I sometimes wonder why songs get stuck in our heads. In the case of “Bad Ideas”, I think what’s really interesting is how the chord progression in the song (C-B/C-Am-G-F-Em-Dm-G), which highlights the descending diatonic…
Continue Reading “Covering my most played song in 2020 (Bad Ideas – Tessa Violet)”
I’ve never really thought about how video game music is composed, but recently, I’ve been learning common chord progressions in jazz/fusion/RnB, and have started noticing them in lots of different places. In the theme from…
Continue Reading “Littleroot Town – Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald”
When I was 11 or 12, I inadvertently bought a pirated version of Pokémon Gold that didn’t have a battery in it, rendering the in-game clock inoperable. After a short couple of decades later, I’ve…
Continue Reading “National Park Theme – Pokémon Gold/Silver”
While waiting out the pandemic, I’ve been working on my improvisation/composition skills. Here’s something I came up with in about an hour.
Recently, I’ve been playing the bass more, and finding out how “out of the pocket” my playing has been. One helpful way to practice this, I’ve found, is to record yourself playing over a drum…
I recorded this using my new Arcturia Keystep MIDI controller. I’d been joking for a while that I’d rather just play all the instruments in a band by myself, so here we are: https://soundcloud.com/bryansim/flight/s-Z5KnE
I’m very rarely proud of my songwriting, but I am proud of getting the words “demagnetized” and “database” into this, and having it all make sense (well, you can be the judge of that). I…
A few days ago, I found a recording of me playing the guitar in 2005: Listening to this has been quite a trip: I can hear influences that I’ve shaken off over the years –…
Last weekend, my friend Sarah and I re-recorded this song I wrote. I played the guitar, and composed the random 8-bit accompaniment. She’s a way better singer than I am, so you should definitely listen…
Ever since learning how to play “la pompe“, the signature rhythmic guitar style of gypsy jazz, I’ve wanted to write a song in that style. At the risk of sounding super nerdy, I was inspired…
