Messages

[Swan Lake]

Swan Lake
-m4: I think I hear the E on beat 1.5 R.H. an octave higher?
-m12: I hear an F# in the R.H. on beat 3 instead of a G
-m33: I think I hear a C in the R.H. on beat 1.5 instead of an E
-m37: I hear the R.H. here similar to m33 (so C-Eb instead of E-E in beat 1.5-2)
-m41: Again the C in 1.5
-m47 and 55: I hear E#'s in beat 3.5 and 4.5 in the L.H., and maybe a C# in beat 4 but not sure
-m65 and 67: Maybe you could either tie over the grace note E's in the R.H. for playability, or remove them like in m69 and 71?
-m70: Maybe you could displace the F# in layer 1 so it's next to the half note? The quarter note currently hides the half note notehead.

I definitely hear downward movement to the C# there. There might be some low E from the mid chords, but adding it to the LH sounds muddy and there's an E in the RH already

Ah yeah I can hear it in the harp now. The E is probably there in the synth strings choir pad thingy, which kinda overshadows it after beat 1, but yeah no need to put it in the L.H. ^^

The spread of these arpeggios is so wide that I can't find a really good way to write them. With clefs you end up with clef switches every beat and much more cramped bars. And if you add the cross-staff handing it ends up with a wacky amount of context switching. Maybe pianists can just do that? A smooth line of ottava'ed arpeggios makes a lot more sense to me, but with that approach you do lose some clarity with hand prescription. I've uploaded both options to the "Older files" Dropbox folder for comparison, but used your clef suggestion as the main folder's version. I'd be happy to hear others' thoughts about these and other possible approaches.

I think what you have right now is good: the clef switching isn't really a problem to read (for me at least), I believe it happens more often for wide arpeggios like these. The cross-staffing looks good too cuz it's always after one of the dyads in the R.H., so the player can see from those in which octave they need to play too. Only thing I noticed was that in m20 and 28, the D in beat 2 is played in both hands. Maybe you can add parentheses to the L.H. one, and cross-staff the one in beat 2.75 too since it's in the R.H. anyway?

A third option btw might be to remove the 8vas and use crosstaffing instead of clef switching:

The melody being this high isn't ideal though, especially the high A's and B's, but the readability for the arpeggios is a lot clearer now. I used slurs so it's clear the line continues on from the L.H. The player can then decide for themself if they wanna play them with the R.H. or the L.H. in some places.

Sorry for the wait! I've started working on a final formatting edit, which I added in the project folder here. I included some changes listed below, but let me know if there's something you want changed

I like the intro now, should the pedal be held in 2 measure increments?

One pedal throughout works too if you want!

in m4, I had put beat 4 of the LH in the RH so the LH had more time jump to the Fn

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I personally would prefer keeping beat 4 in the L.H. and having the player decide for themself if they wanna play it in the L.H., but this way works too.
In the edit I kept it as is, but I put the F-Bb in beat 4 in a separate layer.

I'll defer to whatever you think is best since you know notation better.

I think I'd personally go to shrinking the notehead then ^^

Other things I fixed in the edit:
-The A in m6 beat 2 wasn't tied over in m7
-m29: Apparently the image sharing site doesn't keep my files up for that long lol, anyway in my screenshot I had R.H. beat 3 as A-F instead of F-C, as an end point for the grace notes.
-Fixed the rest placement in m33 L.H.
-Flipped staccatos at the end of m34 L.H.
-Edited the measure distribution so the notes aren't too squeezed together.

Separate question: can I substitute "Sunny Beach" for "Options Menu" from Wave Race? Even though submissions are closed?
if not, that's fine.

Since submissions are closed we won't be accepting substitute submissions, sorry!

• m57 RH hearing G# on bottom beat 2 and Fn for beat 4

Yep, got them! Wrote the G# as Ab enharmonically

• m60 RH 2.75 is silent? It sounds like the Fn on 2.5 is the last not to me

I think that might be a weird cut-off in the ost version, in this video at 1:32 you can hear the G# at the end:

Though I think in all three times it stops at a different point in the loop, so it probably just loops until the boss reaches the ground.

• m61-64 RH current beat 4 should move to the beginning at beat 1 and then push current beats 1-3 up by one beat.

I think that fade in is also a weird ost thingy, I can kiiinda hear it in the video above (after the Deku Toad jumps part) but it sounds as if the real loop begins at beat 1.

Anyway, files are fixed!

• m6 RH half note cluster I hear a Dn and an Eb from the sounds of it

Ah yeah, you mean Dn sliding to Eb right? I hear it too now, changed the enharmonic spelling to be Fhalfdim too.

• m9 RH beat 2 I hear a Gb on the bottom of this cluster instead of Fn, and beat 5 I hear a An instead of Ab. m10 beat 2 also applies to first half of this bullet.

I hear this too now, and on closer inspection I don't think I hear the En and Gn below the F and Ab too, which makes playability a bit easier too.

• m10 LH 1.5 I hear Bn and A# as the two 16th notes

Hear this too! Interesting how it's only in this measure, instead of any others (even on the repeat)

• m25 and m26 RN hearing the Gn's as An's

Yep, and the En afterwards as F too.

Thanks for checking! Updated the files!

[accept]

Alrighty, then I will accept!

