Messages

[> playability is key; cut on the layers.]

Oh wow, the interest here is pretty amazing, ahh ;w;

Thank you, guys! Never expected this kind of response, and so fast too. Dang, this is super awesome~

~

I'll just add on some extra information then! I don't have a limit for the number of tracks that can be featured, however I do like it to be around 10 tracks, just to keep it consistent. Also, there's a few extra standards that have to be met when sheets are recorded live, so I'll be reviewing those when I take a look through your sheets. I'll send these reviews by PM! ^^

But in case you're writing from scratch - and if you are, thank you so much - some extra guidelines:

> playability is key; cut on the layers.
I'd very strongly recommend you give your own sheets a try before sending it over, because with the final product being something live, it has to be...actually playable. I have not many qualms with arrangements that are faithful to the original and keep as many layers as possible, however those tend to be awkward to play and sometimes too impractical to consider for recording. Less is more here, and the live piano sound will do the rest of the work ^^

> please format it well ;w;
I've agreed with Lat that we'll be using the NSM guidelines for all sheets, with this being an NSM feature album. So please follow those guidelines - they're there for a reason and I cannot deny that the quality of sheets that come out of that system are superb.

> as a bonus, show off what the instrument can do! ^^
Things like trills, pedal patterns, flourishes if you're willing to figure out one yourself - these make timbres that are unique only to the piano, and any of these in a sheet makes the performer (and listener) really happy

Anyway, if you'll have me, I'll contribute! Might need to arrange something new, though, since I have surprisingly few good Mario sheets done...

fiiiine i'll have you ;w;

anyway! i've also added my mario wishlist on the op. no needs to follow that, but if you're going to write something from scratch and have some ideas, i'd be delighted if you could take one of those up <3

ooh wow!! thanks for the response guys ;w;

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I'd contribute something. Would prefer Zelda, but I can make Mario work. (You also could do a hybrid Mario-Zelda album—just a thought!)

Why not -- they're both dominated by Mr. Kondo, so that might work well!

^^ I think a hybrid one would be nice, but if it were just the two options then I'd prefer Zelda. If you want more variety then you could do a Mario one since you already did a BotW album

soooo i'm just going to explain this a little.

no one is stopping me from mixing up the franchises, however i think it's the best strategy, marketing-wise, if we stick to one. ^^ reason being that most searches are done by track, then by game - in that order - and classifying all tracks in the same game yields us a higher chance that the listener will just shuffle through the album.

i think it's important to market this as widely as possible, because it spreads your names, and it spreads the NSM name! plus, i'm sure all of us would prefer a bigger audience if there was a choice ;p

anyway! it seems we're starting to gravitate towards a Mario album, so if you guys have sheets to suggest feel free to post them! I'll take a read through hehe~

[all-NSM-arranger VGM piano album;one track per arranger;one franchise.]

Heyya! ^^

So, after discussing with Lat, and admitting that I had done way too many of his sheets for albums...I'd like to open to the floor for a fun new concept I'm super excited about! ^^

This will be an all-NSM-arranger VGM piano album;
one track per arranger;
one franchise.

I think having your sheets played live, in the context of a publicly distributed album, could be something to be pretty proud about! For this project, I'd like to feature as many arrangers as possible, therefore only one sheet per arranger is permitted. And to have any chance at all for searches, it's best to keep all arrangements from the same franchise - Lat and I agreed it'd be either Mario or Zelda.

Just to kick this off, would anyone be interested in contributing a sheet to this? ^^ I'll go learn it and record it to album-quality, so there'll probably be extra rounds of edits for playability and general cleaning-up. Do let me know in the replies if you'd be interested, and if you have any preference for Mario or Zelda~ [update: it'll be mario!]

If the interest is there and we've decided on a franchise, I can't wait to start learning those sheets of yours! <3

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Currently confirmed:

- "Tostarena Ruins" (SMO), arr. Static

- "Dodo's Coming!!" (Super Mario RPG), arr. THC

- "Secret Mine" (Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon), arr. Levi

- "Starshine Beach Galaxy" (SMG2), arr. Latios212

- "Starship Mario 1" (SMG2), arr. Sebastian

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my wish list ;w; (if you're writing from scratch)

> "Bowser Jr.'s Fiery Flotilla" (SMG2) - it'll be a replacement for the on-site one

> The SMB2 Overworld Theme, but a playable version xP

> The Sky Theme/"Athletic" from SMB3, though I'd gladly cheat using Bespinben's sheet too

> any more laid-back track from SMO

Brilliant. Really, just brilliant.

