PianoSaxophonist's Arrangements

January 23, 2007 - Added Double Dragon - Double Dragon Medley (Theme/First Mission)

October 14, 2006 - Added Final Fantasy IX - Those Whom We Must Protect.

September 2, 2006 - Added Final Fantasy V - Royal Palace.

August 30, 2006 - Added Final Fantasy VIII - Ride On.

August 29, 2006 - Hey, you've reached PianoSaxophonist's Video Game Music Arrangements page. I basically take what's been written already and punch it up a bit to make it sound a bit more complex than it really is. The story behind this is rather long, but if you want to know, check it out here. I've only got 3 decent arrangements up right now, so I'll be adding more slowly. Anyways, Enjoy!

Double Dragon
Double Dragon Medley	Arranged: 1/23/07	Difficulty Level: Late Intermediate	PDF Format	MID Format	MUS Format	What's this? An arrangement of a song NOT from Final Fantasy? Yep, nostalgia is awesome. I recently went back and played some old NES games, this being one of them. I could not help but admire the music in this game. Upbeat, exciting, fits the mood perfectly, makes you want to go out and kick some butt. This particular one is a medley of two themes, the Double Dragon Main Theme, followed by the Theme heard in Mission 1 of the game. (Double Dragon I, mind you). This particular arrangement isn't really hard, but it must be played fast (Quarter note = 160 in the Midi), so it becomes challenging.

Final Fantasy V
Royal Palace	Arranged: 8/31/06	Difficulty Level: Intermediate - Late Intermediate	PDF Format	MID Format	MUS Format	Personally, I love the nostalgia that old games bring. My favorite Final Fantasy games in the series come from pre-32-bit times. So it's no wonder that these games get more pieces arranged. Also, to simply put, these games are also much easier to listen and transcribe because of their relative simplicity in nature. They are generally repetetive, so it tends to lead to theme and variation types. This particular one is heard in the castles which, to me, brings back nostalgic memories, as none of the future ones feature a castle on the protagonist's side. In the latter games, the protagonist's "base" is usually a hideout. The closest "base" in the future games might be Final Fantasy VIII's Balamb Garden, but that's totally irrevelant.

Final Fantasy VI
Searching for Friends	Arranged: 8/21/06	Difficulty Level: Advanced	PDF Format	MID Format	MUS Format	This is my first Final Fantasy arrangement. Final Fantasy VI was the first game of the series I played and for some reason, this song really sticks in my head. Perhaps being the overworld theme in the latter half of the game, but whatever. It starts simple like the original, and then takes off at the second instance with constant 16th note runs in the left hand. It then enters a midsection which is relatively calmer than it's adjacent sections. Towards the end of that, a small, virtuostic "bridge" links it back to the main theme and then carries that out to the end.
The Magic House	Arranged: 8/28/06	Difficulty Level: Late Intermediate - Advanced	PDF Format Alternate Ending	MID Format Alternate Ending	MUS Format Alternate Ending	My second Final Fantasy Arrangement. For some odd reason, this song sticks in my head as well, despite being relatively obscure. In the game, it's played when you enter Owzer's house in search of Relm in the World of Ruin. It sounded a bit Baroque to me, so I took it to the extremes and added some Fugue elements to it. Like Searching for Friends, it begins with a solo voice in the Bass. The bass continues into the melody while the higher voice repeats the bass in a fashion similar to a Round. Then, the main theme is stated simply with a soprano and bass voice, followed by a "B Section". I made this a bridge to loop it back to the main theme. The second time around, the first half obtains the Alto Voice and the second Half adds in the Tenor voice on top of that. Then comes the "B section" again, more embellished with a countermelody as well. Then the main theme returns, with an even more embellished version of the earlier instance. After that, the original ending was a simple fade out of the intro section. In the alternate ending, my friend suggested that the song go out with a bang, so in the alternate ending, the intro loops 3 times. The first time, it's simple, the second time adds in an alto voice, the final time has the tenor voice and mixes and matches the ending of earlier sections, namely, the cadence of the main theme, the B section, and the intro section, into one chaotic measure followed by a resolute ending.

