Transcription of Pokémon Game Boy music

A collection of ~62 songs transcribed from the Pokémon series of Game Boy games, with an emphasis on musical accuracy. More details are available below the big table of songs. These tracks are also available on my SoundCloud (albeit in lower quality).

General notes

Project overview

I have been doing musical transcriptions for a long time, way before this website came into existence. 6 of the songs here were first transcribed by me in year 2003, 2 songs in 2014 and 2015 combined, and the remaining bulk in late 2016 to early 2017. In late 2016 I decided to unearth my then-small collection of Pokémon Game Boy music transcriptions for publishing. I cleaned up and edited the data, put them on a new page, and continued the transcription journey by adding a ton of new songs.

All of the musical scores are written using the NoteWorthy Composer software. It is relatively easy to use but not the best composition software in the world. Some of its quirks include the fact that accidentals apply to all octaves, octave up/down is indicated on the clef rather than within measures, and the spacing between notes looks odd.

Musical accuracy

The Game Boy’s sound hardware makes my job of transcribing songs tremendously easier and more accurate than transcribing most other pieces of music. The key feature is that it has 4 monophonic channels of audio, each playing either a single note or silence. By listening to each channel independently via a Game Boy emulator, I was able to transcribe every channel with perfect pitch and no guessing. Comments about specific aspects of musical accuracy:

Pitch

I judge the pitch of each note mainly by eye, but I confirm by ear. When I say by eye, I mean looking at Fourier transform graphs or spectrograms of the audio signal, and finding the frequency with the highest amplitude peak. For the first ~30 songs I transcribed, I relied on a mix of visual and auditory analysis of the original music – I would show the music as a spectrogram in Cool Edit Pro (audio editor), listen to a few seconds of audio, memorize the sequence of pitches, refer to the spectrogram for beat timings, write down the notes, and repeat until done. But this method was cumbersome and relied too much on human memory and interpretation. So I created a tool specifically to assist monophonic audio transcriptions. The program creates a much more helpful spectrogram, where the dominant pitch of each note is labeled in text (e.g. E4) and vertical lines are drawn on each beat. By using this tool, I started doing musical transcriptions almost entirely by eye (covering both the pitch and rhythm), and only listen to the original audio versus the transcribed song at the very end to spot mistakes and confirm accuracy.

A very small number of musical pieces use microtonal features (such as Ruins of Alph), but they were not significant so I just quantized them to the nearest standard pitch. Many pieces use vibrato on long notes, but I ignored this out of simplicity.

A consequence of pitch accuracy is that all chords in the transcribed song are accurate. In a polyphonic music recording, some chords are notoriously hard to pick up by ear. But by analyzing each monophonic channel separately, it is easy to hit all chords correctly by design.

Pitch accuracy comes naturally to me, and ideally I wouldn’t write lots about the topic. But time and time again, I hear other people’s musical transcriptions of various songs (Pokémon and stuff in general) with at least one note pitch wrong. These experiences leave me with doubts about other people’s attention to detail and how seriously they treat musical accuracy.

Octave

Alongside pitch accuracy is octave-accuracy – not only do I identify that a note is C, I also specify unambiguously whether it’s a C3, C4, C5, etc. Identifying octave consistently is not easy by ear, but is a breeze with technical analysis.

Tempo

I listen to one repetition of a song and count the number of bars and beats in it. Using an audio editor, I measure the exact length of one repeat and do some division to calculate the tempo. The tempo is given to one decimal place, e.g. 123.4 BPM. In reality, the Game Boy music itself has an unsteady tempo, possibly due to inconsistent scheduling of the execution of audio subroutines.

Rhythm

All notes are accurately quantized to a quarter note, eighth note, triplet, etc. with no guessing. Additionally, special care is given to the trailing edge of some notes – for example I distinguish between {3.5 beat note + 0.5 beat rest} versus 4.0 beat note.