[not]

Without something to substitute the drum with, it's just a boring held note. and trying to add something this with the F and the drum, just doesn't feel well adapted to the piano in my opinion. I rather leave it off.

You could do something like this together with a pedal mark, and have it continue into the current first 4 measures too:

Not sure what the "standard" is. I thought all optional notes would have the parenthesis, but I'll defer to you on what is common practice.

We usually do use parentheses for optional notes yeah, but it's not something that is defined in formatting guidelines. It was an alternative I thought of myself, so I'd accept both ways ^^ It depends on what you prefer.

originally, I left it off because the following phrase is almost the same, so for variety I gave more emphasis to the held notes before jumping into the bass guitar. Its changed though.

I think I hear an A instead of Bb on m9 beat 4.5 in the bass, but otherwise looks good ^^

playing a mordent at that speed? NSM must really want precise transcriptions...

We do, yes: players are free to simplify arrangements if needed. Adding the mordent shows what the original does, but if the player wants to leave it out, they can easily just ignore the mordent.
Either way: the mordents you currently have are inverted mordents, we actually need the standard ones (so without the vertical line in the middle)

my original thought was to have a break or "catch ones breath" from the 8th notes by giving attention to other instrumentation.

I see yeah, at least we still have the two measure break ^^ Is there a specific reason you wrote G-C in measure 25 L.H. beat 1, instead of the C-E in my example? I usually try to keep the lowest note the same as whatever the bass guitar is playing, because all other notes relate harmonically to the lowest note. Also, fourths on itself sounds less stable than fifths or octaves in the middle to low range of the bass clef

I might have got lost with this one. So as not to clash in m33 I changed the An 8th notes to a Gn, while keeping everything else I had near the same.

I think I was aiming more towards this:

So similar to m25-26, but with some of the R.H. notes in the L.H. so they don't clash.

That makes the jump back down to the Cn more daunting, but if you think a virtuoso can play it Bloop, so be it.

You can use a similar practice here as to the one I explained for m30 ^^ This is more to practice a muscle memory for where notes on the piano are.

Ending it on a high note leaves one in suspense/expecting, instead of at rest, so I brought it down with some octave F's + harmony.

That works too yeah!

Some other comments too:
-m29: I was actually thinking more along the lines of this:

So we start on a lower note on beat 2, but have a way of imitating the guitar slide to beat 3. Grace notes with 2 or more notes should be written as 16th notes btw, instead of 8ths.
-m32: Seems I forgot this one, but R.H. beat 3 is missing a staccato here (first note of the triplet, like in m24)
-m38-39: Maybe you could move up the R.H. in m38 beat 4 and m39 beat 1-1.5 up an octave too? (idk why I didn't think of that earlier). Also, similar to m25, I think it'd work better to have the L.H. in m39 beat 1-1.5 be a single or octave C, instead of a low fourth. Lastly, for some reason the flats of the R.H. Db and L.H. Ab in m39 beat 4.5 don't show up, but they are there. Maybe something that I can fix with the final formatting fixes.

As for Sunny Beach, I'll give it another look over at some point, but if it is unlikely to completed in the project timeframe (whatever that may be), I rather have you not start the review process and it can be skipped, no need to move it to the submissions section.

We don't have a set timeframe yet for the project, but I can see it taking more time than the Title Theme. If you prefer not having to spend much time on it, then I think we can agree on skipping that one.

Nice job! I don't have a lot to say on this one:
-I've been looking at the bass a bit considering different options for yes/no 8va, but I haven't come to a great conclusion yet haha. My initial thought for checking it was m23-30, which is (mostly) pretty high to really need an 8va marking. Personally I can read the whole thing without 8va pretty well too, but granted it's a lot in ledger line territory too. Another line of thought I had was making the 8va optional, as the song works pretty well too without 8va. Anyway just spitballing here a bit, feel free to do with it what you want :p
-Maybe you could put m19 to m34 in Eb major? The chords are a leaning towards Eb/Cm in the first half already, but in m19-34 it definitely strayed further away from C major.
-m2: I think the chord symbol Db11 in beat 2 is maybe a Db7sus, like in m36? There isn't a clear F in the chord either to really support it being a major chord.
-m11-12: I think the chord here is just an Ab (so no maj7), I can't really hear a G anywhere except for the bass at the very end. You could then change the G to an Ab in m11 beat 4.5 R.H.

[accept]

Huh, idk how that happened lol. Anyway, fixed that and will accept!

[accept Ark]

Alrighty, then I'll accept Ark!

Added one!

[accept]

Awesome, I'll accept!

[accept]

No problem! I've updated the files and will accept for real now ^^

I updated the files for you! If everything looks good to you too, I'm ready to accept ^^

- It did occur to me that it might be cool to introduce some 16th notes into the rhythm starting around m. 10+. But I suppose that's what you were going for with the gradual pedal in and pedal out, and it makes sense to me

Yeah it's more of a delay effect rather than an actual rhythm, and trying to play that up to speed would probably be hell haha

- There's a random small line at the bottom of the end of m. 29

oop

- Is there no way to simplify the structure? 5 pages seems like a lot to notate what's basically 4 measures of repeated material in the main loop, with some variety. Though I get if there are subtle differences.

The only differences are really there in pedal (so when the delay effect happens or not), but for notes the loop could happen after m35 too. If you want, I could add an optional D.S. marking if people want to play without pedal?