Valley Where the Wind is Born from Xenogears

Another one from my Xenogears project, it's relaxed and chill. Don't have a whole lot to say about it really, haha. XD

Valley Where the Wind is Born (Xenogears) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

Beneath the Hollow Moon from Bravely Default

Beneath the Hollow Moon (Bravely Default) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

So here was a recent commission for a game I had heard about, but never got a chance to listen to the OST for, and it's quite good! The request asked me to combine the original piece with the vocal version, which has a guitar solo in the middle of it, and it fit very nicely. I think you will find it falls under the fingers very comfortably.

Sometimes I hold off on uploading finished arrangements until I can get a video of it, but there are times when it can take a while, and I don't want that to stop new arrangements from coming out. So, although I will try to get a video to go along with each new arrangement, if it's taking a bit of time I will try and forgo it and get the new arrangement up for you all to play, and come back to the video later when I can.

Anyway, hope you like the new arrangement! I'm going to be taking some time to listen to some more of the pieces from this game, as there's already another one I'd like to tackle that's very unique. Happy strumming!

PS. This is the first one I've tried to upload that includes all the different guitarpro versions with it, so let me know if you have any issues downloading them. Thanks!

"Astro" from Astro Bot

Astro (Astro Bot) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

Let's get funky!

Deadlock (Main Theme)

Main Theme (Deadlock) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

So, what the hell is this?

Well, some people suggested I arrange things from newer games from time to time. Currently, I'm working on some, but they're fairly substantial and complex. They are taking a while, so I thought "Well, is there something newer that I can arrange fairly quickly-ish?" And I looked around at some newer games and Deadlock caught my eye.

The main theme is a bit bizarre, but it was short, and I thought I could probably knock it out and give you guys something to work on while I'm finishing up the other ones.

Is it easy? No. Is it soothing? No. But is it fun to play? Also no! Haha, just a joke...maybe.

Solfeggietto for Solo Guitar

Solfeggietto (Classical) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

Going back to my classical roots for this one, this is a very famous keyboard piece written by one of Bach's sons. You can see me perform this on the piano in a video somewhere on my channel, but I've always wanted to perform it as a solo guitar piece.

Looking around at other versions of this for classical guitar, I found them unsatisfying. The classical guitar has a more limited range than, say, an electric guitar or piano. Given the original piece was written for keyboard, where range is no concern at all, many of the versions for classical guitar I found of this piece were forced to repeat patterns, because the melody would quickly go out of range.

I didn't like this. While I knew it was a necessary evil, the way it was done seemed clunky and too obvious to the listener. I felt you could accomplish this a little more subtly, by moving the repeats midphrase, essentially hiding them from the listener so the melodic line sounds like it continues to go up up up, when in fact you're jumping around a bit.

It's a bit of sonic trickery, but I think it is much more satisfying, as it stays true to the original piece without resorting to phrases that repeat verbatim.

Because the piece is very fast and technical, you'll notice I took the time to write in my suggested right-hand fingering. This is just a suggestion and is just how I play it, so feel free to use whatever fingers you want to pluck the strings. This is just the way I do it so my fingers don't get tangled up!

So, then what's the deal with the psychedelic video?

Well, if I'm not recording a video, I need to put SOMETHING there, and, as usual, I like to use AI to come up with something interesting to look at. But what to come up with, for a piece like this? It has no definite story or image it's intending to evoke. Many times, in these situations, I like to simply put the title into the AI and see how it interprets it. Sometimes it comes up with some very bizarre takes on a title! But "solfeggietto" doesn't mean much to an AI, and the images it was generating, while interesting, meant nothing in the scope of the piece.

So, what to do?

Then, I thought, what if I let the AI interpret the piece itself? And it described it as:

"A vibrant landscape made entirely of light, where paths of glowing strings crisscross through the air in sharp, precise patterns. These strings are connected to shining orbs, representing different notes of a melody, and as each one is plucked by unseen hands, it sends a ripple of color across the sky. The scene is dynamic and fast-moving, with brilliant flashes of color and energy following the rhythm of the music, creating a visual symphony of light and motion."