Volume

Each channel in the original Game Boy music is played at a different volume, and I add dynamic indicators in the sheet music and MIDI sequences to crudely express this fact. This is by no means the pinnacle of accuracy, but it sounds significantly better than if all the channels were played at the same volume. The nuances of intra-note crescendos and decrescendos are lost in the transcription.

Stereo

On the Game Boy, each channel of audio can play on the left, right, or both channels. The Pokémon RGBY games do not use this feature at all, but most of the Pokémon GSC songs do use this. In the MIDI file (but not the PDF score) the stereo pan is encoded accurately. Most songs use a fixed stereo pan for each channel, but some songs do change the stereo pan in the middle of the song.

Consistency

This entire collection of songs was transcribed by one person (yours truly). Compared to other collections elsewhere on the web that are based on contributions from multiple transcriptionists, I maintain tight consistency in terms of how the music is interpreted and how the output is styled. For example, I enforce the policy of transcribing pitch and rhythm with full accuracy and no compromises – I don’t care if the result cannot be played by a two-handed human on a standard piano. (However, some other transcriptions might alter or simplify the melody with the goal in mind of producing a practically playable piece. Even this goal might not be enforced consistently in a large collection with many contributors.) For example I interpret the length of fading notes and the volume of channels with decent consistency.

Comments on groups of songs

Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow (1st generation)

• The main melody is usually on channel 2, chorus (chording) on channel 1, and bass line on channel 3.

• Channel 2 is usually the loudest, channel 1 medium loudness, and channel 3 relatively the softest. The percussion channel (if it is used) is at medium loudness.

• Many songs use simple repetitions of 2 eighth notes on channel 3, like the pitches C-G-C-G-C-G-C-G in a 4-beat bar. This musical pattern isn’t used in other games.
  Examples can be found in Cerulean/Fuchsia City, Vermilion City, Celadon City, Professor Oak’s Laboratory, Pokémon Center, Gym, wild Pokémon battle, Trainer battle, Ending credits. Some songs use more complex sequences of eighth notes (still on channel 3), such as Game Corner and Bicycle.

• Every song is in mono, except for Rocket Hideout where the first few notes use stereo.

• Many songs have no percussion track. By contrast, most songs in GSC do have percussion.

Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal (2nd generation)

• Despite using the same sound hardware, these songs sound noticeably richer than the music collection of RGBY. This is probably due to more independent melodies (instead of simply chording), more runs of sixteenth notes, staccato notes, more octave separation, and more percussion.

• The main melody is usually on channel 2, but sometimes on channel 3 or 1. Unlike RGBY where each channel has a fixed role throughout each song, in GSC sometimes a channel switches roles during the song and plays logically distinct melodies.

• All or almost all songs use stereo pan. Usually one channel would only play on the left, one channel would only play on the right, one channel might play on either one side or both, and the percussion channel also varies. Some songs even vary the stereo pan within the song.

Comments on individual songs

Pokémon RGB – Intro movie

• The real channel 1 includes a few sound effects of the Pokémon jumping in battle, but these sounds are omitted in the transcription

• About 5 notes in channel 1 were filled in by me, to complete the chords in sensible ways

• One of the few non-repeating songs in the whole collection

• Not used in Pokémon Yellow Version because it has a different intro movie

Pokémon RGBY – Title screen

• The chromatic scale slides near the end of the song in channel 3 are actually micro-tonal with finer steps in the Game Boy audio

• This song doesn’t really repeat in Pokémon Yellow; it stops a few bars after the repetition and the game intro plays again

Pokémon RGBY – Pallet Town

• Channel 2, which is the main melody, is quite high-pitched compared the vast majority of other songs

Pokémon RGBY – Viridian, Pewter, Saffron City

• Longest length (32 bars) among all 7 city theme songs

• Used in the most number of cities (3, compared to 2 for Cerulean/Fuchsia)

• The overlapping melodies sound somewhat dissonant

Pokémon RGBY – Cerulean, Fuchsia City

• Channel 2’s first note is different for the initial playthrough compared to subsequent repetitions

