[PC] The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - "Confession" by cacabish

Started by Zeta, January 12, 2023, 06:07:47 PM

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Zeta

Submission Information:

Series: Other
Game: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Console: PC
Title: Confession
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: cacabish

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[attachment deleted by admin]

cacabish


XiaoMigros

  • m8: I hear the Bb below the F in the LH.
  • m9-16: In the RH you're using two layers a little inconsistently, is there a reason you wrote some chords in two layers and some in one?
  • For this section it might also be easier for the performer to play some of the high LH notes with the RH. There's nothing problematic with what you have currently but it might be worth trying some things out if you haven't already!
  • m9: I don't hear the middle notes in the RH triads
  • Same thing for the RH's Ab in m12
  • In m13 I hear a low Db instead of a Bb in the RH
  • I don't hear the Gb in m14, but I do hear an Ab on beat 3.
  • m15: I think I hear an F just above the Eb in the LH at beat 1.5
  • Though I'd like them to be there, I don't hear the Fs in the chords at m15 b4 and m16 b1.
  • m21-23: Same comment about moving some LH notes to the RH; it's playable as is but you might find it could be easier.
  • m24 beat 4: I hear an F above the Bb (in the RH), and I think I hear one below it too.
  • m27: The last two notes in the RH also play in octaves. You can add the lower Bb in parentheses, or you can add parentheses to the Bb in the LH.
  • m31: Despite the 8va getting in the way a little, the rit. marking is still best positioned above the staves, like you did everywhere else.

cacabish

Quote from: XiaoMigros on January 13, 2023, 02:33:16 AM
  • m8: I hear the Bb below the F in the LH.
  • m9: I don't hear the middle notes in the RH triads
  • Same thing for the RH's Ab in m12
  • In m13 I hear a low Db instead of a Bb in the RH
  • I don't hear the Gb in m14, but I do hear an Ab on beat 3.
  • Though I'd like them to be there, I don't hear the Fs in the chords at m15 b4 and m16 b1.
  • m27: The last two notes in the RH also play in octaves. You can add the lower Bb in parentheses, or you can add parentheses to the Bb in the LH.
  • m31: Despite the 8va getting in the way a little, the rit. marking is still best positioned above the staves, like you did everywhere else.
All great advice and all either correct or appropriate! I am quite surprised you were able to hear some of these as they slipped by me for a while! All implemented -- thanks Xiao! ;D

Quote from: XiaoMigros on January 13, 2023, 02:33:16 AM
  • m15: I think I hear an F just above the Eb in the LH at beat 1.5
Hmmm, I can't hear this one. Also, I'm also not sure why it'd be there in the first place? Maybe it's just me. Anyway, I'll leave it out for now until I can ascertain otherwise.

Quote from: XiaoMigros on January 13, 2023, 02:33:16 AM
  • m24 beat 4: I hear an F above the Bb (in the RH), and I think I hear one below it too.
The lower F I hear (good catch!), but I can't hear the higher F. Same as the previous point, I'll keep checking and I'll add it once I'm more confident it's there.

Quote from: XiaoMigros on January 13, 2023, 02:33:16 AM
  • m9-16: In the RH you're using two layers a little inconsistently, is there a reason you wrote some chords in two layers and some in one?
A variety of reasons, most of them stemming from the idea of "still holding a note that is about to be restruck before the duration's up." However, with your notes (pun intended) above, a lot of those have been addressed and now it just looks better to be consistent. I still have questions about m.16, since, while I could make the RH Eb a layer 2 note, the resolution is handled by the LH and there rest of the notes in the measure are singles for the RH, so, to me, it looks like that Eb is hanging. So, I'm not sure quite what to do there.

Quote from: XiaoMigros on January 13, 2023, 02:33:16 AM
  • For this section it might also be easier for the performer to play some of the high LH notes with the RH. There's nothing problematic with what you have currently but it might be worth trying some things out if you haven't already!
  • m21-23: Same comment about moving some LH notes to the RH; it's playable as is but you might find it could be easier.
Yeeeah, I thought about this point while arranging it, especially since the LH gets up into the stratosphere a bit. Firstly, I think the sheet looks really clean and adding stuff to denote that it should be handled by the other hand will just gunk it up. That triviality aside, I still feel that since the LH is really just doing one thing and that's fine and so if the player wants to hand something off, I feel that should be their decision, not necessarily mine. If you have some specifics, I'd be open to hear them, though! :)

---
Alright, that should be everything addressed. Subsequently, the files have been updated. Thanks for the thorough (and timely) feedback, Xiao! :D

XiaoMigros

Quote from: cacabish on January 15, 2023, 06:58:13 PMHmmm, I can't hear this one. Also, I'm also not sure why it'd be there in the first place? Maybe it's just me. Anyway, I'll leave it out for now until I can ascertain otherwise.
Yeah, it doesn't really make sense for it to be there but it's just what I was hearing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If you don't hear it then that's a good excuse not to worry about it!

Quote from: cacabish on January 15, 2023, 06:58:13 PMThe lower F I hear (good catch!), but I can't hear the higher F. Same as the previous point, I'll keep checking and I'll add it once I'm more confident it's there.
That may just have been harmonics then, oops. Leaving it out is more playable anyway..

