[GCN] Animal Crossing - "K.K. Dixie" by amc

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Animal Crossing
Game: Animal Crossing
Console: Nintendo GameCube
Title: K.K. Dixie
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: amc

[attachment deleted by admin]

[amc]

WELL I WISH I WAS IN THE LAND OF COTTON
OLD TIMES THERE ARE NOT FORGOTTEN
LOOK AWAY LOOK AWAY LOOK AWAY DIXIELAND
IN DIXIELAND WHERE I WAS BORN IN
EARLY ON ONE FROSTY MORNIN'
LOOK AWAY LOOK AWAY LOOK AWAY DIXIELAND
THEN I WISH I WAS IN DIXIE
HOORAY HOORAY
IN DIXIELAND I'LL TAKE MY STAND
TO LIVE IN DIE IN DIXIE
AWAY AWAY AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE
AWAY AWAY AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE

[Static]

wow

• I think including staccatos on most of the quarter notes would give the melody a lot of pop. It more closely matches how K.K. sings it.
• Watch note lengths in the whistle section, some of them are shorter than in the singing part.
• m10 LH: D#s and F#s should be Ebs and Gbs since they resolve to D and F in the next measure (yes it is fine to have Gb and An in this case, since its a diminished chord).
• The chord in m36 should be notated as a rolled chord (use one of those vertical squiggly lines)
• m53-56 should be spelled using the same intervals; currently m55 is different from the rest.
• All of the original K.K. songs (except K.K. Song) from the GameCube game were composed by Toru Minegishi, not Kazumi Totaka. In the credits, Minegishi is listed as the "Indoor BGM" composer, which includes all building music and K.K. tracks, live and aircheck versions. You can also see more evidence here and here, for K.K. Soul and K.K. Chorale respectively.
• Maybe you've noticed by now after looking through the sheet again: you structured this song incorrectly. Yes, the melody does repeat after m58, but then there's a key change and a new ending after that. If you're arranging anything here, you have to make sure to include the full track.

[amc]

updated

[Static]

• I would add articulations to m20-56 as well.
• Starting at m21, you have room to move the LH notes to the correct octaves, now that the melody is an octave higher.
• m52 LH: Similar to the above, you have the space to move some of those notes into the correct octave; the RH can easily play the higher notes there.
• The LH accompaniment in m57 (beat 3)-58 isn't quite right; the chords actually play on the downbeats while the bass note G plays on the offbeats. These notes should also be long; I'd recommend using 2 layers of overlapping half notes.
• m80 LH: Like in m10 LH, the E naturals should be Fbs here, but I think you should just keep the G naturals the same for clarity. And because of this, feel free to change the Gbs in m10 and 64 back to F#s if you'd like, just for consistency.
• m93 LH: F#s and A naturals should be Gbs and Bbbs.
• m93-96: The chords here up to and including beat 1 of m96 are all missing a 3rd or 4th voice; also I would move around the notes so they match the voicing of the original; the RH isn't doing anything here so it can play the upper notes.
• The very last note should have another Ab above the Db.
• The copyright info and page/titles are outside the page margins.

The other changes you made look good.

[amc]

Updated.

[Static]

Apologies for the wait on this one; just a few more things

• D#s should be Ebs in m26, like in m10.

• Starting at m21, you have room to move the LH notes to the correct octaves, now that the melody is an octave higher.

  Sorry if I was unclear, but I didn't mean that you should take what you have and transpose it up an octave; I just meant that you have the room there to write the guitar part as it's played in the recording. This is what it should look like (just the first measure as an example here):
  
  If you think the large LH jumps would be too difficult, don't worry, they're not; this is typical stride piano stuff.
• Fermatas should be lined up rhythmically, so the half rest at the end should be split into two quarter rests, with the fermata on the 2nd one.
• Page numbers/titles on pages 2-5 are outside the margins.

[amc]

Updated.

[Static]

Looks awesome, I approve.

[mastersuperfan]

- Maybe it's just me, but "moderately" doesn't really feel like the right word to use here.
- For m12 LH, I don't hear D's in the original. Although they are part of the chord, you may consider using F-B or G-B dyads instead (or maybe something like an F-B dyad on beat 2 and a G-B dyad on beat 4). Same goes for m18, m28, m34, m66, and m72. Also same for m82 and m88 with the Eb.
- Likewise, in m14 LH, I don't hear G's in the original. You could use them anyway since they're part of the chord (and it keeps the intervals consistent), but Eb might work better instead. Same for m30 and m68, and with the Ab in m84.
- In m20-35, I notice you consistently make sure that the dyads on beats 2/4 don't use the same notes as beat 1/3, but maybe here it would be better to make the dyads sound more true to the original (e.g. use B-F in m28, Bb-E in m30, A-F in m31, etc.). That's up to you. (You might also apply some of these changes to the other sections where the dyads are thirds, too—for instance, m17 might sound better with E-G dyads instead of C-E dyads, even though the C is omitted.)
- I recommend a courtesy natural on the F on m44 RH beat 3, since they were all F#'s in m37-43.
- m47-48 LH doesn't sound staccato to me.
- Do you also want to add a courtesy C natural to m48 LH beat 2? After all, the most recent C# was in the same octave (m47 beat 4).
- The courtesy flat in m94 RH (Bb) seems unnecessary, since the Bbb in m93 is in a different octave/hand and is played only briefly. I also don't see the point of the courtesy A flat on m94 LH beat 1.

[amc]

Updated.

[mastersuperfan]

I think Italian tempo markings just kinda bug me in general when the style of music is very distinct from typical classical/baroque-like music (stuff like jazz, folk, music inspired by other cultures). Maybe that's just me, but I'm not sure any Italian tempo marking would fit here. That said, it's up to you what you want to use.

You accidentally removed the staccatos from m48-49 instead of m47-48. (You could also even put a slur over m47-48 LH if you wanted, to make the difference very clear.)

m26 RH beat 1 sounds like it might be not quite staccato, but just a regular quarter-note length.

Any particular reason why m92 RH has a rest when you notated all other instances of that rhythm with a dotted quarter instead?

I think that's it.

[amc]

Updated.

[mastersuperfan]

You can combine the "Swing eighths" and "half note = 88" into a single, one-line tempo marking (use another hidden marking for swing playback).

One last suggestion: I'd add a low G to the m52 LH chord. Playability isn't an issue since the RH can take care of the B and D.

Everything else looks good.

[amc]

Updated.