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A Piano Medley of 13 JoCo Songs

Posted by Jarrett on November 23rd, 2008

This is an ad lib piano solo of a bunch of Jonathan Coulton songs.

I’d never heard of this guy until about a year ago. I only discovered this music after playing Portal for the first time. JoCo (as we fans call him) wrote the song that plays during the end credits. I was instantly hooked. I embarked on a mission to seek out and discover all things Coulton, and his complete repertoire has graced my iPod ever since. We have tickets to see Mr. Coulton in San Francisco this January, and I’m beyond geeked about seeing him perform live.

In honor of the occasion, I recorded this overly-long video of me noodling around on the keyboard, playing just a handful of my favorite JoCo tunes. This medley could have easily gone on for hours, but here are the very special tracks that made the cut (in the order they appear):

Still Alive (Intro), Future Soon, Todd the T1000, Mr. Fancy Pants, Skullcrusher Mountain, De-Evolving, Tom Cruise Crazy, Code Monkey, Mandelbrot Set, Chiron Beta Prime (Solo), Re: Your Brains, Over There, Creepy Doll, Still Alive (Reprise)

And if you don’t know JoCo, please listen to and/or purchase some of his tracks. My clumsy fingering hardly does the originals justice. However, fans of my clumsy fingering (hi, Dad) can download the mp3 of this medley by right-clicking here and choosing “Save As…”.

Here’s the MIDI data from this performance.

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Jonathan Coulton » Brains!

[...] There is also this piano medley: spaceparanoids.net/2008/11/joco-medley/ Don’t you people have work to do?

Pingback on December 15th, 2008

Babbel-Net

Für Fans: Jonathan Coulton mal anders!…

Letztes Jahr hab ich euch den amerikanischen Geek / Nerd Musiker Jonathan Coulton, der für Songs wie “Still Alive”, “Code Monkey” or “Re: Your Brains” verantwortlich ist, vorgestellt. Heute ist mir zufällig ein Video in die Hände gefallen in d…

Trackback on January 27th, 2009

Für Fans: Jonathan Coulton mal anders! « Babbel-Net

[...] Links: A Piano Medley of 13 JoCo Songs (Das ganze Video an einem Stück) [...]

Pingback on July 11th, 2009

SpaceParanoids.net » Blog » A Piano Medley of 9 More JoCo Songs*

[...] been more than a year since I posted the original JoCo medley. I was a little surprised by the response I got the first time around. The people really love their [...]

Pingback on January 6th, 2010

48 Comments

Jarrett,

I want to thank you for doing this. I am blown away… not just by your playing (which is superb) but by how beautiful JoCo’s songs truly are. I mean, I always knew they were good. But somehow, when you arrange tunes on a piano, their true nature is brought to life. This has already been added to my ipod and I am impatiently awaiting more music from you in the future. Thanks again…

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Comment by Jeff on November 25th, 2008

Wow, this is really amazing. I think you’ve done the impossible and made these songs sound better than Coulton does. More please!

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Comment by Mike on November 26th, 2008

Beautiful!

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Comment by Javier on November 26th, 2008

Jarrett–thank you for the introduction to Jonathan Coulton’s music, with a nudge from your Dad. The sound came out beautifully, clear and crisp, with your fine fingering. The melodies are so accessible, that you’d love to break out in song–they call for lyrics.

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Comment by Jim on November 29th, 2008

Holy wow! I just Googled to see if anyone had done a piano arrangement for Chiron Beta Prime and found this. Absolutely fantastic arrangement and playing!

You don’t happen to have written out the arrangement? Maybe?…

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Comment by Robin on December 8th, 2008
Jarrett

Sorry, Robin. This music was created on the fly. Maybe someday I’ll draw up the sheet music for this arrangement, but I don’t plan to do it anytime soon.

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Comment by Jarrett on December 9th, 2008

What about MIDI files? Put them somewhere and let the community do the rest.

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Comment by Leonardo Herrera on December 15th, 2008
Jarrett

I didn’t realize there was a community willing to do that for me. I’ll get the MIDI file online soon.

Reply here
Comment by Jarrett on December 15th, 2008

Very nice! This medley is finding its way to my iPod! (Okay. I don’t have an iPod. I have a Zune. And I’m not going to be embarrassed by that any more!)

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Comment by Jack F on December 13th, 2008

Bravo. JoCo mentioned you on his blog. Very nice arrangement.

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Comment by AxsDeny on December 15th, 2008

That was truly beautiful. Many kudos for an awesome arrangement of some fantastic songs.

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Comment by Seth on December 15th, 2008

That was totally amazing! You make it look so easy, but I’m astounded. Way to go. I’m seeing JoCo at the Great American Music Hall in January, too, it will no doubt be a fabulous show!

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Comment by Amelia on December 15th, 2008

Breathtaking.

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Comment by MK on December 15th, 2008

Thanks for this! It makes me wish that I could play by ear… sheet music only goes so far in this day and age. Can’t wait for someone to write this up…

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Comment by Jacob on December 16th, 2008

Absolutely amazing! Love it! Way to go! I’m a huge JoCo fan and this made me smile. You’re in my iTunes now and on my iPhone =o)

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Comment by Bill English on December 16th, 2008

Found your site from Joco’s Blog. Truly awesome! Downloading the MP3 right now for my son’s and my own Zunes! Would love to see or hear more!

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Comment by Stephen Kennedy on December 16th, 2008

………Wow.
You are AWESOME!!
Thank you so much!
MORE!!

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Comment by Stephen Staver on December 16th, 2008

Found your medley from JoCo’s blog, and I just have to say–you are made of awesome!

I’ve downloaded the mp3 and so that I can listen to the piano/JoCo goodness wherever I go.