Quote from: cacabish on January 15, 2023, 06:58:13 PMA variety of reasons, most of them stemming from the idea of "still holding a note that is about to be restruck before the duration's up." However, with your notes (pun intended) above, a lot of those have been addressed and now it just looks better to be consistent. I still have questions about m.16, since, while I could make the RH Eb a layer 2 note, the resolution is handled by the LH and there rest of the notes in the measure are singles for the RH, so, to me, it looks like that Eb is hanging. So, I'm not sure quite what to do there.
It could probably go either way but I think it would be better in the lower layer for 2 reasons: 1) Showing the divide between melody and harmony, and 2) Consistency.
Side note (pun not intended), there's an Ab in m13 that would be better off in the lower layer.

Quote from: cacabish on January 15, 2023, 06:58:13 PMYeeeah, I thought about this point while arranging it, especially since the LH gets up into the stratosphere a bit. Firstly, I think the sheet looks really clean and adding stuff to denote that it should be handled by the other hand will just gunk it up. That triviality aside, I still feel that since the LH is really just doing one thing and that's fine and so if the player wants to hand something off, I feel that should be their decision, not necessarily mine. If you have some specifics, I'd be open to hear them, though! :)
Those are both strong points! There's no doubt that leaving the sheet as it stands is a valid option. Here's the specifics anyway, just in case:
1) m12 b2.5: Moving this one to the RH would avoid the hands getting a little close and give the LH time for the jump. Also, m11 b4.5 may or may not be more comfortable in the RH as well.
2) m22: Some of the high Fs and As might be easier to play with the RH, they would fit pretty nicely there imo. The drawback is that the RH part gets a little more complicated.
Feel free to ignore this!

One more thing I found:
  • The poco rit. and a tempo markings should both be the same height.

cacabish

Quote from: XiaoMigros on January 16, 2023, 01:01:57 AMIt could probably go either way but I think it would be better in the lower layer for 2 reasons: 1) Showing the divide between melody and harmony, and 2) Consistency.
Side note (pun not intended), there's an Ab in m13 that would be better off in the lower layer.
Fair enough. I don't really have a strong opinion, so I'll set it to the 2nd layer for now.
Also, I missed that Ab by accident. I fixed it in MuseScore, but forgot to do it in Finale. Whoops. :P

Quote from: XiaoMigros on January 16, 2023, 01:01:57 AMThose are both strong points! There's no doubt that leaving the sheet as it stands is a valid option. Here's the specifics anyway, just in case:
1) m12 b2.5: Moving this one to the RH would avoid the hands getting a little close and give the LH time for the jump. Also, m11 b4.5 may or may not be more comfortable in the RH as well.
2) m22: Some of the high Fs and As might be easier to play with the RH, they would fit pretty nicely there imo. The drawback is that the RH part gets a little more complicated.
Feel free to ignore this!
Honestly, having tried these out, they're not too bad! :) Particularly, since it's just one note being moved cross-staff. Your point about allowing the LH some time to jump is actually a really good point. Also, by moving some of the notes, it's visually clear that one can basically keep their left hand in a I-V-I position, which is pretty natural. That said, I just decided to only move the A for m22 because that way your LH can just sit on a root F3-C4-F4 position all the way and keep complexity minimal (moving the Fs dirties the RH too much, IMO). I think I'll stick with these for now. If I change my mind, I'll just put them back. Thanks for the specifics! :D

Quote from: XiaoMigros on January 16, 2023, 01:01:57 AMThe poco rit. and a tempo markings should both be the same height.
Ah yeah. That's a little thing, but good point.

Files have been updated. Thanks again, Xiao! :D

XiaoMigros

Looks good! There's a couple more things I found:
  • In m20, 23 & 28 you have rests in the RH, is there a thought behind that? I'd suggest extending the note lengths to cover them, or it might imply non continuity concerning pedaling/phrasing.
  • It's a bit odd to have a slur in m8 and nowhere else, so that would probably best be removed.
  • To make the cross-staff sections less visually interfering, you could flip the stems to get something like this:
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    Entirely optional, I just thought it looked a little neater :)

cacabish

Quote from: XiaoMigros on March 23, 2023, 12:28:32 AM
  • In m20, 23 & 28 you have rests in the RH, is there a thought behind that? I'd suggest extending the note lengths to cover them, or it might imply non continuity concerning pedaling/phrasing.
  • For m20, it was because of the Bb, which the left hand would hit. Had it been a dotted half, the RH would still be holding it whilst the LH restrikes it, which makes no sense. However, I'm okay changing it to a dotted half for the reasons you said.
  • For m23, it was because of how having it fill in made it the sheet more complex for very little. In order to have the RH fill the rest, I would have to tie four notes across beat 4. To me, this looks super and unnecessarily complex for only adding an eighth note of duration, which is going to be covered by the pedal anyway. This, and then you end up with the tetrad beamed with a single note, which is fine, but it looks off to me yet again (and splitting the beam is not appropriate here). In short, it just looks nicer, especially compared to the surrounding systems and measures, and I don't think an extra eighth note of duration is worth it. I still stand by this, so I didn't change this one.
  • For m28, I'm not entirely sure of my reasons, but I believe it was for the reason that the LH is coming up in-between the two Bb's of the RH. This would be very uncomfortable to play as holding the two Bb's while your LH sneaks in behind it to play notes between your RH's fingers. It may have also additionally been to allow your RH to move up an octave, and an eighth rest wouldn't have cut it because of the tying issue à la m23, so a quarter rest was the shortest rest without introducing complexity. However, if you say that it makes sense for continuity, that's cool by me. :)