What a vivid and interesting interpretation! So, I then used another AI to generate a static image based on that description, and then yet ANOTHER one to animate said image. It couldn't really emulate the animation as described, but it still made something interesting regardless. I had to do a bit of video editing as the animation it generated was only a few seconds long, but yeah, that's the story behind the visuals in the video, in case you were curious!

Anyway! It's now 2:30AM and I am going to bed! Be well, and happy strumming!

Rainy Day Guitar Arranging Stream

My Village is Number One! from Xenogears

My Village is Number One! (Xenogears) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

Another piece from my quest to arrange all of Xenogears as one enormous solo, here is the bouncy track heard in Lahan Village.

As far as this track, it came to my attention that many of you are actually PHENOMENAL guitarists. You sneakys, acting all modest! So! With that in mind, here's a piece that's a little more challenging than my usual arrangements. It really combines all parts of the original, from the bouncy bassline to the syncopated melodies. At some points you are going to need to juggle three melodic lines at once! All while Mitsuda is switching time signatures on you left and right! cue maniacal laughter 

This is not one I think many of you will immediately be able to play right off the bat, due to the rhythmic complexity, but it's good to challenge yourself once in a while! Be sure to listen to this track while following along with the sheets to get a feel for the rhythms and how everything fits together. Practice it slowly, and you're sure to get it! Be well, and happy strumming!

Bonds of Sea and Flame from Xenogears

Who loves you? I do! Have another upload! And a live recording at that, aren't you lucky? You get to watch my double chin jiggle as I work my way through this cool Mitsuda piece.

Bonds of Sea and Flame (Xenogears) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

Fonsa Myma (Night) from Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Okay, I'm sure you've all had enough non-vgm stuff, so here was a request from Xenoblade. It's a really nice piece and I managed to get basically the entire original to fit as a solo. I was working on this during my twitch stream yesterday, so some of you got to watch the process! I'm trying to stream here and there, because I know arranging is something many of you are interested in, so be sure to follow me on Twitch so you can catch the next one!

Fonsa Myma - Night (Xenoblade Chronicles 2) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)
(11) Kabukibear - Twitch

RANDOM TRANSCRIBING STREAM

Come say hi, if you're bored!

(10) Kabukibear - Twitch

Boy With A Coin by Iron and Wine

So, this is a tune by an artist I've always liked. It's been sitting unfinished on a hard drive for, like, 15 years? I found it going through some old files and finished it up. It's a very cool song, and it's got this fun to play riff going through the whole thing. Be sure to check out the artist "Iron and Wine," if you're interested, they have a very chill, lowkey acoustic sound that some of you might dig.

Boy With A Coin (Popular) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

A Narrow Space Between Dimensions - Solo Guitar

I promised someone I would record myself playing, so here's one from Chrono Cross. Sorry about the low light, I guess I had low light compensation shut off on my camera or something, because it was overcast today, and I had my room lights off.

Watched some tutorial videos about mixing and mastering audio and stuff, so let me know if it sounds okay. I don't really know much about the technical side of all that, so I hope it sounds alright.

I was able to embed the sound file for this into the guitarpro file as well, so you should be able to play along with this instead of the stock guitarpro sound when you play it yourself. You can always shut it off XD but you will probably want to remove all the tempo sync points that goes along with my performance of it. Stil, that's pretty cool. I didn't know that was possible at all.

A Narrow Space Between Dimensions (Chrono Cross) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

Forget-Me-Not - Solo Guitar

How about a new original? The inspiration behind this piece was a composition that one of my subscribers posted on my discord. It was a short, 10 measure musical idea that they had been working on, and my original intention was just to look it over and make some suggestions. I got completely sucked into writing, though, and it ended up turning into a full-blown piece. Whoops!

