Thank you both so much for the very nice words. It really means a lot to me just that you checked it out and liked it. I know I can't play for crap, but I love these old songs so much I can't resist it.
You know, Aeroprism, I don't think people realize just how difficult it is to compose and arrange music electronically. I've always been a fan of electronic music (which video games do so well), but I have never been able to sit down and work out a song electronically. It takes a heck of a lot of musical knowledge and you almost have to be an engineer to align everything properly and make it work. My best friend notates all of his stuff in Anvil Studio, and I've just never been able to do it, even something like that. You've almost got to be able to see the parts in your mind simultaneously, and I can't do it! That's why I love your work, because it's seamless, and it all works.
augmentedfourth, I was definitely looking for that contrast of moods in this piece. The original seems to play the dynamics a little more smoothly, but I was feeling that sense of urgency in the higher part. Probably because I found it the hardest to play, and kept rushing it! But yeah, I really like that almost polymetric feel in the middle part of the song. It's one of the things that really caught my eye when I was learning the piece. I'm huge into King Crimson and stuff like that, with all the crazy polymeter and polyrhythms, and I used to be in a band that tried to play that kind of music. The guitarist and I couldn't play for crap, but we could more or less sync up in random time signatures!
But yeah, I cannot read music to save my soul. I wish I could. I only know what I learned in Fine Arts class in high school, and that just barely. I just try to figure it out by ear, and since I can't notate music it makes it really interesting when I try to write it down and remember it. Half the time I can't make out my own handwriting.