Ryan Gonzales

It takes some real work to creatively reimagine a popular song that you've heard pretty much the same way forever...but I gave it my best shot with these songs... All of these were done in the last few months because of this app called Sing! by the company Smule that I love to use. Its basically a social network for people who like to sing, and you can sing along to pretty much anything that you want to. The community is quite large...and famous singers and bands even use it! You can do duets, solos, or group songs...you can join another's open call, or create your own. You can also be invited to join one of the many groups that have formed among singing circles on the app, and support each other and do amateur competitions together. It was for one of these competitions--"The Voice" of Smule--that I decided I wanted to step up my game and submit some performances that I not only sang, but also arranged for orchestra (since my strength is more classically-inclined singing). So both "Fix You" and the "When You Believe/Go the Distance" mashup were written and recorded for this reason. And the mashup actually took first prize! So I've saved these covers, and now here they are for anyone interested to listen to.

It takes some real work to creatively reimagine a popular song that you've heard pretty much the same way forever...but I gave it my best shot with these songs... All of these were done in the last few months because of this app called Sing! by the company Smule that I love to use. Its basically a social network for people who like to sing, and you can sing along to pretty much anything that you want to. The community is quite large...and famous singers and bands even use it! You can do duets, solos, or group songs...you can join another's open call, or create your own. You can also be invited to join one of the many groups that have formed among singing circles on the app, and support each other and do amateur competitions together. It was for one of these competitions--"The Voice" of Smule--that I decided I wanted to step up my game and submit some performances that I not only sang, but also arranged for orchestra (since my strength is more classically-inclined singing). So both "Fix You" and the "When You Believe/Go the Distance" mashup were written and recorded for this reason. And the mashup actually took first prize! So I've saved these covers, and now here they are for anyone interested to listen to.

An original arrangement and performance by yours truly. No sheet music nor listening to a recording of another version went into this. This arrangement was purely by ear following the melody I know in my head, and allowing my inner composer to write what I felt. All vocals and choral parts are myself as well. Please enjoy!

My first solo piano composition. It was written at the end of 2015 after what would prove to be the worst year of my life...most of the year things would move along as always, but underneath it all, things were beginning to unravel. This piece, I believe, is a reflection of it all, and at the end, there's nothing left of my life but the basic melody...its just me, left alone, waiting for the year to end.

My first composition combining orchestra with choir. This one I wrote in the fall of 2015...one of my most recent songs. All vocals (including women) are sung by yours truly. I hope you enjoy this one as well. It is one of my favorites!

I've always loved movie scores, starting with when I was a kid, listening to Pocahontas on cassette, and The Little Mermaid and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe movie scores on CD. Most of my iTunes library is stuff by Hans Zimmer, John Williams, James Newton Howard, John Powell, James Horner, Henry Jackman, Alan Menken, Alan Silvestri, and plenty of other film composers. As a kid, I experimented with recreating the kind of music I heard in movies, but with my own original themes and ideas. I have not included most of those compositions because I want to eventually take those and re-do them using everything I've learned about music and composition before I share them, but the ones I HAVE included are more recent, have better sound quality, and more representational of my voice as it is today!

I've always loved movie scores, starting with when I was a kid, listening to Pocahontas on cassette, and The Little Mermaid and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe movie scores on CD. Most of my iTunes library is stuff by Hans Zimmer, John Williams, James Newton Howard, John Powell, James Horner, Henry Jackman, Alan Menken, Alan Silvestri, and plenty of other film composers. As a kid, I experimented with recreating the kind of music I heard in movies, but with my own original themes and ideas. I have not included most of those compositions because I want to eventually take those and re-do them using everything I've learned about music and composition before I share them, but the ones I HAVE included are more recent, have better sound quality, and more representational of my voice as it is today!

I've always loved movie scores, starting with when I was a kid, listening to Pocahontas on cassette, and The Little Mermaid and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe movie scores on CD. Most of my iTunes library is stuff by Hans Zimmer, John Williams, James Newton Howard, John Powell, James Horner, Henry Jackman, Alan Menken, Alan Silvestri, and plenty of other film composers. As a kid, I experimented with recreating the kind of music I heard in movies, but with my own original themes and ideas. I have not included most of those compositions because I want to eventually take those and re-do them using everything I've learned about music and composition before I share them, but the ones I HAVE included are more recent, have better sound quality, and more representational of my voice as it is today!

The Symphony in F Major was written in the fall of 2011 during a semester when I was taking private composition under Callen Clarke, an established composer from Edmond, Oklahoma. I would say that as it is now, it is in its second draft form, but I have lost the files and sheet music for it. I want to eventually go back and re-write it so I can get a final, quality draft, but for now, it is here as a representation of the first symphony I've ever written. My second symphony, in C Major, is obviously incomplete. The first movement was composed in the fall of 2012. Since then, I've tried to revisit it, but between working full-time as a private voice and piano teacher as well as a children's theater director, experimenting with other forms of composition, and just not being able to find a satisfactory theme for the next movement...I've not been able to make progress with this second symphony. All tracks are recorded using Garritan Personal Orchestra 4. Please enjoy!

The Symphony in F Major was written in the fall of 2011 during a semester when I was taking private composition under Callen Clarke, an established composer from Edmond, Oklahoma. I would say that as it is now, it is in its second draft form, but I have lost the files and sheet music for it. I want to eventually go back and re-write it so I can get a final, quality draft, but for now, it is here as a representation of the first symphony I've ever written. My second symphony, in C Major, is obviously incomplete. The first movement was composed in the fall of 2012. Since then, I've tried to revisit it, but between working full-time as a private voice and piano teacher as well as a children's theater director, experimenting with other forms of composition, and just not being able to find a satisfactory theme for the next movement...I've not been able to make progress with this second symphony. All tracks are recorded using Garritan Personal Orchestra 4. Please enjoy!

The Symphony in F Major was written in the fall of 2011 during a semester when I was taking private composition under Callen Clarke, an established composer from Edmond, Oklahoma. I would say that as it is now, it is in its second draft form, but I have lost the files and sheet music for it. I want to eventually go back and re-write it so I can get a final, quality draft, but for now, it is here as a representation of the first symphony I've ever written. My second symphony, in C Major, is obviously incomplete. The first movement was composed in the fall of 2012. Since then, I've tried to revisit it, but between working full-time as a private voice and piano teacher as well as a children's theater director, experimenting with other forms of composition, and just not being able to find a satisfactory theme for the next movement...I've not been able to make progress with this second symphony. All tracks are recorded using Garritan Personal Orchestra 4. Please enjoy!

The Symphony in F Major was written in the fall of 2011 during a semester when I was taking private composition under Callen Clarke, an established composer from Edmond, Oklahoma. I would say that as it is now, it is in its second draft form, but I have lost the files and sheet music for it. I want to eventually go back and re-write it so I can get a final, quality draft, but for now, it is here as a representation of the first symphony I've ever written. My second symphony, in C Major, is obviously incomplete. The first movement was composed in the fall of 2012. Since then, I've tried to revisit it, but between working full-time as a private voice and piano teacher as well as a children's theater director, experimenting with other forms of composition, and just not being able to find a satisfactory theme for the next movement...I've not been able to make progress with this second symphony. All tracks are recorded using Garritan Personal Orchestra 4. Please enjoy!