Pokémon RGBY – Vermilion City

• Rather short length, with only 12 bars per repetition

Pokémon RGBY – Lavender Town

• Slow-paced and sometimes feels more like half the indicated tempo (i.e. 63 BPM)

• Channel 1 repeats every 20 bars

• Channel 2 and percussion channel repeat every bar

• Channel 3 repeats every 32 bars, but each half is almost the same except for the last few bars

• Lowest common multiple of all repeats is 160 bars, which is just over 5 minutes

• High-pitched notes at bar 16 in channel 3 evoke a ghostly feel, and their pitches are very difficult to transcribe accurately

• Melody doesn’t seem to fit to a major scale

Pokémon RGBY – Celadon City

• Also used in some two-player link cable features

Pokémon RGBY – Cinnabar Island

• Rather short length, with only 12 bars per repetition

Pokémon RGBY – Professor Oak

• This is played when you first step out into the tall grass before having any of your own Pokémon, and Professor Oak exclaims, “Hey! Wait! Don’t go out! It’s unsafe! Wild Pokémon live in tall grass! You need your own Pokémon for your protection.”.

• Channel 2 has a fair amount of dynamic variance compared to other songs

• All channels have their own repetitions of short phrases

• All channels occupy a relatively narrow range of pitches, and sometimes create dissonance

• The intro is 9 bars long and the repeat is 8 bars long, giving this song the second highest ratio of intro to repeat

Pokémon RGBY – Professor Oak’s Laboratory

• Channels 1 and 2 repeat halfway through the song (duration of 8 bars)

• Channel 3 is unique throughout (duration of 16 bars)

Pokémon RGBY – Pokémon Center

• Only 2 accidentals in the entire song

Pokémon RGBY – Viridian Forest

• Also used in Diglett’s Cave, Seafoam Islands, and some other places

• Channels 1 and 2 repeat halfway through the song (duration of 28 bars)

• Percussion channel (i.e. all the separated instrumental tracks) repeats every 2 bars (i.e. 28 times)

• Melody doesn’t seem to fit to a major scale

• One of the longest songs in the game, though relatively low in melodic complexity

• Contains a sequence of notes found in Rocket Hideout (e.g. Viridian Forest, channel 3, bars 20 to 35)

Pokémon RGBY – Guide

• This is played when you try to step into Route 3 before defeating the Pewter City gym leader

• In actual gameplay, the guide boy drags you around for about 12 seconds and the song ends. A wall-walking hack was used to play the song indefinitely, in order to fully transcribe the melody.

• The intro is 6 bars long and the repeat is 4 bars long, giving this song the highest ratio of intro to repeat

Pokémon RGBY – Gym

• Only 1 accidental in the entire song

• The overlapping melodies sound somewhat dissonant

Pokémon RGBY – Mt. Moon

• Also used in Rock Tunnel, Victory Road

• Channels 1 and 2 contain essentially all the melodic content of the song

• Channel 3 contains only 4 short slides, which is almost negligible

• Melody doesn’t seem to fit to a major scale

• Second half of the song is very hard to fit to a clean time signature; my best interpretation switches between 3/4 and 4/4 time at various places

• Song length contains an extra half beat (eighth note); it does not fit evenly in any quarter-based time signature

• Contains a ritardando, and is one of the few songs in this collection that has a tempo change

Pokémon RGBY – S.S. Anne

• Only 1 accidental in the entire song

• The overlapping melodies sound somewhat dissonant

Pokémon RGBY – Pokémon Tower

• Slow-paced and sometimes feels more like half the indicated tempo (i.e. 63 BPM)

• Last section has all 3 channels playing high-pitched notes

Pokémon RGBY – Game Corner

• Also used in some two-player link cable features

• In last third of the song, channel 2 plays a melody and then channel 1 follows half a bar later with the same melody one octave lower

• After the battle themes and opponent defeats, this melody has the next fastest tempo

Pokémon RGBY – Rocket Hideout

• Also used in Power Plant, Bruno’s room, Cerulean Cave

• Melody doesn’t seem to fit to a major scale

• Rhythm of bars 23 to 30 can be confusing to a human who is counting beats, because the main melody in channel 2 is offset by half a beat

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon RGBY – Silph Co.

