What is this?
There's a legend about Charlie Parker, the greatest saxophone player to ever live. He showed up to a jam session, didn't know the changes, and was laughed off stage. He went home and practiced in his woodshed for like 15 hours a day for the next few years. When he returned to the jam, he was the greatest saxophone player in the world.
Since then, "shedding" has come to mean dedicated, isolated practice. PRACTICE TO GET GOOD!!
This page will be a practice diary, musical sketchbook, and dumping ground for musical ideas. Music on this page won't be finished or polished, but it's what I'm up to!
Practice Diary
One Day Challenge: Acoustic Chrono Trigger - 3/19/2026
This morning, YouTube recommended me a a video by Cadence Hira about a melody used in a bunch of (mostly Japanese) video games. It's a fun watch, even if you don't know about music theory.
Anyway, the video starts out discussing the Secret of the Forest Theme from Chrono Trigger. I always loved that theme, and it got my brain going. I recently got a xylophone, could I use that to make an acoustic version of this? And, a challenge: record it in one session after work!
For a few hours of work (including arranging the parts, though thankfully VGLeadSheets gave me a good foundation), I'm pretty proud of it, but there are some things I'd change if I had more time. For one, I don't think saxophone works here very well. My playing was fine, but, especially without a low-end bass/rhythm section tying things together, it kinda sticks out too much. Also, this is the first time I've picked up my flute in a couple months, and I FORGOT how much air it takes! Waaaay more than a tenor sax! Flute isn't a priority for me right now, but I need to practice it more.
I do love the way the xylophone came through, though! I think it would sound really nice if I doubled the sax parts with xylo to give it a little more oopmh. And maybe layer in some more flute drones to fill things out a bit more too.
Maybe I'll return to this one day!
Welcome to "The Shed"