The title is a nod to the original, which was called "Water Her Flower," so I thought tying it in with Forget-Me-Not's, which are a type of flower, and the double meaning behind that and the "her," from the original title would be a fun idea.

I was in a good mood when I wrote it, and I hope that comes through! Happy strumming!

Forget-Me-Not (Originals) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

Wipe Away The Tears (Romancing SaGa) for Guitar Duet - Featuring guest musician Passagallia!

Subscribe to Passagallia's Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/passagallia and Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@passagallia 

Passagallia is an INCREDIBLE musician I had the pleasure of meeting on Twitch one day and she was an instant follow for me. She streams violin music, and plays everything from classical, to pop, to anime and videogames, and everything in between. If you're lucky, she'll even whip out the otamatone and perform on that, with hilarious results!

On this occasion, she was doing live learns, so I sent her this guitar duet and scrambled to record the 2nd guitar part and send it to her before her stream ended. This is her playing it for the first time, sight-reading! Incredible musicianship and technique, and very charming and funny. Her streams are always a good time, so be sure to check her out! You'll probably see me in the chat goofing around too! (Apologies about the blurriness, she was having camera issues at the time)

sheets/tabs: https://www.kabukibear.com/tab/146

Quick Update! Radical Dreamers Redux

Just checking in with everyone, hope you're all doing well.

Summer classes have completed and I got through with straight A's! Woo!
But what I really care about, is that it means 2 weeks of no classes, meaning I can focus solely on music for a while!

I've got a lot of arrangements brewing, but in the meantime, I went ahead and finally updated my Radical Dreamers arrangement. It was arranged YEARS ago, back when I didn't know much about any of this, so I went through it again, separating the voices properly, adding barre notation, fixing some minor errors here and there, and fleshed out the choir section a smidge.

You can compare the same page between the two, to see how it's changed. I think it's easier to really understand the melody against the accompaniment, and that's really the proper way it should be written out anyway.

So, expect some activity on the site throughout the next two weeks! I want to take as much advantage of the free time as I can, before Fall classes start!

Stay well, and happy strumming!

Lost, Broken Shards from Xenogears

Not really sure what prompted this...but I just felt like doing something a little different. It's been a while since I wrote for anything other than solo guitar, so, while this does have a guitar in it, it's more a trio. As far as the vocalist, I hope you don't hate it. I didn't have any decent cello sounds to mimic the original, and I think it takes it somewhere different, especially at the climax. Speaking of which, sorry! I rarely arrange anything for piano, and I went a little wild with it. :P

Anyway, hope you don't mind something different once in a while. Don't worry, we'll get back to our regularly scheduled programming, this was just because I was in the mood.

Singing of the Gentle Wind from Xenogears

Singing of the Gentle Wind (Xenogears) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

New arrangement for the Xenogears project I've been working on. :)~

Ripples of Daydream / Whence the Flow Cometh from Genshin Impact

sheet music/tabs: Ripples of Daydream / Whence the Flow Cometh (Genshin Impact) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

This is some LOVELY music from Genshin Impact. There is a theme heard in Springvale for two guitars, that I knew I wanted to arrange as a solo. I figured if I was doing that already, I might as well arrange the other theme and, because they both are relatively short, arrange them in such a way that they can be combined into one longer piece. So, this is the result. I hope you like it.

Concrete Tears from Zenless Zone Zero

Concrete Tears (Zenless Zone Zero) - The Bear's Den (kabukibear.com)

So, I was playing ZZZ this morning, and got to a little cutscene involving Koleda's past. At one point, a guitar duet starts playing, and I thought it was really nice, so I transcribed it. Knowing, however, that most people are more interested in solos rather than duets, I got it to work as a solo piece as well. I don't actually know what the name of the piece is, so I gave it the name because I thought it was kind of fitting, given the story.