Your playing is just...extraordinary. Undoubtedly professional, but I'm just completely amazed at your skill haha. When I first listened to your BotW Main Theme I thought it was digitally programmed, and then I realised how wrong I was when I proceeded to listen through your entire playlist. It was mesmerizing - I really never felt so amazed listening to VGM piano performing before.

If you do continue to do Youtube, I sincerely hope you find your audience. These are spectacular - really wish I could say more, but I'm too taken aback by your awesomeness to give it a proper criticism. Looking forward to the stuff you do, good sir, and of course, you earned yourself a subscriber <3

ahh thank you guys <3

I know i dont appear around much these days but i really appreciate being a part of this place

Oh dang! I played your "Dire Dire Docks", ahaha, nice to see you back!

And you're a Berklee graduate, holy crap. Much respect for you, and hopefully you'll be doing a bunch more sheets here for me to leech off and learn bwahahaha ^^

I did consider sending you a PM, but I suppose there's no harm done in expressing this opinion publicly :p

I think the work you have done is absolutely brilliant. Not just considering that you're fifteen years old: your Sun and Moon "Title Screen" is a sheet that, after a few edits, I would pick up and learn; your "Konikoni City" is clean and accurate, even more so than some of my current sheets. And most impressively, the orchestration in "Grand Tale" shows that you've properly thought about the way the instruments in the band work, long before writing - you're thinking about harmonies, rhythm, even timbre. Personally, I don't think I would have been able to write anything that you did at fifteen years old.

But it's not about me, really: I'm just so impressed with what I saw, and a part of me really wants to get to know you and possibly guide you along a little. Of course, it's not perfect, and when new people come to NSM there are formatting and stylistic expectations, so that's why it's timely that you found your way to this community. ^^ When I came back to arranging last year, Latios212, Seb, Braix and a host of awesome people opened up to me on Skype to talk about arranging - what I hope for you is that very soon, you'll find yourself inspired and motivated to keep writing and write better, through this little community here

You clearly know what's going on in VGM. After doing lots of listening and quite a lot of arrangements, I'm now certain that the challenge of the main Pokemon OSTs is rhythm, and the challenge of the PMD OSTs is melodic layering. These are challenges that need deliberate thinking and creative decisions to overcome: more often than not, you can't just transcribe and pick your parts (past the 3rd Generation, of course xD). From what I've seen so far, you're really getting it.

If you don't mind, in a week or so, I'd like to get in contact with you on Skype or something to talk music - just as the awesome people who helped me when I first came did. ^^ When so much potential just overflows out of someone and you know they've got passion...ooh. That's inspiring.

And of course, with you being a Singaporean, at some point perhaps we could meet up and talk about music things. But that's something I'd presume you'd rather save for the far future xD

~

For now though: hope that this gives you a little bit of confidence to keep at this awesome work you're doing. ^^ I'll be following your thread for sure, but no pressure! Keep doing what you're doing as long as you enjoy it, can't wait to see what else you can pull off~

Languages: English and (really bad) Chinese.
Location: Singapore. ^{(hi daj)}
Instrument: French Horn (been in my school's concert band since Sec 1/7th Grade/13yo).

ahaha this is so singaporean i cant even <3

Heyya, Dillon! ^^ Daj says hi~
(resists the urge to type in singlish)

So cool to see another singaporean here! ^^ And you're arranging VGM stuff at 15? That's super cool. Can't wait to go back and take a look at your channel too, that should be fun

A part of me really hopes that you arrange PMD stuff that's playable in a live setting, hehe. I don't really like the PMD soundtrack, but piano arrangements of it just...work. Somehow. So if you'd ever like me to play something of yours, feel free to send it over and I'll see if I can't give it a read/record

Enjoy yourself on these forums, take care man! Can't wait to get to know ya~

You're missing a lot of counterpoint and harmonies D:

You can always make the choice to leave it out but I'd really reccomend trying to get some of that in there.

