[NES] Dr. Mario - "Endings" by Nine Lives

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Super Mario
Game: Dr. Mario
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Title: Endings
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Nine Lives

[attachment deleted by admin]

[NineLives]

Sources: Low Difficulty | Hi/Med Difficulty

[Bloop]

I very much wonder if those little additions in the 9/8 bars are just coding errors in the original game lol, they sound so out of place.

Throughout the sheet:
-Make sure to have the 8 and 15 of the 8va's and 15ma's start before the first note of the bar.
-m3 and 10: Even though I think you're right on how long the rests in these bars are, you could also consider leaving them in 4/4 and adding a fermata to the half rest instead. I think that's more akin to the effect it has in the original, rather than counting out the silence to the exact 8th.
-m7, 14 and 18: The endings (the last 8th) to these bars are actually a bit slower than how you have written them, but writing the exact note values will be a pain. To be exact, these endings are technically 2 triplet 8ths with the 3rd triplet cut off. If you would write this out in its separate bar, it would be a 2/12th time signature, believe it or not. As far as I know, there's no way to write time signatures with custom denominators. Another option would be to make it a 2/8 bar, and have a metric modulation saying "triplet 8th = 8th", and then adding "8th = triplet 8th" at the following measure, but that might also look a bit messy. I'll leave it up to you if you wanna experiment with either of these options, but I'm also fine with if you want to keep it as is.

Low Difficulty:
-m1-3: The dyads here should be D#-E and B-Cn, instead of what you have here.
-m4-7: I hear the R.H. here an octave lower than you have written here. Maybe you could try to arrange the accompany part of the R.H. in the L.H. then instead? The melody part in the R.H. is the same as in High Difficulty m11-13
-m5: The L.H. F# in beat 1 should be a G#.

Hi/Med Difficulty:
-m13 and 27: The second voice in beat 2 goes to the A above the melody.
-m14: I hear the last two notes in the R.H. an octave higher, and with a minor second added below them.
-m16, 20, 30 and 34: You could move the D on beat 3 to the L.H. so it can play in its original octave (an octave lower)
-m17: The G in the melody is doubled in the accompaniment part, but I think you can still add it in a separate layer as a half note, so it's clear what the melody is doing.
-m18: I hear the last dyad in the R.H. an octave higher too.

[NineLives]

I've made quite a few of the changes, but I had a few I didn't include, mostly for playability reasons.

-m7, 14 and 18: The endings (the last 8th) to these bars are actually a bit slower than how you have written them, but writing the exact note values will be a pain. To be exact, these endings are technically 2 triplet 8ths with the 3rd triplet cut off. If you would write this out in its separate bar, it would be a 2/12th time signature, believe it or not. As far as I know, there's no way to write time signatures with custom denominators. Another option would be to make it a 2/8 bar, and have a metric modulation saying "triplet 8th = 8th", and then adding "8th = triplet 8th" at the following measure, but that might also look a bit messy. I'll leave it up to you if you wanna experiment with either of these options, but I'm also fine with if you want to keep it as is.
-m14: I hear the last two notes in the R.H. an octave higher, and with a minor second added below them.
-m18: I hear the last dyad in the R.H. an octave higher too.

For measures 7, 14, and 18, I think it's best to keep them as is. Like you said, it'll look a bit messy and possibly make it a bit of an awkward note or two to time.
For measure 14, I added the minor second, but I think, similar to what I have for measure 18, it'd be easier to play in its current octave and will easily transition into the next measures without having to jump up/down so far so fast. That's what I thought when I made it that way initially at least.
If I missed any of the other concerns, let me know!

[Bloop]

For measure 14, I added the minor second, but I think, similar to what I have for measure 18, it'd be easier to play in its current octave and will easily transition into the next measures without having to jump up/down so far so fast. That's what I thought when I made it that way initially at least.

I figured that might have been the reason, but I think it's not that big of a jump for at least m14: in fact, it's even easier to play an octave up. For m16 it will be a bigger jump though, but just one of a ninth, which is still within reason at this speed.

Some things that popped up:
Low Difficulty:
-m6: The F# on beat 3 is doubled in both hands now, maybe you could add parentheses to the one in the L.H.?

High Difficulty:
-m9, 13, 23 and 27: With "moving the note to the L.H." I actually meant something like cross-staffing instead of just adding it to the L.H., so it's clear it's part of the 8th wavy motion and not of the L.H. part.
-m10: Oops, I meant writing the top layer here as a whole note instead of a half note.

Everything else looks good!

[NineLives]

I went over a couple things with Bloop and now the sheets are updated with one extra thing in Hi/Med Difficulty: measures 7 and 21's count 1.5 has been changed to Bb instead of B.

[Bloop]

Great! I'll approve!
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[Libera]

Low Diff
-The voicing in the andante section of really does not sound right to me.  I'm hearing something more like:

Spoiler

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[close]

-The 8va /15ma's are too far to the left.  In my opinion (which is often considered too far to the left!) I think the 8 should start just before the first note it applies to.

Hi/Med Diff
-Again, the voicing in the melody in bar 4 doesn't sound right.  I think it should be like in low diff, starting on a D in bar 4 and a D again in bar 5 etc.  The only difference I hear (other than the key) is that it doesn't go up a third on beat 4 of bar 6, which sounds correct as you have it.  The second voice should also be adjusted with these corrections in mind.
-Also, you might consider putting the A on beat 3 down an octave so it doesn't jump above the melody like that.  I'm not sure it sounds great on piano, but I don't really mind.
-The D on beat 4.5 of bar 7 is an Eb, not a Dn.
-The chord in bar 9/13 etc. is a D major chord, not B minor.  The B on beat 2/4 should be an A and the B on beat 3 should be a D.

Hopefully that helps.

[NineLives]

For the Low Difficulty section, I agreed with most of what was written with the exception of the F in the right hand of measure 6. Upon listening to the source again, I found that it was up an octave.

Hi/Med Diff
-Again, the voicing in the melody in bar 4 doesn't sound right.  I think it should be like in low diff, starting on a D in bar 4 and a D again in bar 5 etc.  The only difference I hear (other than the key) is that it doesn't go up a third on beat 4 of bar 6, which sounds correct as you have it.  The second voice should also be adjusted with these corrections in mind.

For this section here, I get where you're coming from, but like what you suggested for the A in measure 6, I initially had a similar idea for the D's of measures 4 and 5 being an octave lower, since they too are part of the accompaniment rather than the melody. In Low Difficulty, it sounds more appropriate in the key and octave, but I think how Hi/Med Difficulty is written sounds best when the D is lower instead of higher than the B/G. Aside from this, the sheet's been updated accordingly.

[Libera]

For this section here, I get where you're coming from, but like what you suggested for the A in measure 6, I initially had a similar idea for the D's of measures 4 and 5 being an octave lower, since they too are part of the accompaniment rather than the melody.

I think they are the melody, just like in low difficulty.  I agree the A is part of the accompaniment which is why I suggested lowering it.  Either way, they are exactly the same in both places (low difficulty and hi/med) so they should be written the same in both cases.

Everything else looks fine, although I would highly recommend modifying the beaming in bar 6 to make it look less confusing (break the beam between 2.5 and 3, and between 3.5 and 4).

[NineLives]

Sheet's been updated.

[Libera]

Looks good!

[Zeta]

This submission has been accepted by Libera.

~Zeta, your friendly NSM-Bot