Earlier this week, two of my songs were featured in the flash "Power Star 4". Another song was used in "Power Star 4.5". Both flashes ended up as being best of the day and were on the front page. Consequently, I've had more reviews than ever pour in over the last week and have not even had the time to respond to them all!

Over the last week, I was amazed at the sheer number of reviews, PMs, and requests for sheet music. Earlier this week, I was on the favorite audio author list of 100 people. As of this morning, that has jumped to 200! In what took me over a year to build DOUBLED in the last week. O_o And then this morning, I found that two of my tracks have been added to the best tracks ever list on the audio page (#2 and #4)!

Things are really starting to look up, and it is certainly motivating me. I've been very stressed as of late, but it is nearly impossible not to smile every time I come to newgrounds and read inspiring new reviews, PMs, etc. Thank you all for being so incredibly supportive of me and my music. Since it really means more than I can ever express in words, I'll try to express it with more songs as soon as school gives me a chance to breath. :P

Thank you all, you are awesome! :D
~Blaze

EDIT: I've had many people request sheet music for my compositions. I do not have it at the moment, but will transcribe it as soon as possible. I'll try to have it done within the week. Thank you all for your patience!

I just got home from a wonderful week of vacation, only to come home to chaos. I have 7 days of homework to make up, multiple tests, and some major projects to start on. That isn't even counting all of the normal homework I have to keep up with and extracurricular activities. Consequently, I've been unhealthily stressed.

I feel much better, though. I came to check on my newgrounds account to find that about 20 users had added me as favorite artist. The next day, that number jumped again with another 20 or so users! I now have 148 people with me on their favorite artists list! I looked all over but couldn't figure out why I was suddenly getting more reviews and being favorited.

It turns out that three of my songs were used on two incredible flashes that both made daily feature; Power Star 4 and Power Star 4.5! :D

I'm literally in awe. I've wanted my music to be featured in a decent flash ever since I discovered Newgrounds years ago. Now, two of my favorite compositions have been featured in two of my favorite flashes. My mouth jaw was nearly hanging to the floor as I watched Power Star 4 and heard my piano music playing. Wow...

I wanted to thank all of you for the continued reviews and support! I've been very busy lately, but I will do my best to catch up on responding to reviews and PMs. You guys are awesome! ^_^

~Blaze

I'll be out of town for about the next week and a half. I'll respond to all reviews and messages as soon as I am back and have a computer available.

Thank you all for your support! :D
~Blaze

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I now have 100 users listing me on their favorite audio artists list. This is a tremendous honor to say the least. I can still remember when I came to NG and posted my first piece. No reviews, no recognition, just a merciless audio portal filled with zero-bombers. :P

I've come a long way since then in both compositional technique and fan-base. While there is still a long way to go, I truly appreciate the continued support. I am always striving to hone my skills and make music with increasing quality. Reading the new reviews that have poured in lately has helped encourage me very much.

Anywho, I just wanted to thank all of you for being so awesome to me! The reviews, PMs, and encouraging comments mean the world to me. Thank you all so much! :D

~Blaze

PS. Check out my friend Tamadrum's music. He is quite talented and could use more recognition. It was his birthday recently, so make sure to congratulate him. xD

EDIT: I received 8th place in the MAC8 Sorrowed Tears contest! Unfortunately, only 1st-4th get prizes. I wanted the stickers. ;( Oh well...Thank you all for supporting me. Hopefully I'll place even higher next time!

Firstly, I have spent many hours working on a Zelda: OoT ReMix for solo piano and just posted it. I feel it is my best work to date and highly recommend you check it out if you enjoy my other music.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /165200

Now that we've got that out of the way, I'd like to wish a HUGE happy b-day to my friend Tamadrum! He is my best friend, neighbor, and composer buddy. :P Please make his birthday great and leave his music a review! It would make for a great present, and I know that he responds to every review.