I'd argue against adding any more stuff! :p The difficulty of arranging this track is that it's got a very simple melody, very simple harmonies, but ultra-intricate rhythmic layering. I wouldn't say there's counterpoint in this: rather, there's lots of melodic flourishes (especially at the tails of phrases) and distinctive ostinatos/loops.

Trasdegi has chosen to keep the integrity of the melody and the basic rhythm of the bass line intact, which cuts all the rhythmic layers in between (namely the snare pattern) and sacrifices a few nice flourishes. I think that's okay ^^

...in fact, I've actually been watching this arrangement progress from the requests thread to here, and I'm very certain that what Trasdegi has now is as intricate as it should get. It was...a lot scarier when it started out. xD Beyond this point, adding any more stuff, I think, would destroy the simplicity of the melody, and if that was the aim of the arrangement all along, let's not compromise that~

From the point of view of someone who reeeaally wants to play and record this live, this arrangement is tough, but workable. Some bits like jumping from octave melodies to middle-voice flourishes within the range of a semiquaver/sixteenth-note are really tough and need deliberate work, but in the end, this is learnable. And much more learnable than the first version I saw and didn't know how to comment on.

Personally, I think the arrangement itself is about as good as it gets - either way I suppose it's too late to change the direction of the arrangement entirely. Maybe it's best to just focus on the formatting stuff now. Just my opinion ^^


As an aside, you bet I'll be learning this and recording it! It's one of those tracks I always wanted to do, but was too lazy to properly analyse. Can't wait to see this on-site~

Something I've been pondering for a little while now is a good way to play the beginning section of SMW's Athletic theme. The way it's written on site right now doesn't really lend itself to being played at 300+ BPM due to repeating notes (i.e. see below, the RH plays two eighth note E's in a row several times), or at least that's why I have a problem with it. I don't really have a problem with anything else in the sheet (minus a couple of notes I cut in a place or two for simplicity), but when I try to play this section at full speed I just muddle through the notes in the chord keeping the contour of the notes roughly what they're supposed to be. Was wondering if anyone had a good way to write out this part for the right hand.

This is the first of several similar figures from this sheet here.

ahaha...you could even dream of doing this at full speed, and meanwhile i gave up at 170 </3

This section though!! >< I really agree with what you said, especially with the way you phrased it: this section is definitely playable, but it does not lend itself into being played at a rushed tempo. At all. There's a different between "fast" and "rushed": "Bonetrousle" is fast and "Gourmet Race" is rushed, as a frikkin brilliant example (that i will use every time from this post onwards bwahaha i just found a brilliant example off my head <3)

If you want something rushed, it really helps to cut on the leaps and jumps. So in that vein of thought, the left hand could definitely be reduced~

...I digress. xD How I'd write this section is:
A-A-E-G-C#/A-E | A-C#-E-C#/A

Basically, cut all chords to two notes, and only keep the ones that are on off-beats. The on-beats will naturally emphasise themselves, especially since they all happen to be on either the root or 5th of the chord. So with that rhythmic and harmonic accent I don't really see a need for a textural (i.e. vertical number of notes) accent~

I'd still struggle to play it in the way I suggested though, because of the G-A on 4-5...but I suppose there's no way around that xD

Gonna use two posts for two points! ^^ Keeping it organised ahaha

I'll give this a shot today and see what's up. I can say for  sure the  problem is not #1. I listened to this song on and off for a few years before ever arranging it. I practiced it a lot last semester, and, you know, spend hours with it to arrange it. Oh, and the song is 90% memorized at this point. I'm coming to belive the problem might be tempo. I should also note the issues seem to lessen when playing with one hand; I can regularly perform the entire song, one hand only, at 98%, even with my eyes closed. And yes, that includes the RH in the 3rd section. Now that I think more, it has been more of the octave jumps for me. I may see if I can make a quick recording or something and PM a link to you so you can kinda see what I mean by this.

Edit: and the first section hasn't given me problems at all in ages.

