Final Fantasy VI Analysis Series PART 1: Development of Melodic Ideas

In this new, 3-part series on the music of Final Fantasy VI, I take a look at how long time series composer Nobuo Uematsu writes music on a note-by-note level. I like breaking down music to as fundamental level as I can to see if there are any patterns or strategies that I can take for my own writing, so hopefully you guys find that interesting too!

#finalfantasymusic #videogamemusic #musictheory

[corwinchapman]

That joke outta nowhere almost ended my 27 years on this earth. Well written.

[ameliapaine]

Wow, hearing that Uematsu is self-taught is a huge inspiration to me. I’m also a self-taught musician and Uematsu is a very important role model of mine. It was the opera that convinced me to learn as much of the FFVI soundtrack as I could on the piano. Uematsu is a genius! My favorite piece of his is definitely Dancing Mad. I love how it’s classical-inspired and just how epic it is!

[air]

Ahh but Terra's theme also has a snare behind it, turning a lyrical music into march, emphasizing her past work as a soldier, as if it was haunting her. Really beautiful music

[McMenemyorSomething]

If you could just go through the whole Final Fantasy series, that'd be great. Love the content 😘

(Edit: If you could also analyze how we're able to listen to battle music for hours and not get tired of it, that'd be pretty radical too.)

[marche]

Never thought I'd see the day where I hear Setzer get called a "Degenerate Otaku Fanboy".

[heyojinko]

Let's just ignore the fact that 8-bMT is hungry for brains.

[haroldcampos]

This is probably my favorite youtube channel of all time.

[YingwuUsagiri]

I've said it before but I'll say it again. I truly love how you've found your editing and structural style first extracting the core thing that is being played on a piano with a transparant visual and then bringing back in the actual song with the sheet music itself. Also I really love the slight additions of you softly hammering in the difference in sound between alternative choices. Your channel was already great before but recently with the cleaner look and structure it became amazing.

[Threnody]

This is such a great breakdown of why Uematsu's music WORKS. It isn't just pretty, or fun, or fitting. It WORKS. That was always my composition professor's highest praise. Functional music is so important to understanding composition, and Uematsu absolutely makes functional music that is also fun, and pretty, and fitting! Great stuff, looking forward to the rest of this series!

[DisdonnPlays]

This game, and its soundtrack, always get to me on a very deep, philosophical and emotional level. I can't stress how much I'm glad that you picked to do a 3 parter on THIS game above all the other Final Fantasy games you could have picked. And the first two songs are basically the themes of the two leading ladies. BRAVO!

[Guerin]

I love, love, *love* this series. Uematsu is almost single-handedly responsible for me getting into composition. (The rest was bad luck--I broke my left hand and no longer had the grip strength to keep playing bass.)

I almost wish this were a second channel, doing this kind of analysis for *all* of Uematsu's work. Especially with what you have planned for the second episode--while I see where you're going, *the* game, if you're looking at how to reuse material in new ways, is Final Fantasy 8, not 6. (Listen to the soundtrack, and count how many times "Eyes on Me" and "Ami" get reused. Don't do this as a drinking game, though, or you'll die of alcohol poisoning.)

[emmbeesea]

Uematsu-san is a pillar of VGM, arguably with FFVI being his best work. 16 well-developed characters with distinct leitmotifs? Genius. I look forward to all 3 of these videos!

[shinigamimiroku]

Aria Di Mezzo Carattere will always be in my top 10 videogame themes of all time, despite never having gotten past the opening parts of FF6 (though it is on my to-finish list, once I get a copy of my own). It is just such a beautiful piece, y'know...?

[raphaelellis]

"Meticulously crafted with everything in the right place" - same could be said of your analyses. Love this channel!

[RatherWatchThemSA]

Terra's Theme always gets my eyes welled up.

E: AND THE OPERA BRINGS IT HOME. This isn't fair.

[deepsolar]

3:04 "It's also worth noting the Uematsu harmonized the end of this phrase with a minor dominant chord and not a... Dominant dominant chord... Wait I'm just gonna call this the 5 chord" LMAO

[chasebethersonton]

So happy to see this series coming out. The first piece of MIDI I ever tried to study on day one of learning music theory was Into the Darkness. FF has the best VGM ever!

Love the channel. Thanks!

[KevinSiebert]

Helped me inspire me on learning more music theory

[Grisildor]

This is the first video of your's that I've seen, and it is fantastic. After seeing A New World last night, this is exactly what I needed today!

[willpreston]

Your channel deserves substantially more than 167K subscribers. You put forth incredible effort and coherence and it really shows.