dajwxp - Quick-Learns! ^^ (SSBB Fire Emblem Theme! [Latios212])

[daj]

Yeah I just started working on it today, that LH is tough but once I got it, it just felt so 

Yes! Absolutely
The feeling is so sweet, haha~

Probably, but I call dibs on "World S", I've already gotten started on it

Yes, you may have your world s
i'll just go learn the gusty garden bwahaha

Haha but anyway don't worry too much about overlapping, because we have different styles, different recording methods and all of that. So yeah~

[Latios212]

haha didn't you, latios and I call dibs on this at some point?

Haha yeah... well... I've played it on and off for a week or two and I don't think it sounds as good as this yet lol xD

[daj]

Haha yeah... well... I've played it on and off for a week or two and I don't think it sounds as good as this yet lol xD

It's a tough, tough piece, haha. Was as gone as a drunk man after I pulled off that recording, haha. Yes! Do stagger your load. :p



Quick-Read: "Ocean Palace" from Chrono Trigger
The Deku Trombonist

Two hours! Holy crud, this was really tough.
A beautiful arrangement, though. It's not too technically difficult, but it's a hell of a piece to wrap your mind around.

But still, really well-written, clear direction, so much yes. That was fun

[The Deku Trombonist]

Hehe yeah I had a little go on the piano when I was writing it and it is a bit of a brain-bender.

Nice work though, it sounds great!

If I might make two little suggestions: Perhaps less (or even no) pedal at 53? Just to milk the most that you absolutely can out of the contrast of that section.
And in the LH at bar 41, less of the low octaves and more of the accented notes? I think it keeps it driving to the next bar. Up to you though, they're both different effects, each with their merits.

But as I said, awesome playing!

[daj]

Hehe yeah I had a little go on the piano when I was writing it and it is a bit of a brain-bender.

Nice work though, it sounds great!

Thank you! And thank you once again for a phenomenal arrangement

If I might make two little suggestions: Perhaps less (or even no) pedal at 53? Just to milk the most that you absolutely can out of the contrast of that section.

You sir, have found a little technical flaw in my playing that I was actually aware of, haha

Yes, you can and should use close to no pedal or no pedal in that section to make the contrast a lot more effective. But you need to: 1) do a beautiful transition from the previous pedal-heavy section involving pedal gradation (very easy to botch completely) and 2) be confident that you can do the octave leaps (which are okay normally, but I'm not used to the 4ths yet). And in a recording setting I wasn't too confident in executing these moves.

So yes, you've found a little weak spot which I winged over. Hehe.

And in the LH at bar 41, less of the low octaves and more of the accented notes? I think it keeps it driving to the next bar. Up to you though, they're both different effects, each with their merits.

Ahh. This comes as a little surprise. Thought you would have wanted a little more melodic shape than forward progression haha, but now I know ^^

If I ever pull out this sheet again (which i probably will) and it comes out good enough for another recording then I'll go take some time to work these parts

Thanks for the comments and suggestions! ^^

[daj]

Quick-Learn: "Green Greens" from Kirby's Epic Yarn
Onionleaf

Haha, spent a lot more time than I should have on this xD. Ahh, it's such a wonderful piece, though. Onionleaf brings sunshine to your day, and I'm glad I can be a middle man (as a performer, haha) in this exchange ^^

It's a good arrangement! It sounds good when played. It's not at the standard which I will start throwing in lots of praise, but it's definitely worth a read if you want some happiness in your soul. Provided you're not the one performing it, haha. It's not so easy.

That being said, I kinda messed up this time. If you want to know how i messed up (and why I didn't do the repeat) you may open the spoiler below, buuuuut my mistakes don't really kill the quality of the recording or speak anything about Onionleaf's arrangement~

Either way, enjoy!~

Spoiler

Basically, I was lazy. Hehe. I severely underestimated the difficulty of the score. Could have done it in an hour, but I chose to get recording faster than I had finished learning the piece, so I was winging a lot of parts. And you know, it's hard to control being afraid when you reach a part that you haven't really worked to the best yet.

In the end I wasted a lot of time re-recording (90 minutes, haha, that's longer than my Route 216) because there were always those weak spots. It got tiring and frustrating, but every run had to begin with utter confidence and happiness, so I did some flourishes to psyche myself up, haha.

Case in point, learn your pieces well before recording ^^

[close]

[Onionleaf]

Aaah, that put a big smile on my face, thanks for sharing! I hope learning the piece wasn't too frustrating for you. If not for your comments I would not have guessed from watching your performance that it was a challenge. Performing music always means to make it look like it was easy, so it sounds like this music sheet is a great exercise for this.

