It's Official: I'm On YouTube! (It's About Damn Time)

I can't remember when I first had the idea for this channel.

Given how I'm certain playing the piano was one of my primary lockdown hobbies (other than gaming and drinking), the story probably goes a little like this: while searching for videos of the pieces I wanted to learn, I stumbled across the YouTube channel Rousseau.

Even though I had no idea how they did what they do, I was pretty taken; firstly with the pieces they were playing (I learned Un Sospiro just because I saw it on that channel first)...and then by the whole production thing.

I thought: I can do the same!

I've been a pianist without an audience for most of my adult life and this seemed like the perfect solution. I knew I'd have to make it a bit different, which is probably why I decided on arrangements of gaming soundtracks and the like rather than classical music. I've been arranging for our band Snax for years now, one would think I've got somewhat decent at it. Fortunately, making arrangements - when I had time - was the easy part...

...but then there was the practicing...

...and then, the recording attempts

And more attempts...and more attempts. In spite of some recordings which were probably perfectly good, I could never get a take I was quite happy with. So much so that even though I did make a few videos end-to-end, I never had the courage to upload anything.

Well, I'm on a drive to get myself back out there. I spent far too much of my life in a terrified bubble. This recording isn't perfect. But it's time I got the heck over myself and followed through with it anyway. This is a project literally years in the making, only I've been planning without doing anything for far too long.

That ends now. I hope you enjoy it. 🥰

Some notes on the piece itself

Yes, this isn't one of my own arrangements; that's another can of worms in my having enough faith in my work to bother learning it. The channel will likely be gaming soundtracks but I've called it 'Tommy Plays Music' to allow room to change strategy down the line. I don't know what the future holds for this project, but I do know that I'll be following Noah Kagan's '100 Rule' - try something 100 times before giving up.

99 to go!

This performance is dedicated to my friend Emma Plant.

-tommy