• The main sequence of notes sound somewhat amelodic, especially due to many successive notes stepping by a single semitone

• Contains a ritardando, and is one of the few songs in this collection that has a tempo change

• Channel 1 contains slides and runs of sixteenth notes

Pokémon RGBY – Safari Zone

• Also used when the trainer’s Pokémon is going to evolve shortly

• A ridiculously short song at only 2 bars per repeat

• Channel 1’s into has a strange fast sequence of notes, which is barely noticeable in the real audio compared to the transcription

Pokémon RGBY – Pokémon Mansion

• Perhaps the most messed-up song in the whole collection, with every channel of music having a different repeat length, resulting in a large lowest common multiple of 16560 bars (about 8 hours)

• Channel 1 has no intro, and a repeat length of 21⁹/₁₆ bars (86¹/₄ beats); the main part of this melody repeats every 5¹/₄ beats

• Channel 2 has a silent intro length of 8 bars, and a repeat length of 16 bars

• Channel 3 has no intro, and a repeat length of 36 bars

• Channel 4 (percussion) has a silent intro length of 2 bars, and a repeat length of 2 bars

Pokémon RGBY – Indigo Plateau

• Also used in route 23

• Channel 1 is chorded with channel 2 in duration, and always a different pitch

• Channel 3 is almost always identical to channel 2 in pitch, but all the short notes are shorter in duration

Pokémon RGBY – Route 1

• Also used in route 2

• Channel 1’s rhythm, due to its half beat offset, can lead to misleading beat counting if heard in isolation (without the other channels’ melodies)

• Percussion channel is simple compared to the other 3 route theme songs

Pokémon RGBY – Route 3

• Also used in routes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22

• Used in the most number of routes in the whole game

• Percussion channel is subtly different at end of first bar of first playthrough, compared to subsequent repetitions

Pokémon RGBY – Route 11

• Also used in routes 12, 13, 14, 15

• Second half of melody uses numerous triplets

• Percussion channel’s rhythm seems to be slight superset of channel 3’s rhythm

Pokémon RGBY – Route 24

• Also used in the opening story and route 25

• Rather short length, with only 10 bars per repetition

• Channel 1 uses triplets the majority of the time

• Percussion channel is quite unique in each bar

Pokémon RGBY – Bicycle

• Only 4 accidentals in the entire song

Pokémon RGBY – Surfing

• Unique time signature of 6/8 (almost all other songs are 4/4)

• Channel 1’s last note drags an eighth note past the end of each repetition; no other song holds any note down across a repeat

Pokémon RGBY – Male trainer encounter

• Also used for all gym leaders (male and female)

• This is the most common trainer class

Pokémon RGBY – Female trainer encounter

• Nothing special to report

Pokémon RGBY – Evil trainer encounter

• Nothing special to report

Pokémon RGBY – Rival trainer encounter

• Channel 1 and 2’s last bar of intro sounds similar to their last bar of each repetition

• Channel 3’s first note of a repetition is different for the initial playthrough compared to subsequent repetitions

Pokémon RGBY – Wild Pokémon battle

• Many runs of sixteenth notes, like most other battle themes

• Lots of chromatic scale slides

• Channel 2’s first 2 bars are one octave lower in first playthrough, compared to subsequent repetitions

• Highest tempo out of any song in the game

Pokémon RGBY – Trainer battle

• Also used every time you battle your rival outside the Elite Four

• Many runs of sixteenth notes, like most other battle themes

• Lots of chromatic scale slides

• One of the longest songs in the whole game, with high melodic complexity

• Second highest tempo out of any song in the game

Pokémon RGBY – Gym leader battle

• Many runs of sixteenth notes, like most other battle themes

• Highest tempo out of any song in the game

Pokémon RGBY – Final battle

• This is played when you battle your rival, after you defeat the Elite Four

• Has only a few runs of sixteenth notes, unlike other battle themes

• Has more diverse and irregular melodic elements than other battle themes

Pokémon RGBY – Wild Pokémon defeated

• Channel 1 is chorded with channel 2 in duration, and always a different pitch

• Key signature changes within the song (one of the few to do so)