Thanks so much, and I’ll add my vote to those asking for more.

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Comment by Jissa on December 18th, 2008

Wow – that’s just incredible. This ranks right up there with the “Dear Friends” concert to celebrate the music of Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu (and I’m not trying to be facetious or obnoxious, this is honestly what your arrangement reminded me of). I can honestly imagine scores of Asian fans begging for sheet music for their piano recitals. And this was ad lib? Just amazing.

As a really lazy piano player, I think your arrangements are wonderful and I love how well you’ve revealed both Coulton’s talent as a songwriter, and your talent as a musician.

Enjoy the concert in January – I know you’ll have a great time :)

^_^

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Comment by Liza LS on December 18th, 2008

Welcome to the ranks of us loyal JoCo fans! Fantastic medley — many thanks for posting this. As someone previously said, listening to these tunes on piano really highlights the witty and charming melodies of Jonathan Coulton songs. Please do more of these!

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Comment by Tim on December 19th, 2008

Just wanted to say that this is awesome. That’s all.

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Comment by Miguel on December 21st, 2008

Simply amazing! It’s not just that you play JoCo songs incredible well, but the way they flowed into each other really made the whole thing. I have a feeling this will quickly climb to the top of my playlist.

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Comment by Sean on December 23rd, 2008

VERY NICE!!
What a nice arrangement.®

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Comment by Rioexxo on December 25th, 2008

Oh my god, yes. I love you. And I second the midi bit. I was looking for a piano arrangement of Chiron Beta Prime or Christmas is interesting.

*awaits eagerly*

You, good sir, are amazing. *tips hat*

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Comment by Mugdha on December 28th, 2008
Jarrett

Wait no longer. A video that includes Chiron Beta Prime is here.

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Comment by Jarrett on December 28th, 2008

>_>

I saw that…I should have been more clear. :|

Do you have a pdf or a midi? I want to play it, but I am no good at playing by ear. :(

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Comment by Mugdha on December 28th, 2008

I stumbled across this video a few days ago, and have since been looking for that MIDI file you mentioned a few comments above. I’ve been playing piano for eight years, but my composing is crap, and I’d really like to have that MIDI file so I can run it through my program and convert it to sheet music.

Any chance you’ve put that file up and I just haven’t found it?

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Comment by Logan on December 30th, 2008

That was completely awesome! I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’d love to hear play one of them in their entirety.

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Comment by Scott on January 7th, 2009

This shows a lot of potential. The arrangement captures JoCo very well, but the fingering is just a little bit stiff. Watching/listening makes me wonder if it would be better if I was able to bug your room and listen when there was no camera and you didn’t know anyone could hear you… :)

One way I like to think of performances is on a scale of reproduce vs. express. If the musician reproduces a piece, no matter how technically talented they may be it still is not as interesting as if it was less technically skilled but the musician tries to express the music. The notes may all be very precisely played and enjoyable to listen to, but if there is no expression it will never inspire emotion.

In this performance you seem to go back and forth between fretting over technique and actually getting into the expression of the music. It also seems that there are certain passages where you try a bit too hard to “swing” it and it ended up seeming a bit like the “formula” for the swing got a bit wrong. (Mainly early in the piece.)

Once you got to about Skullcrusher Mountain you really seemed to relax and get into it and enjoy yourself and it shows.

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Comment by Alex on January 7th, 2009

Did you read his description? It is an ad-lib arrangement. I don’t think he was going for his Kennedy Center performance. I personally think this is a great arrangement, with plenty of heart and emotion.

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Comment by cdmac on January 13th, 2009

Alex,

I know you mean well, but I think that ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Comment by Leonardo Herrera on January 8th, 2009

Alex must be REALLY good. I can’t wait to see his JoCo medley!

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Comment by Mike on January 11th, 2009

This is amazing!
You rock!

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Comment by Anonymous on January 11th, 2009

Hi Alex,

What an amazing medley! Have been listening it all week! Found your blog when searching for Still Alive versions (yours is awesome)
You made me an instant JoCo fan!

Greetings from the Netherlands.

Sebastiaan

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Comment by Sebastiaan from the Netherlands on February 1st, 2009

A belated comment: but this is awesomeness that may even exceed my much coveted mp3 of GermanSeabass’s Kingdom Hearts Piano Medley. =D

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Comment by Hinzel on February 14th, 2009
Jarrett

Update: I finally dug up the MIDI file from this performance. Download it here.

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Comment by Jarrett on March 17th, 2009

YAY!

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Comment by Mugdha on March 17th, 2009

Amazing *and* incredible. Very talented!

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Comment by whall on March 17th, 2009

Holy smokes, this is great! Amazing work!

I’m definitely grabbing this mp3

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Comment by Paul on April 22nd, 2009

This will never get old! My hubby and I have every JoCo out there, and this mp3 is going on the playlist too.

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Comment by Jessica Christian on October 23rd, 2009

my hobby is playing piano when im at house doing nothing, but in this performance you seem to go back and forth between fretting over technique.
piano

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Comment by piano guide on November 22nd, 2009

Any chance you’ve gotten the sheet music drawn up yet? I’ve converted the midi files through several difference programs, and none of them do it quite right, some of them don’t even separate the treble and bass clef. Makes it real hard to learn the song.

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Comment by sarah on December 10th, 2009
Jarrett

I’ve created a follow-up to the JoCo piano medley I recorded a year ago. You can find it here: http://spaceparanoids.net/2010/01/joco-medley2/

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Comment by Jarrett on January 6th, 2010

Wow, this is awesome, a lot of talent for sure!

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Comment by Free Wii Points on February 8th, 2010
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