I'd love to hear a recording, yeah! ^^ If you could shoot your hands up close (from an above-keys angle) that'll really help too, maybe I could try to point out some minor details~

From what I've gathered in text though, it sounds like you've been doing quite a bit of work of each of the parts in isolation, but less so of the parts together - this was one of the habits I had when I refused to go at a slower tempo, not sure if it's a thing for you too. Either way, unless a part is particularly tricky on one hand, I don't see too much use in practising separately. The only part I'd work on separate hands is the octave melody, for your sheet~

It works on the same rationale as playing a contrary motion scale - you need to know your left hand scale and right hand scale individually, but once you know both of those, you take an entirely different mindset into learning the contrary motion techniques ^^

Anyway, looking forward to that recording!

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The way I practice is as soon as I encounter a measure where I make a mistake, I'll slowly go over that measure(and the surrounding ones) a dozen times or so and try it again. Don't know if this is the best way to approach learning pieces, but it's worked for me :p

I think this is a pretty efficient way to practice! For most sheets that don't pose super big technical challenges, I learn them this way

One extra tip though - if the sheet is any tougher than sight-reading difficulty, practice by section. Most sheets do come with some form of technical challenge, but these technical challenges are either isolated (eg. flourishes and licks) or kept within sections (eg. riffs and ostinatos). For pieces with circular structures where sections tend to repeat, this significantly cuts learning time ^^

For example, you mentioned you were learning Chopin's Revolutionary Etude! ^^ The rough structure of that is Intro-A-B-C (based on Intro)-A1-Coda. You could learn this straight through, but if you chop it into sections and work them one by one, I think it compartmentalises your mind to associate the repetitions with each other much better, and at least when I know my structure first I do a lot less work - do give it a spin!

[know the piece on a deeper level]

I've almost finished a piece, but I'm having, and have had for years, issues on that last 5%. I can play the song with 90% accuracy, but those mistakes are rarely in the same place any time I play it.  Does anyone have tips on ironing out that last tiny bit? Most of this last bit involves a lot of leaps, so it's much harder to get simple muscle memory to take over.

Ooh, nice - this is a topic that's quite close to me. Here's what I've got:

In a general sense, there are two types of challenges when it comes to mechanically learning a piece: familiarisation/memory challenges and technical challenges (also includes musical challenges). Both require deliberate work if you'd like to practice (and eventually execute) your pieces efficiently. ^^

PDS summarises it pretty well:

1) It's not in your ear

2) It's not in your hands, technique-wise.

3) It's in your ear, and you're playing it, but the connection from hand to ear isn't there.

1) and 3) are under "familiarisation challenges". These happen because you don't, simply, know the piece well enough, and are not ready to react fast enough when faced with the scenario of executing it in the moment.

The solution for these challenges is not to know the piece better as much as it is to know the piece on a deeper level. That's why they tell you to "go slow" - but don't just play slower: play it in time, firmly, basically with as many small details as you can fill into the space.

But the demands aren't really that high haha - usually, playing something slower and in time until you're comfortable is enough for you to internalise the notes. ^^

In summary, when faced with a familiarisation challege, take time to learn your piece in detail. In your "far" example, I forsee that the left-hand part can be hard to familiarise if you're good at guessing chords, but when you're using extra mental energy to guess the notes instead of actually knowing the notes, you might make mistakes that lead to a 90% performance every single time~

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And 2) is the essence of a technical challenge: you just aren't skilled enough to play what's on the sheet, at your desired tempo, without slipping up most of the time.

Technical challenges require a lot more work to handle, of course - when I was working on performance quite seriously, my teacher would give me little tips on tiny things like finger attacks, elbow weight and small turns if I asked her "how do I play this part without sucking". And then I'd go home and work the techniques individually, detail by detail: if I was to learn finger attacks, I'd work staccato scales, then the passage with all accents at a super slow tempo, then the passage with altered rhythms...you get the idea xD

So a technical challenge is best faced with deliberate, detailed practice. You know, the most boring kinds of practice.

For your sheet, I think the octave melody in the last section is quite tough to hit consistently. If I was to learn this sheet, I'd spend some time playing just that octave melody: first, at a slower tempo, to make sure I'm entirely familiar with it, then build up the tempo as the details are ironed out. Along the way you're bound to find some passages or particular leaps that are really tough, so practice those separately (literally, two notes in isolation) and try to commit those to muscle memory.