• Second highest tempo out of any song in the game

Pokémon RGBY – Trainer defeated

• Second highest tempo out of any song in the game

Pokémon RGBY – Gym leader defeated

• Longer duration than other songs in category – each rep has triple the number of bars (24) compared to trainer or wild Pokémon defeated themes (8 bars)

• Second highest tempo out of any song in the game

Pokémon RGBY – Ending credits

• The 3 channels are usually in the same octave, and their pitches overlap frequently

• One of the few non-repeating songs in the whole collection

• First 2 bars sound like the “Gym” music; last third contains melodic elements from the “Title screen” music

Pokémon GSC – New Bark Town

• Channels 2 and 3 switch treble/bass roles in second half of the song

Pokémon GSC – Cherrygrove City, Mahogany Town

• Rather short length, with only 12 bars per repetition

• Percussion channel repeats every 2 bars

Pokémon GSC – Violet, Olivine City

• Key signature changes within the song (one of the few to do so)

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon GSC – Azalea Town, Blackthorn City

• Many grace notes used in channel 2

• Percussion channel repeats every 2 bars

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon GSC – Goldenrod City

• Has medium runs of sixteenth notes

• First 4 bars of channel 1 and percussion channel are muted in first playthrough, but not in subsequent repetitions

Pokémon GSC – Ecruteak, Cianwood City

• Has long runs of sixteenth notes in an otherwise slow and calm song

• Many grace notes used in channel 2, including some multi-note grace sequences

• A few grace notes used in channel 1 when chording with channel 2

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon GSC – Pallet Town

• Nothing special to report

Pokémon GSC – Viridian, Pewter, Cerulean, Saffron City; Cinnabar Island

• Still the longest city theme song at 32 bars per repetition

• This song is used in the most number of cities (5)

Pokémon GSC – Vermilion City

• Channels 2 and 3 switch treble/bass roles in second half of the song

• The lack of percussion channel makes it sound much slower in tempo than the RGBY version

Pokémon GSC – Lavender Town

• Has a few elements in common with the RGBY version, but is otherwise heavily revamped with a recognizable melody now

• Does not contain pathological high notes and non-matching repeat lengths found in the RGBY version

Pokémon GSC – Celadon, Fuchsia City

• Channels 2 and 3 switch treble/bass roles in second half of the song

• Has short runs of sixteenth notes

Pokémon GSC – Pokémon Center

• Channels 1 and 2 seem identical to the RGBY version of the song in pitch and rhythm (but not exact volume and stereo pan)

• Percussion channel’s rhythm is a slight superset of channel 3’s rhythm

• Percussion channel repeats every bar

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon GSC – Gym

• Sounds much more upbeat and melodically complex than the RGBY version of the song, despite having a lower tempo

Pokémon GSC – Ruins of Alph

• Also used in Union Cave, Ilex Forest, Whirl Islands, Mt. Mortar, other caves

• Contains 1 extra beat (quarter note) of rest; otherwise the entire song has 4/4 time signature

• Melody doesn’t seem to fit to a major scale

• Percussion channel repeats every 5 beats if ignoring stereo pan, or every 10 beats when stereo pan is considered (note that the prevailing time signature is 4/4)

• Repetitions of the percussion channel do not fit into one repetition of the main melody

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon GSC – Ice Path

• Also used in Dark Cave

• Channels 1 and 3 are quite repetitive

• Percussion channels repeat every 4 bars

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon GSC – Route 1

• The only route theme music that does not have percussion

Pokémon GSC – Route 2

• Many grace notes used in channel 3

• Channels 2 and 3 switch treble/bass roles after approximately the first quarter of the song

• Viridian Forest of RGBY is merged into Route 2 of GSC, hence this melody reflects that of Viridian Forest

