Issue #15 / August 2026
When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Video Game Composer… Hey everyone! I hope summer’s been great for all of you. Being a music teacher has its advantages: I was off from work the entire summer, which gave me plenty of time to focus on family, do a bit of travelling, and, of course, make music! I held a guitar recital in June to wrap up the guitar season, took an online course on music history and attended a week-long guitar camp for the fourth summer in a row. I also did a ton of composition, including orchestral music, chiptunes, and electronic music. And now, I’m back to school for another great year of teaching music.
Upcoming Orchestral Album
My current project is a collection of ten action-oriented orchestral pieces. The drafts are all available on my YouTube channel, and I’m now at the stage of revising everything and fine-tuning the mixing and mastering. I’ve been studying virtual orchestration with film and video game composer Jake Lives for most of 2026, and the experience has been extremely helpful. As part of my homework, I programmed a transcription of Counter Attack from the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon entirely from scratch. Some of my latest orchestral tracks have also been heard by veterans of the industry, like Tim Larkin (Uru: Ages Beyond Myst) and Doyle Donehoo (Aliens: Dark Descent). Their advice and feedback have helped push my music forward. I’ll be announcing the album’s release date very soon! In the meantime, you can listen to one of the tracks I’ve already revised and mastered right here.
Guitar Orchestra
The greatest highlight of my summer was arranging and conducting my music with the guitar orchestra at Camp musical Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. Earlier this year, I released a 16-bit album, Secrets of the Archipelago, and decided to arrange two of its tracks for a four-part guitar orchestra. At guitar camp, I worked with the orchestra every morning to put the arrangements together, and later that week, we performed them in front of a live audience during a concert. You can watch the performances here! Echoes by the Sea and Underwater Passage. And if you want to see an even bigger guitar orchestra, check out this video from a concert I took part in back in February. Can you find me in the orchestra?
Featured Music
As well as studying orchestral music, I’ve been getting help from acclaimed composer Brandon Boone to improve my skills in writing ambient electronic music. I must admit that writing sparse music and making effective use of space and silence is a weakness of mine. So this time, I’m featuring music with less density than the orchestral and retro music I’m more accustomed to writing. Enchanted Forest is a beautiful piano, harp and flute piece designed as exploration music. Glacial Expanse was my attempt at writing electronic music that really breathes. I focused on developing a theme while creating a variety of subtle textures. Finally, Broken Rider is another example of music built around a more limited density.
What’s Next?
As of today, I still have six tracks left to revise and master for my upcoming album. I’m also in the process of negotiating terms to write music for an upcoming game. I’m especially excited about this project because it would give me the opportunity to compose ambient music in a professional setting! Finally, I’ve been doing research for my next project: a music pack featuring orchestral combat music for RPGs and JRPGs. I hope your own projects are moving along well, too! Game Over... Until the Next Score!