Final Fantasy VII
Mako Reactor	Arranged: 8/29/06	Difficulty Level: Late Beginner - Early Intermediate	PDF Format	MID Format	MUS Format	This is the third arrangement and the first one outside of Final Fantasy VI. I wasn't sure where to go next, so I took a rather obscure piece, or at least one that very few people pay attention to and made it relatively easier than the previous two. It begins with a lone Bass line, which establishes the beat for the entire piece. The melody then comes in with some small interjections at each gap in the melody. The "B Section" comes in and begins a new pulse and beat in triplets. This triplet characteristic becomes prevalent throughout the entire "B Section" then returns to the "A section" and the repeated quarter notes in duple time to the end.

Final Fantasy VIII
Ride On	Arranged: 8/30/06	Difficulty Level: Intermediate	PDF Format	MID Format	MUS Format	My Fourth Arrangement, I was weary about going into Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX since in those two, most themes are basically arrangements of either Eyes on Me (Final Fantasy VIII), The Place I'll Return Someday (Final Fantasy IX), and Melodies of Life (Final Fantasy IX). So I took a chance with Final Fantasy VIII and found one that wasn't a rearrangement of Eyes on Me. This happens to be the "airship" theme. It begins with a simple statement of a part of the main theme, then throws itself into the intro and slowly finds its way into the key of the theme. The hard thing about this particular arrangement is the difficulty of key and the amount of key changes. The basis of the arrangement is simple, but the key may make it challenging. It is a bit repetitive, compared to the others, though.

Final Fantasy IX
Those Whom We Must Protect	Arranged: 10/14/06	Difficulty Level: Intermediate	PDF Format	MID Format	MUS Format	After a fairly long break, I came back to arranging. Final Fantasy IX was a game I was hesitant to arrange for because many of the themes are more or less remixes of other themes. Usually The Place I'll Return to Someday, or Melodies of Life. Well, this song goes under the alias of Rose of May as well, but in a different style, so I went with it. It begins with a slow section, which is actually the B section of the theme. Then falls into the A section, and basically just flips between these two themes up until the end, each time adding something a little more into it. This is also the first piece I arranged that was NOT in a Quadruple Time Signature (aka 4/4) So the tried and true arpeggios don't follow here, but there's still something like that in this piece, so it'll still sound harder than it really is.

Note: *.MUS files are zipped into a *.ZIP format. Also, in order to read the *.MUS files, you must have Finale 2006 or Finale Notepad 2006 or later. Finale Notepad 2006 is Free at http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad

Also, a note on the Difficulty levels. These are my opinion and my definition of the levels, they do not necessarily reflect any accepted systems:

Early Beginner - If you're itching to try out Piano, but have never played before, this is a good place to begin if you have the basics down. More or less a single melodic line accompanied by chords.

Beginner - At this point, the left hand gets a little more involved more than chords. Maybe quarter note patterns and bass lines.

Late Beginner - If you're here, you might see the occasional triplet and more complex rhythms along with some relatively basic runs, such as sixteenth note runs and sexteplet runs. An outside voice my also creep up from time to time.

Early Intermediate - Here, things get a bit more complicated, the basic style is still melody with accompaniment, but you may see some harmony supporting the melody as well. Two handed runs are also now present to add on to the late beginner level.

Intermediate - Arpeggios become more and more prevalent as they are a good method to make things sound more complex than what they really are. My arpeggios constitute of the regular 1-3-5-1, the "Final Fantasy Style" 1-2-3-5-1, and finally, the "third style" 1-5-1-2-3. Once you get these down, you can make any song sound much more complicated than what it really is.

Late Intermediate - More challenging rhythms and runs appear now. Runs range up to 32nd note runs, but still stay stepwise. Fugue elements are sometimes present along with the possibility of opposing duple/triple rhytms are now possible now.

Advanced - Runs are now more extensive and usually longer and the occasional 32nd run will appear in the middle of some melodies. Countermelodies are fair game, as secondary, or even tertiary melodic lines.

Late Advanced - More or less impossible, or at least extremely challenging. Anything goes in these.

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