Quote from: XiaoMigros on March 23, 2023, 12:28:32 AM
  • It's a bit odd to have a slur in m8 and nowhere else, so that would probably best be removed.
Good call -- removed!

Quote from: XiaoMigros on March 23, 2023, 12:28:32 AM
  • To make the cross-staff sections less visually interfering, you could flip the stems to get something like this:
    Spoiler
    You cannot view this attachment.
    [close]
    Entirely optional, I just thought it looked a little neater :)
Ooh! It certainly looks nicer in quite a few respects. However, I think I'll stick with this; I checked Behind Bars, and she said that the stems should "point towards the centre of the system". So, given its optionality, I'll stick with what I've got.

Alright, files are updated! Thanks yet again, Xiao! :D

XiaoMigros

Quote from: cacabish on March 23, 2023, 07:21:18 PM
  • For m23, it was because of how having it fill in made it the sheet more complex for very little.
Fair point! One solution I thought of is using a double-dotted note instead of a dotted one here to hide the rest without ties, but I'm not a particular fan of double dotted notes so you can decide what you think is best :P

As for your concerns with sustaining the note lengths, I get that! That said, it should be pretty clear how to play these places given the context, especially thanks to the pedal. There were already a handful of similar situations in the sheet where you had written the notes to their full duration regardless, and changing those back to rests would just end up looking messy.

If you could get back to me on m23 that'd be great, everything else looks great so I'll approve!

cacabish

Quote from: XiaoMigros on March 24, 2023, 12:15:03 AMFair point! One solution I thought of is using a double-dotted note instead of a dotted one here to hide the rest without ties, but I'm not a particular fan of double dotted notes so you can decide what you think is best :P
Huh. I hadn't thought about using double-dotted notes, mostly because I, too, am not a fan of them. However, in this situation, with it smoothing over the rest, I think it's actually acceptable, especially since the length of the note is obvious or, probably more accurately, not super important to get exact. Besides, it's not like a double-dotted quarter or eighth where you have to start doing some serious math, here, it's just an eighth note left over, which isn't syncopated, so it's easy to follow, play, and sight-read. So, I've gone ahead and replaced it with that double-dotted half. Thanks for the suggestion! :D

Latios212

Quote from: cacabish on March 23, 2023, 07:21:18 PMFor m23, it was because of how having it fill in made it the sheet more complex for very little. In order to have the RH fill the rest, I would have to tie four notes across beat 4. To me, this looks super and unnecessarily complex for only adding an eighth note of duration, which is going to be covered by the pedal anyway. This, and then you end up with the tetrad beamed with a single note, which is fine, but it looks off to me yet again (and splitting the beam is not appropriate here). In short, it just looks nicer, especially compared to the surrounding systems and measures, and I don't think an extra eighth note of duration is worth it. I still stand by this, so I didn't change this one.
Quote from: XiaoMigros on March 24, 2023, 12:15:03 AMFair point! One solution I thought of is using a double-dotted note instead of a dotted one here to hide the rest without ties, but I'm not a particular fan of double dotted notes so you can decide what you think is best :P
One option to consider as a "middle ground" of sorts is tying the half to a dotted quarter:
You cannot view this attachment.

I'm not much a fan of double dotted half notes either, although they're certainly fine to use in this case. However, writing it like the above alleviates the problem of having the chord awkwardly beamed to the last eighth note, without having the last eighth note "hovering" out too far at the end of the measure.

Again though, up to you. Just my two cents :)
My arrangements and YouTube channel!

Quote from: Dudeman on February 22, 2016, 10:16:37 AM
who needs education when you can have WAIFUS!!!!!

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cacabish

Quote from: Latios212 on March 27, 2023, 03:08:04 PMOne option to consider as a "middle ground" of sorts is tying the half to a dotted quarter:
You cannot view this attachment.
Interesting... I also hadn't considered that, but that definitely works here! Yeesh, all the options that all work.... However, I think the double-dotted note works well to keep the lack of ties from cluttering the sheet, so I think I'll stick to the double-dotted note. Thanks for the suggestion, Latios! :D

Libera

For what it's worth, I also prefer Latios' picture to the double dotted notes in 23.  If you'd rather leave it as-is though that's fine.

Otherwise this looks great and I'd be happy to accept.

cacabish

Quote from: Libera on April 06, 2023, 03:07:48 PMFor what it's worth, I also prefer Latios' picture to the double dotted notes in 23.
Fair enough. Two concurring opinions is good enough for me, so I'll make the swap. :)

Files updated!

Libera