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One of the state universities are offering a full ride scholarship in education, but the catch is that you have to take classes on site. I would love to do that, but I value my health a little too much to risk an opportunity like that one.

Oh well, if it's meant to be then it's meant to be.

Welp.

Pretty much every single plan that I had for this summer, or this upcoming semester if we're being real, has gone tits up.

I'll probably spend some time looking at the arrangement thread most likely.

More to come.

So I started to publish some covers that I've been working on for awhile.

Feel free to post yours.

Hello once again NSM, long time no see.

I come back in this glorious light of time asking for a favor.

I have found myself picking up projects as of recent, and require some advice from those who have had similar experiences.

I could use the ol' google machine, but I find that first-hand experiences from peers tend to offer a more favorable result in terms of accuracy and personable use as to how I could approach such an experience.

That being said, here it goes:

I have been hired to do some arranging and copyist work. I have been told to mock-up a contract as the terms, timelines, payment, and so on. I have a general idea of how to handle the first two, but payment seems rather... iffy. I want to do a flat fee, but how do I calculate such a project? Time? Creativity? Time? Hourly seems simple enough when it comes to just doing the work, but disputable if I don't offer a log of some notion. A time card, per se. With a flat fee I could avoid such minute details. Anyways, I'll let the posts hash out this one.

Second order of business is I'm interested in taking on a project that a relative is currently starting. It's composing music for a short film that has been accepted into the sundance film festival. I haven't accepted, but am still interested if anyone has experience producing for film or otherwise that required you to compose by commission.

Thanks for your replies. I miss you all dearly, and hope to return one day when life hasn't kicked me in the balls.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Okay, here it goes.

I feel this has a very heavy swing, almost to the point where you could get away with your syncopations being notated as 16th notes as in classic ragtime style. If we were to adapt this piece into that style with all of its little quirks in melody it would make much more sense to notate it the way I'm going to describe now.

Overall the bassline sounds separated, as does the top melody, but other times it's pretty connected. I blame the soundfonts used which seem to be some sort of plucked instrument with a heavy decay rate. Which would explain why there are rests peppered throughout your sheet.

I would suggest getting rid of those;

For example, in m. 32 where the bassline gets very legato and there's a quarter rest on beat 4 where there is audibly no rest. Again in m. 18, where you have the 8th note on beat 4 that could easily be traded for a quarter note and would make little difference. If it bugs you that the duration is exact, then I would suggest using a modified staccato marking in its stead.

Same thing happens in the melody too like in m. 20 where, since it's swung, would be a good idea to tie beat 4 of the previous measure then switch the & of 1 into a quarter note. Jazz players live for those kind of written syncopations and read and expect those type of written figures with ease.

Overall, most of the melodic figures just need to be more connected visually. The performer overall will hear and know how to interpret the song. But, if too many rests and breaks inbetween melodic melodies can become tedious to read.

Now we get to some interesting stuff which will prove your aural skills.

In the last section in measures 57, 61, 65; those last two notes on beats 4 and the & of 4. I see what you were hearing, and it's not an easy thing to hear and interpret at first. BUT what I hear is that figure starting on the & of 3 then switching to the & of 4. Notating that is rather easy and is an acceptable place to have eighth notes with rests inbetween them. I'd rather opt for an eighth note tied to a quarter note followed by an eight note but that's just me.

Lastly from what I caught so far; there's a small, quick syncopated lead in on the & of 4 in m. 36 in the melody that I heard but didn't see in your sheet. Best check that and see if it's something you can hear.

That's all I got so far. Hopefully this helps.

Superbump for Wah

Superbump for arranger

Yeah, I hear a difference in the intro, but it's only the one note. Maybe an accent or something similar?

Also, when the baseline comes in there's a huge difference in dynamics in the top octave of the bass line. I almost didn't hear it the first time until it replayed again but louder.

There's some super subtle stuff going on in regards with dynamics. I would take the time to notate them and use as much detail as possible.

Yeah, opening up links can be a little tedious when it comes to updaters checking sheets all in one go.

The first thing I noticed was how you have the 8va marking in between the staves for the first melody. Best to consolidate that to a more reasonable area like maybe the top of the staff?? That way, it's not going to get in the way of dynamics or hairpins or anything else.

There are a couple of note issues, missed syncopated notes, etc that I'll address more in depth tomorrow.

Aside from creative and legal aspects of whether or not we should follow Hamaguchi's direction in articulation use I feel that this is an exemplary arrangement even if it doesn't mirror other versions of itself by more adequate arrangers.

This arrangement is fine. Latios and Liberia did an excellent job resurrecting this piece from the dead.

It gets a go from me, dog.

Thanks guys for the b-day wishes.

And happy belated birthday to sebastian!

Till tonight.

You.

I never liked the staccato tenuto combo, but whatevs. If everyone else agrees with it then I cannot contest.

However, I am hearing a different rhythm at the last beat of m. 8. I hear the D being held for an 8th note then resolving how you have the last two 16ths.

If it matters, how I would solve the tenuto staccato thing is by having tenuto'd eighth note hits on each beat. This would hightlight the melody in the bassline and other lines like it. Just something else, no need to change if it works as is for everyone.

I have no major complaints other than....

I don't see the need for rehearsal marks only because it's just the one piano player, but...

That could just be a thing from a performance standpoint rather than a teaching one? Like, maybe if someone was getting lessons and they were to use this sheet and the rehearsal marks make it easier for a student to follow along?

Like I said, a very small thing. Other than that I don't hear or see anything too funky from reading it once.

There must have been some confusion as to some of the feedback both MSF and I gave about the tempo alterations and margin spacing.

MSF meant to say that they could go above the entire system. I'd prefer a mix of above or below. Sometimes the a tempo is above the system and sometimes the ritardando is below in that configuration. Sometimes both are above, sometimes they're both below. Look up some examples on IMSLP to see which one fits your arrangement style.

What I meant about the system indent is that the first system gets more or less 0.5 inches of space from the page, while the rest of the systems don't really need any additional spacing. Right now, you don't need the pno abbreviation on top of having the piano title in the first system. It seems redundant to me.

On top of all of that, system spacing could be just a little bit better. A little more even. Right now how you have it, it leans up to the top right of the document. Once you fix the previous margin things, I'm sure it'll even out. I have no doubt about that.