Hand In Hand is the first non-Final-Fantasy piece to make it to my Personal Favorites playlist, and it’s the very first one I recorded from this album. I listened to the in-game music and wondered how come nobody recorded the piece at that tempo. So I did. The final product is just a bit faster than the in-game music to make it extra exciting. This is one of the more difficult pieces, took me a whole week just to learn the notes, and another few days to iron out small mistakes on the final recording. There are lots of scales with unconventional fingering. But it is extremely satisfying to play!
After recording the Final Fantasy XV album, it’s no surprise that Yoko Shimomura is my new favorite game music composer. Both Kingdom Hearts and FFXV music really call to me. In many ways, the Kingdom Hearts Piano Collections were arranged to be much more classical than any other game music I’ve recorded to date. While the whole album is very difficult, it is doable with enough practice. This album took me just over 1 month from learning to recording. One problem I had was that the OST seems a bit on the slow side on almost every piece. So don’t be surprise to find much faster versions of these pieces here (i.e. Hand In Hand, and The Other Promise are MUCH faster than the original).
All of my videos are shot by the iPhone 12 Pro. Although it captures the sound fine without popping, etc, it does not capture dynamics well. Everything sounds pretty loud yet the bass does not sound louder when called for. So try to be forgiving on this poor man’s recordings. Also, it’s unfortunate that nothing I play is perfect, but should be pretty close and enjoyable otherwise.
Click here to go to the master index page for the Kingdom Hearts Piano Collections.