Finally, I've got some bad news. School starts tomorrow (Friday) and I've got a lot on my plate. I'm involved in plenty of advanced classes and activities to suck the time and life right out of me. As such, my music output will surely suffer significantly (Yay for alitteration!). I will still be composing with what little free time I have, but it will be far less frequent. :(

In summary: School stinks, happy birthday Tamadrum, and listen to my newest song! Thank you all for your continued support, as it means more to me than I could possibly express in words! :D

~Blaze

Hello all!

I've been gone on a church mission trip for the last week and just got back. The past few days have simply been amazing and truly opened my eyes to how poverty stricken and destitute the city really is. Yet I also found how resilient the human spirit can be and how a small act of kindness can change a life. I know it sounds awfully corny, but the point here is that I am inspired. Be expecting some great new music soon!

In other news, a new collab between myself and Tamadrum has been completed! It is currently posted on his profile, and I feel that it is the best of both our works. It is the longest song I have ever worked on at over 4 minutes, and is also happy! (Oh my gosh, Blaze didn't write a sad song for once! :O) Check it out and drop a review if you'd like. Also check out Tamadrum's other music.

Best Friends

When I came home yesterday, I found that I had 30 new reviews to respond to. This is both great and horrible at the same time. Positive in that, well...It's 30 new reviews! Negative in that, well...It's 30 new reviews. :P That will take me quite a while to respond to them all. Good gravy...In any case, I really appreciate the continued support. After being #8 on the front audio page for a week, Heaven's Tears recieved over 30 reviews alone! With all the people looking at my music, my other songs also recieved many reviews. I would guesstimate that 1/4 or all the reviews I've ever recieved came in from the last two or so weeks. And I've been here posting audio for nearly 2 years if I remember correctly. :D

Thank you all for being awesome, and check out the song I posted a link to above. Be expecting new music soon! ^_^

~Blaze

EDIT: I forget to mention, but I recently posted a new song titled "Tears of Remorse". It is my original composition for the MAC8 Sorrowed Tears contest. Please check it out as well.

My friend Tamadrum and I have finished two collabs in the last two days. He is my next door neighbor, which allows us to easily swap ideas and such. :P

I just posted one the the completed collabs which is titled "The Approaching Storm". It is orchestral (No piano? *GASP*) piece which centers around a young soldier leaving for war. I am very happy with the way it turned out and would love to read and respond to any constructive reviews. We also composed a very nice piece titled "BestFriends". It will be posted on Tamadrum's account within the next week, hopefully. He is still waiting for his first audio piece to be accepted. :/

I highly reccomend you listen to the song I just posted, and watch for Tamadrum's upcoming music. In particular, "Best Friends" is a song which I enjoy. (I did all the piano parts for it) Please drop his music a review! I believe that he definitely deserves it.

Finally, I will be leaving on a chuch missions trip tomorrow. I will get back next Friday. Durring this time, I will be unable to respond to ANY reviews! :'( I will take care of them all as soon as I get back.

Thank you for your continued support,
~Blaze

I cannot begin to describe how ecstatic I am. After several weeks of utter boredom and falling into the depths of musical despair, inspiration has touched me with its golden finger!

It was earlier this evening that it all took place. I went to the basement, turned off all lights, and sat at the piano. Ironically, it was in that darkness that inspiration lit my soul. A scene came to mind, and the music begin to flow. It was so haunting...So mournful...It was absolutely bone-chilling. While it is only a rough sketch, I've got the fundemental ideas laid down. I'm going to enter it in MAC8. B)

I'm not prepared to put up a demo, so here is the scene I imagined:

Utter silence consumed the the decaying room. The only sound came in the form of light rain tapping against the dust-laden window. One solitary beam of moonlight stretched across this ancient attic, illuminating the vacant room. In the midst of this abandoned house dwelled the soul of a young girl of eight years. With a beautiful white dress and long, flowing brown hair, the child floated into the room through an old deteriorating wall. As she entered, dust swirled about, for it had been building silently for the past twenty years. The girl's face held no expression; it simply looked onward. Slowly she made her way through the darkness, allowing past memories to flow freely through her mind. As she took another step forward, a sharp noise pierced through the silence; the young soul had stepped on a picture, cracking the frame. The girl carefully lifted the picture and examined it under the the beam of moonlight. It was a family, happily posing under a large oak tree. In that picture was the girl, wearing the same white dress. Vague memories filled her mind, though she could not understand them clearly. She soon realized that it was her own family. Suddenly, the look of intrigue about her face melted into a deep frown; she still couldn't remember any of their names. And so went the reminiscence of a forgotten soul, doomed to wander her home in solitude for all eternity...unable to remember even her own name...