Pokémon GSC – Route 3

• Also used in routes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25

• This song is used in the most number of Kanto region routes

• Channel 1 plays runs of sixteenth notes most of the time

• Percussion channel repeats every bar

Pokémon GSC – Route 11

• Also used in routes 12, 13, 14, 15

• Has the same key signature, tempo, and number of bars as the RGBY version

• Channel 2, the main melody, is fairly similar between RGBY and GSC versions

Pokémon GSC – Route 29

• Percussion channel repeats every 2 bars

• Repetitions of the percussion channel do not fit into one repetition of the main melody

Pokémon GSC – Route 30

• Also used in routes 31, 32, 33, 37, 45, 46

• This song is used in the most number of Johto region routes, but only by a small margin

• Channel 1’s first note is on different octaves for initial playthrough compared to subsequent repetitions

Pokémon GSC – Route 34

• Also used in routes 35, 36, 40, 41

• Key signature changes within the song (one of the few to do so)

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon GSC – Route 38

• Also used in route 39

• Channel 3’s melody has a pattern of eighth notes similar to many RGBY songs, but generally not used in GSC songs

• Percussion channel repeats every 2 bars

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon GSC – Route 42

• Also used in routes 43, 44

• Channel 1’s first bar is an octave lower in the initial playthrough compared to subsequent repetitions

• Channels 1 and 2 use numerous triplets

• Percussion channel repeats every 2 bars

• Repetitions of the percussion channel do not fit into one repetition of the main melody

Pokémon GSC – Bicycle

• Melody is a variation on the Goldenrod City theme song

• Channel 3’s melodic design shows the same principles as the RGBY version

• Percussion channel repeats every 4 bars

• Percussion channel is quite similar to RGBY bicycle theme song

• Stereo pans in some channels vary during the song

Pokémon Pinball – Pokédex

• Channel 2 effectively plays two separate melodies – a main sparse one plus a soft background one with sixteenth notes

• Some very high notes are played at bar 7 in channel 3

Pokémon TCG – Trainer battle

• With a length of 70 bars, this is a very long song. Makes sense because the game has far fewer songs than the main Pokémon RGBY and GSC series

• Many grace notes used in channels 1 and 2

More info

Collections at other sites (which may be slightly to significantly less musically accurate than my transcriptions):

• NinSheetMusic: Pokémon (a very complete collection spanning many games)
• Pokémon Red, Green, Blue and Yellow Sheet Music
• Game Music Themes: Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow Sheet Music
• Kingdom Hearts Insider: Pokemon (Red, Blue, Yellow) Music on the Gameboy

The Game Boy (Color) video games:

• Generation I (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow): Bulbapedia, Wikipedia (RBY)
• Generation II (Gold, Silver, Crystal): Bulbapedia, Wikipedia (GS), Wikipedia (C)
• Pinball: Bulbapedia, Wikipedia
• Trading Card Game: Bulbapedia, Wikipedia

The composers/arrangers:

• Masuda Jun’ichi (増田 順一) (RGBY, GSC): Bulbagarden, Wikipedia
• Ichinose Gou (一之瀬 剛) (GSC): Bulbagarden

YouTube - 8-bit Music Theory:

• What? THE SOUNDTRACK is evolving! | Revisiting Kanto Themes in Pokemon Gold and Silver
• Top 5 Traits of Battle Themes from Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal
• Odd Time Signatures in Video Game Music

Mark Benis, someone who transcribed all the Pokémon Red/Blue songs:

• Pokémon Red and Blue: Score for Sound Chip (PDF, 181 pages)
• How To Transcribe Retro Video Game Music
• YouTube: Pokémon Red and Blue Score for Sound Chip
• YouTube: Loops Within Loops: A Modular Approach to Mystery in Pokemon Red and Blue

Assembly source code for the music tracks, extracted from the Game Boy cartridges, hosted on GitHub by pret:

• pokered - /audio/music/
• pokegold - /audio/music/
• pokepinball - /audio/music/
• poketcg - /src/audio/music/