers are the tempo of each note. It's a tempo change. But sometimes every note has a specific tempo, and it's impossible to change all... What can you do?
Investigating, I saw a post of a man in a forum who says that can open the .ust file using a text editor, and eliminate the tempo marks from there. It's easier, but you also have hundreds of tempo marks.
For that reason, I created Tempo Fixer. Tempo Fixer is a very little tool which eliminates all the tempo marks, and set the general tempo. It's very easy to use. Only set the tempo in the number dialog, click the button and select a .ust file. After that, open the .ust file with UTAU. You´ll realise that all the red tempo marks have dissapeared, and the blue tempo mark has the value you indicated in the software.

About details, I programmed this in C# and it should run in all Windows systems with .NET Framework 2.0 (or 3.0... I can't remember the version I set xD) However, all new computers have the version 4.0, so don't worry about this requeriment. If you don't have your .NET Framework updated and the application doesn't work, download the Framework from Microsoft page. It's useful for many programs.

To install it, use the Setup.exe, and to delete it, from Control Panel > Unistall a program.

You can share the program in other websites, but give credits to me or link this entrie.


Download Tempo Fixer

Hope you will find useful this little application ^-^.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Doctor Rotbonik's Attack!

Hey!
First of all, I added the Theme of Multiflora, for Violin, to the sheet music. I'm also working in the new music tutorial and in a Guilty Crown piano sheets. And I'm going to start very soon with video-tutorials of the arrangements. All of that, very soon. =)

And talking about sections, today I bring you some music: the Boss music in Sonic games!

In old Sonic games, in my opinion, boss music was one of the best of the soundtrack. That songs sound so attractive, and were in all the bosses. After die 100 times, you start to love the song. I'm talking specially of Sonic 1 and 2, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles has also a good boss music. Here are songs, if you have never listened to them... do it!

Another little surprise: I did a band medley with all this songs. If you are in a band and you like Sonic... you should take a look  =)

Especial attention to the bass. Always! Old Sonic games' music have an incredible bass in some levels. About that, I will talk other day.. xD
 

Take note all you can do with a few voices! Sonic started in year 1991, so music is has better quality now. Most of the songs has been made with 4 o 5 voices, and the drums. The music of the two first games was composed by Masato Nakamura. Howard Drossin compose the music of Sonic & Knuckles, and some of the OST from Sonic 3.

If you're interested in piano arrangement, visit Game Music Themes and download them.

Hope you like the content!

Basics of Music I - Intervals and chords.

 First of all, I have to say I have new songs I will upload next Wednesday, and I'm preparing the other section.

And, I want to give thanks to JJ, my friend, who checks the blog and revises my English. This time JJ has checked the tutorial before upload it.

(Edit: Sorry beacause of the button, but it was too long..)

Well, let's start. Modern music is composed by chords. If you want to create a song, you've to decide the harmony, and you will do this selecting some chords. However, to build correctly the chords, you need to learn intervals before.

An interval is a system used to measure the distancia beetwen two sounds. It's defined by the number on notes and the distance in tones and half-tones.

Here are the distance in tones and half-tones between the notes:

C-D	D-E	E-F	F-G	G-A	A-B	B-C
1 Tone	1 Tone	1 Half-tone	1 Tone	1 Tone	1 Tone	1 Half-tone

So, between C and F you have 2 tones and 1 half-tone. And between C-G# you have: 3 tones and 1 half-tone from C to G, and 1 extra half-tone, because of the sharp. Note that 2 half-tone make a tone. In fact, between C and G# you have 4 tones, or 3 tones and 2 half-tones. You can say it as you want.

But this system is so difficult, so we use another system. Each interval has a distance in tones and half-tones, and a number to define it. The easier thing to understand is the number. From C to A, for example: C, D, E, F, G, A. Six notes. So the interval from C to A is a sixth. Another example: Db to A#. D, E, F, G, A. Five notes. So this is a fifth. But think on this: D to A, without accidentals, is also a fifth. What can we do?

We clasify intervals in: Major, minor, perfect, augmented and diminished. 4^th , 5^th and 8^th can't be mayor or minor - they`re perfects!. And the others intervals can't be perfects. By definition, a major 2^nd has one tone, a major 3^rd has two tones... and if you want to do the minor interval, you descend a half-tone. For example, the minor 3^rd has one tone and a half. But learn this is so difficult. However, we have this to help us:

 

As you can see, from C to D the inteval is Major 2^nd, from C to E, Major 3^rd... and all the major and perfects intervals. You only have to change them by a half-tone to obtain another interval. If from C to E you have a Major 3^rd, from C# to E you have a minor 3^rd. At the end of the page there's a zip with solved exercises, and solved interval examples.

Edit: Let's explain better the difference between major, minor, diminished... intervals.
See the image above. That's all the major intervals. So, take, for example, the Perfect 5th: C - G. Let's count using the first chart:
From C to D, a tone; from D to E, tone; E to F, half-tone. F to G, tone. We have 3 tones and 1 half-tone in total. The difference between this 5th, the Perfect 5th, and the others, is the number of half-tones (or tones):

- For example, take C# to G. If you count, you'll find you have 3 tones exactly (from C# to D you only have half tone. 2 tones and 2 half-tones = 3 tones) It's a half-tone smaller. So this is  a Diminished 5th.
If you have 4 tones, it will be an Augmented 5th (For example, from C to G#). Note C# to G# has 3 tones and a half tone, is a Perfect 5th.

-Let's see. The interval C - Ab has 4 tones, the same as C - G#. It's more, the notes in the piano are the same. But the first is a Minor 6th and the second an Augmented 5th. Why?
C - Ab: Let's count notes: C, D, E, F, G, A. Sixth notes, so it's a 6th. Let's count the Major 6th tones and half-tones. We have the notes above. It has 4 tones and 1 half-tone. Let's count tones and half-tones from C to Ab: 4 tones. It is a half-tone smaller, so it's a minor interval: Minor 6th.
The other, as we said before, is an Augmented 5th. Be careful with that: a Ab is NOT the same as a G#, E# is NOT the same as F, etc.

Hope this examples clarify a bit the content ^^

And, in intervals, that's all. There are some strange cases comments in the examples, and methods to solve any interval.

Now, chords.

A chords is a set of three or more notes which sounds simultaneously. There are a lot of chords, but we're going to study the basics now. To build the chord, you have to take the “root”, the bass note of the chord, and do some intervals from that note. (We will see how we can change the position of the bass note in the next tutorial).

-Major Perfect: It's built by a Major 3^rd and a Perfect 5^th . It sounds “happy” and it's represented by the root name. Ex: C, Ab.

-Minor Perfect: It's built by a Minor 3^rd and a Perfect 5^th . It sounds “sad” and it's represented by the root name and a lower “m”. Examples: Cm, D#m

-Augmented Fifth: With a Major 3^rd and an Augmented 5^th . It's represented by the root name and “aug”: Examples: Caug: Eaug, F#aug

-Diminished Fifth: It's built by a Minor 3^rd and a Diminished 5^th . t's represented by the root name and a “dim”. Examples: Ddim, Abdim

Check the link to download examples an exercises. Examples contain some particular cases, how to solve intervals and create chords from a note. The zip also has a sound file to listen to the different chords (the chords it plays are the example chords in the exercises sheet).

Lesson1.zip

In the next lesson, we will explain the uses of the chords in the keys and common chords progressions.

Thank you for reading!

If you find any error on the exercises, you can say it in the comments. You can also ask a question or simply give your opinion ^^