Love & Time is the fourth track in the Free Short Instrumentals series. It is a solo piano instrumental that has a nostalgic feel. The song was played on a Korg M50 synthesizer.
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Free Background Music 4: Snacks and Watches
This is the fourth song in the free background music series. The instrumental features synthesizer, piano, acoustic bass, guitar, strings, flute, an Asian fiddle, drums and percussion. There are quite a few different sections with slightly different feels to them.
There are two different versions of the song. The short version (4:42) is the video shown above. The longer version (7:21) of the song has an extended intro with a clockwork-like feel and a longer coda at the end. Here is the long version:
Tempo: 120 bpm
Duration (short version): 4:42
Duration (long version): 7:21
Free Background Music 11: Safe Harbor
Safe Harbor is the 11th song in the Free Background series. This is minimalist. loop-based song with orchestral instrumentation (e.g., piano, cello, acoustic bass, harp, flute, French horn. clarinet, drums). There are two versions. The second version, which is shorter and which is without drums, is shown below.
Tempo: 80 bpm
Duration (Main Version): 5:12
Duration (Version without Drums): 3:48
Short Piano Instrumentals by Jessica Yip
This video features the two piano songs in the Free Short Instrumental Themes series. They are both by featured guest artist Jessica Yip: Untitled (Track 26), which 62 seconds long and The Mercury Tale Track 15), which is 53-seconds long. These piano instrumental are suitable for opening sequences and end credits.
Intro 26. Untitled by Jessica Yip (62 seconds)
Intro 15. The Mercury Tale by Jessica Yip (53 seconds)
Free Background Music 43: The Sea Withdrew
1. The Music
The Sea Withdrew is the 43rd song in my Free Background Music series. It is a quiet and gentle piano instrumental that switches between major and minor keys. The song was played on Korg M50 Synth. The composition was inspired by all the problems we have been facing during 2020. It has a sad and somber feel, but includes key changes to major keys in order to show a feeling of hope. The song starts in the key of C minor and ends in C major.
Read More »Free Background Music 42: Drifting
1. The Music
This video features Drifting, the 42nd song in the Free Background Music series. Drifting is a two-minute song built from loops (for the guitar, zither, cello and percussion parts) and tracks I played on a Korg M50 keyboard (the strings, bass, woodwinds and synth parts). It drifts between C minor and it’s relative major (E flat). In this composition, I am mainly focusing on the gentle rhythmic interplay between the instruments. If you like this track, you should check out another of my songs: Ravenchanter (Track 29). It has a similar laid-back acoustic vibe.
Read More »Free Background Music 40: Tale of the Forgotten Forest Kingdom by Kate Kwok
This beautiful and lyrical original piano instrumental is composed and performed by Kate Kwok. It is the 40th song in the Free Background Music series.
Read More »Free Background Music 38: Somewhere Deep in the Sea by Jessica Yip
Here is the latest addition to the Free Background Music Series. This beautiful piano instrumental is composed and and performed by Jessica Yip. This is a beautiful piano instrumental is a gentle piano song that is suitable for use as a soundtrack for touching, tranquil or nostalgic scenes. As the title suggests, the scene she had in mind when composing the song was a setting deep underwater.
Read More »Free Background Music Series 37: Holly’s Theme
Holly’s Theme, the 37th song in the Free Background Music series, is a piano instrumental. The video for this song features dancers from Georgia (the country), Japan, the US and the Czech Republic. I composed this song as part of the soundtrack for a short film my students were working on (Holly is the name of one of the characters). Kate Kwok performed the music and was responsible for much of the arrangement. There is also a bonus track at the end—a one-minute orchestral version of the slow part of the song. This shorter work is the 17th song in the Free Short Instrumentals series.
Duration: 2:47
Read More »Free Background Music 35: Broken
Here is the 35th song in our Free Background Music series—Broken. It is a gentle and melancholy minimalist piano ballad about the unexpected end of a friendship. For this video, I collaborated with Lee Chan, who choreographed and performed the ballet, and Kate Kwok, who arranged and performed the song.
The mood of the piece is melancholy. The song is influenced by classical minuets and has the ABA structure and 3/4 time signature associated with that form. However, the arrangement is rather sparse and minimalist in style, giving the song a more contemporary feel. This song is about the sudden and unexpected end of a friendship.
