Difficulty

[Brassman388]

Is there a degree of difficulty that arrangements should be at in order for someone to play?
I'm not a very good piano player, but a sufficient arranger, so i don't know what degree of difficulty i should start at.

I also arrange mostly in a 4 hands, duet arrangements:that way, i can get all the flavor and color from the song.

So...if there is a "standard" of difficulty, then be sure to let me know please.

Thanks.

[Nana1Popo2]

flavor and color, lol, cool

um, most of the songs submitted here are in one piano... but duets are also nice to have, they also sound great when played.

i think, that as long as its not too complicated, someone out there can play it, and its fine...then again my songs still need some work, and i have only had one submitted song ^_^.

[blah54]

first of all... duets CAN NOT, be simply the addition of a second piano just to add another part that can't be played with only one piano, it must be four separate parts in total (two different right-hand parts, and two different left-hand parts) and there should not be a significant difference in the difficulty (of whatever level) of the two different piano parts...

any level of difficulty below impossible is generally accepted, assuming all other parts of the arrangement are deemed good enough... i.e i think that the majority of players can not stretch beyond a 9th interval, thus giving intervals of 10ths, 11ths etc, can get a little uncomfortable and not difficult because of the substance of the music, but because of the inability for the hand to stretch that far...

and remember, if you're not a piano player, something that sounds nice via finale, sibelius etc. does not always result in something that will sound even close to as smooth or nice while playing on the piano...

sorry for so much text lol...

[The-Real-Link]

any level of difficulty below impossible is generally accepted, assuming all other parts of the arrangement are deemed good enough... i.e i think that the majority of players can not stretch beyond a 9th interval, thus giving intervals of 10ths, 11ths etc, can get a little uncomfortable and not difficult because of the substance of the music, but because of the inability for the hand to stretch that far...

I beg to differ...in a way...While most people can only play Blocked chords as far as a ninth, most people that have studied piano to a degree can roll chords up to about a 15th. Look at Chopin and Beethoven's music. They use a ton of chords beyond an octave.....and then there's Franz Liszt O_____O   BUT, having chords this large, even when they are rolled, ups the difficulty of the piece significantly. So it would be safe to downsize the chords, because about 70% of the people are probably not as advanced in piano as they would need to be to be able to play such chords smoothly.

[ALPRAS]

Ive made 2 duets for piano (check in my subm tread) and I think they are pretty cool. And making an arrangement for 2 pianos isnt only just putting the principal "voice" in one piano and the other piano just playing the rest.... you have to variate. As I said, check my duet arrangements ("End Title" (credits) from Super Mario Galaxy and "Spiral Mountain" from Banjo Kazooie) and see what Ive made with them. im not saying that they are perfect but most of the important stuff is there..

[CH Winter]

any level of difficulty below impossible is generally accepted, assuming all other parts of the arrangement are deemed good enough... i.e i think that the majority of players can not stretch beyond a 9th interval, thus giving intervals of 10ths, 11ths etc, can get a little uncomfortable and not difficult because of the substance of the music, but because of the inability for the hand to stretch that far...

I beg to differ...in a way...While most people can only play Blocked chords as far as a ninth, most people that have studied piano to a degree can roll chords up to about a 15th. Look at Chopin and Beethoven's music. They use a ton of chords beyond an octave.....and then there's Franz Liszt O_____O   BUT, having chords this large, even when they are rolled, ups the difficulty of the piece significantly. So it would be safe to downsize the chords, because about 70% of the people are probably not as advanced in piano as they would need to be to be able to play such chords smoothly.

True, but Liszt has massive hands and it's unrealistic to assume other people can actually play that. While rolled chords are good, they can't substitute solid chords under various circumstances. If you're holding a chord for one measure, it doesn't really make a difference, if you're playing eighth note chords in four four, then it gets a bit weird if you try to roll all them. The song in the back of the grade 8 repertoire for RCM is (or was) Gentle waltz by Oscar Peterson. He had huge hands, and there was one part in the song that had you holding a D flat below the bottom G of the bass clef (half note) and also playing a G flat just below middle C (quarter note) and while still holding said D flat, play the F just below the G flat. Needless to say you can't roll it and it's pretty much impossible to play it with normal sized hands.

These kind of chords should be avoided, unless you can roll them, which isn't all the time. Btw sorry if I sounded to harsh on my disagreement.

[The-Real-Link]

I know exactly what you mean. What I was trying to say is that under certain circumstances rolled chords are appropriate. At other times they are not. I have semi-large hands. I can play a raised 10th no problem(I can also play 11ths depending on the notes.) What I was trying to say was to make sure that you look at the music and decide whether it would be okay to make it a rolled chord, or just voice the chord differently so as to make it smaller. If the chord in question is a whole note, tied in extension for two bars, then by all means make it a rolled chord. But, like you said, if it's a bunch of eighth note chords chances are that they won't sound good rolled, with the exception of very special cases. A lot of professional performers omit the notes of large chords in concert, and even in recordings, because they cannot play them.

[Brassman388]

Thanks!

I was just wondering what you all thought on the situation. If you want to see what i mean, go ahead and take a look at some of my arrangements I submitted. I'm not too harsh on chord usage, but I will always write down whatever sounds right.

Sound cool?

Be sure to take a look at my arrangements to see what i exacly mean, alrighty?

Thanks.