How to Compose Music like The Legend of Zelda

[@StevenMelin]

What other composers / styles would you like me to dissect?

[@tomogoyfgoyf3968]

Nobuo Uematsu specifically one winged angel

[@dezmilcoisas]

Yasunori Mitsuda would be great.

[@fabianwinters7826]

Jeremy Zuckerman/ the composer for Avatar the last airbender

[@StevenMelin]

Fabian Winters Cool pick!

[@M.Fallani]

John Williams any film he had done

[@FatalMuffin]

Holy crap glad I stumbled on this channel! It's tough to find people actually dissecting the theory behind this music without overly sugar-coating it, thank you sir!

[@CatalogK9]

I’ve always heard it described as the “flat six major seven” but this approach makes a lot of sense as well.

[@StevenMelin]

Oh interesting!

[@hayala0]

That zelda chord progression and your original village theme reminds me a lot of the Traverse Town music style from Kingdom Hearts.

[@kevinarmes9804]

Hey I love the type of content you’re covering! Really good to see someone dig in a little bit. Your composition going from D Maj to F Major seven weeks s gorgeous. Very Koji Kondo like. He loves using mode mixture (think IIb IIIb VIb VIIb chords) with a major seven in the melody. Well done

[@ernestdayne6711]

Great stuff in this video. You are a great pianist as well. I’ve been working hard trying to become a good composer on my own, and your wisdom helps so I appreciate it

[@drewwilken9894]

love thiiiiis dude thanks for the awesome video! Was expecting this to have like a mil views, deserves it!!

[@StevenMelin]

Drew Wilken heh, thanks! The original upload of this had quite a bit (30k maybe?), but I pulled it and re-uploaded years later. My channel has been through some growing pains.

[@TrueTydin]

Do a series on David Wise :) I know he’d love that. He’s a great guy

[@StevenMelin]

Tydin awesome idea!

[@StevenMelin]

Who knew that 4 yrs later I’ve been able to compose with David Wise! 👀

[@TrueTydin]

@@StevenMelin and 4 years later I’m still in love with his music and your channel!

[@shwormy]

This is amazing, I'm still new so I don't really get a lot of it but I'm going to try and teach myself. Thank you so much for making this video.

[@XxLeatonSxX]

Wow really nice breakdown Steven, thanks a ton for this video and great playing!!

[@FactionMember723]

Great series with a lot of info here. Loved the Disasterpeace one as well.

[@StevenMelin]

thanks! this was a re-uploaded vid from 2018, but I plan to make more in this "compose like" series :)

[@FactionMember723]

@@StevenMelin haha. I probably watched it already, in that case. Still, fresher eyes and perspective revisiting it on my end = great value.

[@willsanders3138]

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but isn't the II chord in the beginning of Zelda's lullaby just a II chord in Lydian mode, not a secondary dominant? Secondary dominants typically resolve down a 5th, whereas this just cycles back to the I (Cmaj7).

[@StevenMelin]

Some others have commented with that same thought 😅

[@willsanders3138]

@@StevenMelin thanks for the reply! I'm still learning, and don't have much higher level schooling in theory. Questions like this are genuinely me trying to understand what's correct/incorrect/ambiguous/unnecessary

[@gasoline.8083]

Hey man, what's the keyboard you're using? I'm looking for one similar to yours, most of the time I use mechanical piano but I'm in college and kinda don't have space in my room nor money to buy one, I'm looking to buy an electric piano. What's your suggestion?? Nice video btw, really enjoy it.

[@StevenMelin]

Thanks for watching :) You can check out my music gear list (including keyboard recommendations) here: stevenmelin.com/musicgearlist This specific MIDI controller (Axiom 49 Mk II) is discontinued, but you can find it on eBay for under $100!!

[@isaax961]

But if you want the succesor that is currently in the market, is the M-Audio oxygen.

[@jcong000]

Hey! do you have analysis videos for VGM?

[@WinterVibrations]

What is the song playing in the background around 3:15?

[@StevenMelin]

This! open.spotify.com/track/4OW4ZPTOZjtMpGErqpgSbR?si=ICZqFV8NSaqbWLoIV17KjQ

[@WinterVibrations]

@@StevenMelin thanks dawg

[@misawasfx]

After all, the geniality in his compositions are in the variations he created within the tonality table?