Duration: 3:17
Read More »Free Background Music 30: Echoes & Fragments
Echoes & Fragments is the 30th song in the Free Background Music series. It is a gentle and minimalist synth-piano song (performed on a Korg M50 synthesizer and recorded using Cakewalk’s Sonar Home Studio). The name of the song is about memory. As I get older, long-term memories fragment and slip away; sometimes they resurface, bubbling up from the boundless sea of time; sometimes they simply sink and are never seen again. For many memories, I am unsure whether I am remembering the actual event or remembering a story that I once told or that someone once told me. Do I remember the house I grew up or do I simply remember its image from photographs? It seems that a lot of what I call ‘memories’ are merely faint and distant echoes.
The video features public domain footage from NASA.
Duration: 3:00
Tempo: Around 70 bpm
Free Background Music 14 & 15: Arpology
These two songs, Arpology (Ambient Version) and Arpology (Frenzied Sax Version) are based on the same concept: synthesizer arpeggios (played on a Korg Micro X) going through the exact same chord progressions but with different instrumentation, timbres and tempos. Background Music 14: Arpology Ambient Version (6:10) Tempo: 71 bpmDuration: 6:10 Background Music 14: Arpology Frantic […]
Free Background Music 29: Ravenchanter
Ravenchanter is the 29th song in the Free Background Music Series. This is mainly an acoustic song (acoustic guitar, bass, piano, drums, percussion and woodwind instruments), and it has a hypnotic and mysterious mood.
Duration: 4:04
Tempo: 90 bpm
Free Background Music 24: Lock & Love
Lock & Love is the 24th song in the Free Background Music series. It is a romantic and melodic song with with flute, strings and acoustic guitar, bass and percussion (played on a Korg M50 synthesizer).
Tempo: 86 bpm
Duration: 6:24
Terms of Use
As with the other songs in the Background Music series, this instrumental work can be used for free in non-commercial projects and in YouTube monetized videos (that are otherwise non-commercial in nature) as long as credit is provided (‘music by longzijun’). For more information about the terms and conditions for using the music, you can refer to the detailed Terms of Use.
Music Download Links
- MP3 file 48khz, 320 kbps (Box)
- MP3 file 48 khz, 320 kbps (OneDrive)
- MP3 file 48 khz, 320 kbps (Google Drive)
- WAV file 48 khz, 24 bit (Google Drive)
- WAV file 48 khz, 24 bit (OneDrive)
Related Songs in the Series
About the Visuals
The images are photos I took of the Locks of Love (사랑의 자물쇠) the love padlocks at N. Seoul Tower (N서울타워) on Namsan Mountain in Seoul, South Korea. People are encouraged to dedicate their old padlocks and phones to someone they love, so each lock in the wall is supposed to represent a kind of everlasting love. It was quite touching to she so many love padlocks; I hope most of their ‘love stories’ had a happy ending. This blog has interesting photos of the mostly naked wall just as it is starting to collect locks www.buhaykorea.com/2009/04/10/n-seoul-towers-locks-of-love. My photos are in this article: Seoul Sightseeing.
More Music
- Read: Terms of Use
- See: List of All Songs
- Preview: Background Music Tracks 1-23
- Preview: Background Music Tracks 24-45
- Preview: Short Instrumental Themes for Intros and Credits
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Free Background Music 22: As Long as a Word Remains Unspoken
As Long as a Word Remains Unspoken is the 22nd song in the Free Background Music series. This is a very gentle and wistful synth-piano instrumental with a slightly East-Asian feel to the melody. The song was played on a Korg M50 synthesizer and recorded using Sonar Home Studio.
Tempo: 65 bpm (The tempo is actually 130 bpm, but the feeling is more like 65 bpm.)
Duration: 2:14
Free Background Music 17: Elegy
The song was written in memory of a former student of mine who passed away from a stroke at the age of 21. It was a way of expressing my feelings. because it is requiem inspired by a such sad event, I wrote it in a major key (otherwise it would probably be unbearably melancholic). The light arrangement (with high notes on the piano and bells) is meant to convey her lively, but gently demeanor. The final verse is purposefully cut short and left unresolved. It was recorded using a Korg M50 synthesizer.
Elegy is the 17th song in the Free Background Music series.
Tempo: 77 bpm
Duration: 4:53
Free Background Music 12: Dreams
Dreams is the most popular song in the Free Background Music series. The song was mainly composed on a Korg M50 synthesizer and is influenced by Indonesian gamelan music and minimalist music.
Tempo: 120 bpm
Duration: 10:40
Free Background Music 1: SFX Chill
This is the first song in the Free Background Music series. This instrumental is almost minimalist in style. It is quite calm but with a beat. The instruments include piano, flute, English horn, Asian fiddle, drums and percussion.
Tempo: 109 bpm
Duration: 3:00
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