February 4, 2012

Talents

Everyone has one. It's one other thing that makes a person unique. Some people may have many, some may have few to one. Talents could be singing, dancing, skate-boarding, instrument-playing, and hot dog chugging.
One of my talents is saxophone playing... Specifically alto sax. I'm not much of a sports jock, and I love to play instruments. I am a part of my school's jazz band as an Alto I, which is the highest position for our saxophones.

This week, I recorded myself playing the "Ending Theme" to the classic video game, Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64. It's a very melodic piece that I love. Many people may think of video game music to be very much like trance or techno music, but Super Mario 64 had an exquisite selection of wonderful music matching with the perfect level in the game. This game is from 1996 and it is a very great game with magnificent gameplay and nostalgic themes. I would prefer to play this game versus Call of Duty or anything from the xBox ANY day.

Here is the video of myself playing the "Ending Theme."


Here is the original song uploaded by YouTube user  (please notify me if the video does not play).


I know this song very well because I have played the game it came from many times. When I first got the sheet music, I started sight reading right away and I could play it perfectly after a couple of tries. It did not take long for me to accomplish playing this song. It is truly one of my favorite pieces of music to listen to.

I changed the key of the original with a program called Audacity to match the key of my alto saxophone. Sheet music was downloaded and printed from here if anyone would like to get sheet music.

So my question for this week is...

What is your talent that was gifted to you?

REMINDER!

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE CONTEST FROM CHALLENGE TIME #2! CONTEST ENDS IN MARCH!!!!!!!