It's a frustrating feeling to keep working on something but not achieving the level you expect and not knowing why - so if you don't mind I'll try to infer a little ^^

I'm suspecting that for this "far" arrangement of yours, you're missing a "95% performance" (90+5, hehe) because of a combination of familiarisation and technical challenges that you haven't deliberately worked on yet.

For example, I'd think the line with bar 13 would need a bit of time to familiarise. Write the fingerings down, play that bit in isolation, all of that. The section at bar 17 on, I feel, is the hardest to execute on the spot, because you're making leaps in both hands on the second beat of most bars. I think, if I were to learn this, I'd spend most of the first twenty minutes familiarising that section.

Then I think I'd spend however much time I needed to secure the accuracy of that section, especially in the left hand. I think the left hand part is one of the bigger technical challenges of this piece, because your left thumb is basically doing octave leaps every bar (there's no better fingering I think :p). Of course, I'd use some time for the octave melody too - particularly in the links between beat 3 and 1, because those are accompanied with left-hand downward leaps.

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Hope this helps! ^^ I wish I could spend more time asking you about your experiences instead of giving hard advice, but I'm not in the best of places to do that ahaha. Do let me know if anything though!~

10/10

Thank you so much man, always nice to know there are people checking out these slightly less common things ^^

Anyway! It's one of my own thingies, but I thought it was worth sharing.

A while back, someone requested Rustboro City on this site. I decided to give it a spin, so I arranged it with no reference, but somehow this came out of that instead of a decent arrangement. :p Thought it was cool, so I uploaded it on my channel, but I knew it would never make it on-site xD

Give that a year or so, and I decided I was ready to give this a spin live

Enjoy!~

I've definitely got some long distance goals, if I had to fill out the list you've given it'd probably look something like this currently:

1. Snowman, song of healing, possum springs.

2.Cara Mia, Silent Hill Promise (Reprise) and Not Tomorrow, Home Again, File Select (PMD: RRT), and some others I haven't played much in a while.

3. Twinleaf Town, Route 209, Lilycove City, It's Raining Elsewhere
And a long, long distance goal would be route 216, it's my favorite of yours.

Looks like a good list! ^^ I feel that "Possum Springs" might be a little on the tough side, but I suppose it works based on just a few counting patterns which you can learn quite fast, so it should be okay~

As for "Route 216", it's one of those tracks that's mainly difficult because of its speed, but also rhythmically quite tough. I'm glad to hear you like it, but definitely keep that one on the bench for a little while more - honestly, I haven't fully mastered that sheet yet either xD

I like the outline and I'll try to stick to this, will also be picking up lessons again and getting down to the nitty gritty with scales and hand exercies that should help (and I'll be learning some Beethoven) so I should be making some progress hopefully. Thanks

Glad that this outline helps! And I hope the lessons turn out useful too~

Scales and hand exercises are good! But only work them with full focus, or not at all - they're the most efficient way to warm up and get used to common figurations, but nothing hides the fact that they're boring. That said, if your teacher has an approach to scales and arpeggios that doesn't involve insane boredom, do let me know ahaha :p

I reeeaaally don't recommend doing Beethoven early on in the learning phase, though. Even "Fur Elise", haha. I haven't seen you play yet, but judging by your VGM sheet choices, I'd recommend looking through the 6 Clementi sonatinas (opus thirty-something). They're a good primer to the mid-Classical style, and I think they're beautiful. Some movements are quite tough, but you should be able to tell that visually xD

Hah I've just realized that I'm completely lacking in those first two categories that you've mentioned, so I should probably focus a bit more on those instead and really cut down on the long-term goals...

Maybe something like this could work?:

1. Route 209, Littleroot Town, Canalave City
2. N's Farewell, An Unwavering Heart
3. Approaching Champion Cynthia, National Park HGSS, Chopin Etude Op.25 No.5, Op.10 No.12

ahaha i see you let go of winter wind xD

This is a nice selection! For your long-term projects you have three short technical studies and one slightly more complex one (National Park ahaha, welp), and I personally like to balance my tough selections that way when not working for something major~

Quick aside - I think "N's Farewell" is one of the best pieces to keep in anyone's VGM piano repertoure. Even after you're done learning the sheet, it's just so dang fun to improvise on thatmelody, and it's just so well-written. ^^