Depressing, isn't it? xD
That is the basis upon which I compose this song. I am very excited and believe it fits the MAC8 sad theme quite well.

The title: Reminiscence of a Forgotten Soul

It is currently set for solo piano, though I may add a violin and perhaps oboe. You all know how sad those violins can be! ;)

Please tell me what you think of the story. I want some impressions!

-----------------------
EDIT------NEWS UPDATE: I woke up earlier today to find that my song "Heaven's Tears" is in the Top 10 on the AP, #8! Not only was this completely unexpected, but it occured within less that a week from the time I was put on the UnderDogList. This week has probably been a record for the number of reviews I've recieved, and I even had a song featured in another flash. (And I got my inspiration back! :O)

I'm not trying to brag; I simply want to aknowledge how much a blessing this is. Thank you so much to all those who support my music and leave the contstructive reviews which help me improve! :D

Jeez, I need to stop being lazy and submit something new! The only problem is that I'm completely at a loss. Could someone please provide me with some inspiration? I don't really care what form it is in, so long as it gets the creative juices flowing. I always love to get stories that I could base a song on, but great pictures, poems, videos, or anything would be of help. Heck, just go ahead and command me to stop being lazy! :P

I do have some positive news, however. I just found that I was put on the most recent UnderDogList! :O
This really means a lot to me and has been of great help. As of right now I've had 19 reviews come in over the last 48 hours. Ambient Evening also hit the Top 30 about a weeks ago and has gotten an insane amount of listens.

64 Reviews, 64 times favorited, over 5,100 listens, and it's now been used in a few flashes! I find that to be amazing considering the thing is only about 30 seconds. Why can't any of my longer works gain popularity?! (*coughWINTERDREAMcough*) Oh well, that's life. I've also made an effort to leave more and more reviews for people, especially outside the Classical genre. It is very interesting to hear more diverse music as I review, and I've found that many people respond to them and even review my music in return. That's always nice.

Lastly, my little brother has an account here on Newgrounds. He will post his music on there, and I will put short loops and whatever crud is unworthy of putting on this account. I have dozens of songs that are either unfinished or unworthy of taking up space on this account. They will slowly be added to my little bros account, which is:

www.magnificat12.newgrounds.com

Check it out if your interested. The stuff won't be very good to what I have here comparitively, but you may find something you like. :)

I feel like all of the inspiration has simply been sucked out of me. I've spent several hours trying to come up with a decent chord progression, and I've got nothing. I sat at the piano chunking out chords, but have not gotten any decent results! I'm at a complete loss here.

Perhaps I'm just burnt out and need to take a break. In the mean time, I've been trying to hone my skills by reading up on composition, counter-point, etc. A lot of the stuff has just gone right over my head! I wish books didn't over-complicate everything. I just want an effective and down to earth text that will teach me in a simple and direct manner. It is so daunting to read some of these books, but there is no way I could afford lessons. Does anyone know of a good book or website that can help me study counter-point or orchestration? I would prefer something that isn't too complicated.

On a brigther note, I uploaded a new song titled, "Fond Memory". It is about a year old, but I like it as a whole. The only exception is the intro, which I loathe with a burning passion. >_> Many people have requested that I actually compose a happy song for a change. So, I felt rather obligated to post this one, though it be a bit old and such. :P

Anyone have any suggestions on how I might cure this ever present composer's writing block? I'd really appreciate it. :)

~Blaze