[@MesaTheAalfa]

What does he meant by "lowered third degree" ?

[@StevenMelin]

“Degree” means the number of a note in a scale (ex. E is the third scale degree in the key of C)

[@MesaTheAalfa]

@@StevenMelin Oh wow! thank you for the fast response . I understand it now :)

[@stereo123]

If I can't really follow this video because of the lack of written info along it, what should I study more?

[@StevenMelin]

Music theory! Learn the basics for free at www.musictheory.net. I apologize for not using visuals to better explain in this old vid, but my more modern vids have much more explanations at a slower pace.

[@ZagnutBar]

Very interesting, Steven. I'm not a professional musician but I am a long time fan of music in early CRPGs-- including what was likely the very first example: the 1983 Apple ][ version of Ultima III (you had to have a special sound card called the "Mockingboard" to hear the music, so not everyone who played had this experience). Take a listen: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKGypoyirbadlac The music may sound a bit basic to modern ears but remember the tunes were specific to location, like in Zelda (overworld theme, castle theme, dungeon theme, town theme, meditation shrines, etc.) Remember this was most likely the very first time CRPG gamers had a soundtrack synchronized with gameplay. Both the Ultima IV and V soundtracks were equally excellent. (Things began to fall apart for me with Ultima VI, which was released for IMB PCs and the midi synth available at the time sounded somehow duller to me when compared with the Mockingboard tones). I agree with you that the dark world music in "A Link to the Past" was among the best in the Zelda series (I've played all of the major Zelda games as they were released, beginning with the original Zelda on the NES in 1987 and up to the Wii Twilight Princess). However, like my experience with Ultima VI, the tunes in 3D Zelda began to feel a bit washed out. Gone were the infinitely hummable heroic themes and instead we got these kind of wispy, etherial sounding and sometimes goofy tunes that really diminished my interest. (I was quite surprised to learn from you that Kondo was the composer who led the shift to this new style of music.) At least, the 3D Zelda music didn't engage me in the same way that those bold tunes from the early games did. I always preferred the US CRPGs because they tended to take the subject matter more seriously overall, which lent gravitas to the experience which I found a great deal more fulfilling. Ultima V (32-year old spoiler alert!) had a really cool mechanic where you played a specific harpsichord tune (you actually had to play it with the computer keyboard) which would open a secret room that was essential to completing the game. If you like, please take a listen to those old Ultima tunes (from III, IV and V especially) and let me know what you think. I had a Yamaha organ in the early 80s and, like you, the tunes inspired me to figure out how to play them :)

[@StevenMelin]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I never played the Ultima games, but it sounds like something to try out :)

[@ZagnutBar]

​@@StevenMelin I hope you do check them out (on an Apple ][ emulator, for the truest experience!) Bear in mind that in the early 80s there were no CRPG conventions-- everyone had their own way of bringing tabletop D&D to a computer screen. The programmer (Richard Garriott) was a 17-year old son of an astronaut, who dreamed of spaceflight but was disqualified due to bad eyesight. Remember that Star Wars & its sequels were in theaters. As a result the early Ultimas were a teenage nerd's fever dream, which included spaceships and hovercrafts and TIE fighters and he even threw in the portals from Time Bandits. You even meet a Time Lord in one game. As the series matured, the plots were later retconned to make them seem more cohesive, but it was really fun to experience the mad chaos of it all contemporaneously. Fun fact that in 2008 Garriott bought his way onto a Russian spaceship to stay on board the ISS, finally fulfilling the dream of spaceflight that previously he lived out vicariously through his games. Anyway, the Ultimas really are a big part of CRPG history, and all games (including Zelda) were influenced by it. Well worth checking them out as a living piece of gaming history. (Plus, the music was great!)

[@dormaettu302]

Nice what midi keyboard is this one ?

[@StevenMelin]

M-Audio Axiom 49 Mk II!

[@dormaettu302]

@@StevenMelin thanks !

[@98voteforpedro]

I think thats called an Andalusian cadence the other one is also a cadence i believe