Aspiring Video Game Musician

Hey guys,

I'll keep it short. My dream is to make music for video games. Due to school, I don't have much of a budget to create stuff with, so I'm using my sister's IPad and a cheap acoustic guitar to compose some stuff.

Here are the two covers I'm most proud of.

Super Mario 3D World - Main Theme:

Donkey Kong Country 2 - Stickerbrush Symphony:

More than anything, I'm really looking for feedback on this covers. I really want to improve.

If you can tell me what you enjoyed, and where you think there could be some improvement, that would mean a lot. By all means, you can tell me to go screw myself, but I sincerely hope you'll leave some constructive criticism for me to work on!

Thanks a lot guys!

I'm far from being a musician, so I can't give you criticism on the covers you've made. I can give some advice and say to find one of your favorite moments in videogames ( I would suggest doing a cutscene first before attempting to cover gameplay) and produce your own original score over it. With your original work, try to produce the same emotion that was produce with the original track over that moment. Because that is what music in video games is made for, to amplify the emotion that is within that moment. Like I said, do try your first few attempts over cutscenes firsts as they will be a lot easier to do than actual evoking emotion during gameplay (That's when it's starts getting really tricking). When you found the cutscene you want to do, listen to the music closely and identify the highs and lows of it. Once you've done that, go look at the cutscene with and without the music to see how much music added to emotion and what you could do to produce the same or higher emotion.

Hope this helped and good luck =)

Nice!

I am a musician and songwriter. I think both cover songs were pleasant and nice listening to, you have a good rhythm going but it doesn't give away much of your talent. I would like to hear what you can compose of your own, and with the right equipment. Making music for video-games will require a lot of work, you will need to compose great music and produce it accordingly. A good start is a Pro Tools home studio or a similar equally popular program, learn your way around it, and experiment with different sounds. Guitar and a synth will get you far since you can use the synthesizer for all your plugins (drums, guitar, base, strings etc.) Don't get me wrong, it can be smart to do coversongs in order to learn the sound of others, this can be a way to improve your own. I don't know how old you are, but there are also several schools you can attend, also youtube and other sources of instruction can get you pretty far. Good luck with your hobby and dream! If you work hard and have what it takes, maybe you'll make a career of it down the line.