Mother/EarthBound store theme "Humoresque of a Little Dog" sight-read by Tom Brier, piano

I had sent Tom a couple links of different arrangements of this tune, but he had yet to click on any of them when I presented this sheet music arrangement to him, so this is the first time he has heard the tune, much less seen the music.

You can download my piano arrangement here:
http://www.keeper1st.com/music/hoald.pdf

Stay tuned for a video of Tom building up on the Super Mario Land Birabuto Kingdom theme, which was recorded the same day. (But, darn the luck, I decided not to record when he sight-read the Yoshi Valley / Moo-Moo Farm theme from Mario Kart almost flawlessly... Maybe we can save that one for a video of him actually playing something he's played before -- what a novel concept!)

Anyway, I think three different YouTubers had asked if I could have Tom play this tune. None knew of any existing sheet music scores, so I made my own arrangement based on several recordings. The tune is from the Nintento role-playing series "Mother" (Japanese title) / "EarthBound" (English title), where it is called simply "Buy Somethin', Will Ya!" It was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka.

Since he hadn't played the tune before, Tom takes it at a slow tempo all the way through the first time, rather than speeding up throughout the tune as I indicate on the sheet music, then plays it faster all the way through the second time around to make up for it. He has a bit of difficulty with the second section, so we'll have to take another crack at making a video of this to get a flawless performance in. He liked the tune, though, and wondered if the Raspberry Jam Band might like this as much as they do "K.K. Ragtime"... so who knows what the future may hold?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• videogame
• piano
• mother
• earthbound

[bkev93]

I love this, it feels like it belongs in an old-time saloon.

[Keeper1st]

@bkev93 It almost IS in an old-time saloon. This building dates back to about the 1880s or so. The piano isn't quite so old though. And the building was never a saloon -- rather a soda fountain, Western Union, and other things...

[Keeper1st]

@bkev93 But, of course, this style of music also is too recent for what would be considered "old-time saloon". This is early-20th-century music -- not something that you'd hear in the 1870s and 1880s.

[47H10N]

Actually the only thing, that could be improved about these Videos is the Audioquality of the Cameramic. It simply doesn't do justice to his amazing skills (is this correct english? I'm german).

[Keeper1st]

@47H10N Yeah, later in 2009 I got a new camera with very good audio quality. All my videos shot from November 2009 onward have much better audio.

[TolaMacarino]

Oh, that F minor part is so beautiful. You must have played Earthbound for that song to be in your arrangement!

[Keeper1st]

@TolaMacarino No, I'd never even heard of the game when I came across the music. That part was in a recording I found from I think Super Smash Bros. or something, so I included it in my transcription. I used two recordings of different versions of the tune when coming up with my piano transcription.

[Sebastian1011]

0.o the one person that disliked... WAS GIYGAS!!!! O.O

[maraudersvt7]

@lulzitsdave me too XD Or a bar lol

[telemarketersteve]

WHO WEARS SHORT SHORTS!

[gretschdrummer100]

how do you sightread like that?

[lulzitsdave]

I want to download this song and play it whenever I walk into a store.

[adsbegone]

@TheChromish Oh, okay. XD

[TheChromish]

@adsbegone I was making a joke. XP

[adsbegone]

@TheChromish No. I was writing the release year of EarthBound, not the year EarthBound was set.

[TheChromish]

@adsbegone * 199X

[TheChromish]

@Sebastian1011 And Pokey.

[adsbegone]

EarthBound, creating shockingly and amazingly great cover versions of its music since 1994.