(Feel free to throw in some changes to the sheet and send them to me if you'd like. I sometimes take my sheets to the piano to see how well they sound and feel with a "live performance", so any comments would surely be of help)

Best of luck for your next Quick Learn project!

[daj]

Aaah, that put a big smile on my face, thanks for sharing! I hope learning the piece wasn't too frustrating for you. If not for your comments I would not have guessed from watching your performance that it was a challenge. Performing music always means to make it look like it was easy, so it sounds like this music sheet is a great exercise for this.

(Feel free to throw in some changes to the sheet and send them to me if you'd like. I sometimes take my sheets to the piano to see how well they sound and feel with a "live performance", so any comments would surely be of help)

Best of luck for your next Quick Learn project!

Glad to know! ^^ It was probably the most memorable and most meaningful live recording I've had in a while. Man, the video was supposed to be a lot more energetic than this too, buuut after one hour of recording you kinda naturally get over-careful. And then things tense up and, ironically, make your playing worse. Ahh, it's weird.

Anyway, I'll drop you a PM regarding this sheet, but thank you so much for the fun! It was really awesome.


Quick-Learn: "Valor Lakefront (Night)" from Pokemon DPPt
me!~

Dang, it was tougher than I thought. Took longer than the Snowpoint, haha, which was weird. Think it's hard for me to stay relaxed or something, because on my last take (the one that ended up getting uploaded, whee) I did a little relaxation mantra at the beginning and suddenly everything worked. Hmm, problems.

Anyway, enjoy!


Oh, and important stuff!

I'll be adding links to the sheet music downloads of the scores in the descriptions of my quick-read videos! Think it makes more sense that way. We are, after all, a sheet music database, and I'm stealing sheets to read from a sheet music database, so we should be recognised as such! Or something. Idk. Sent a message to the ones who've I've read scores from asking for permission - because hey, in the creative industries, nothing is cool if no permission is given.

much love!

[daj]

Quick-Learn: "Fallen Down" from Undertale
braixen1264

So I never played Undertale, and I think I sub-consciously underrated the game by a lot...just because people do that to indie games. And then this track shows up. It looks easy enough, it looks simple, and it seems like it's good but not anything impressive. The magic only starts once I play the first few bars and work the second section, and I realise how frikkin beautiful this is and how well the entire track is constructed. Holy crud, I loved it so much. I felt like I was some sheep mother caressing her child (yeah, I read a little about the game too and heard boss themes HOLY SHIT THE BOSS THEMES ARE GOOD) and it was passionate, yet homely and simple.

Argh, such a good soundtrack. Can't believe it flew under my radar. Definitely keeping my eyes open for more of this game, and maybe I'll go get it on Steam. Hmm.

pokemon dppt is still the best btw. that is forever undisputed in my heart

[PetrifiedLasagna]

I discovered your thread while doing some awful audio editing and it really lifted my mood. You are pretty amazing on the piano and have my utmost respect. Keep up the good work. 

[daj]

I discovered your thread while doing some awful audio editing and it really lifted my mood. You are pretty amazing on the piano and have my utmost respect. Keep up the good work. 

Ahh, I was sure i replied to this at some point. Sorry to leave ya hanging.

But thank you so much for your compliment, brother! Much love~


Quick-Learn: "Snowdin Town" from Undertale
braixen1264

So I'm going to do more polished quick-learns now! ^^ These are still almost-raw takes, except with proper mic-ing and very minor edits.

Time taken: 120 minutes
- 60 minutes familiarisation + refining
- 60 minutes recording, five takes done

Edits made: 1 note
(if you can spot it you get a prize!)


Extra kudos to braix for a fantastic, clean score which is automatically the best on the internet~

[cashwarrior1]

I guess I quick-learn all the songs I play. Usually when I learn a song, it takes from 1 to 2 hours. Albeit, they're not ready to perform like you, but it still is done pretty fast. I usually learn a section of the song, replay it through, learn the next and repeat. I then play it all the way through with the music then do it memorized.

[Oronoco]

I missed all these videos when I disappeared over the summer, but I'm really enjoying them now. You're really gifted, and it makes me so happy to see some great sheets from NSM being performed. Snowdin sounds so light and cheerful! Great job!

[daj]

I missed all these videos when I disappeared over the summer, but I'm really enjoying them now. You're really gifted, and it makes me so happy to see some great sheets from NSM being performed. Snowdin sounds so light and cheerful! Great job!

Ah, humbled. Thank you for your kind comments, promise that these will only get better in quality over time as I figure out my techniques and stuff ^^

You've also reminded me about the whole reading-NSM-scores thing. I'll always be open to trying out arrangements from any and all franchises! ^^ Opening up to new styles is awesome, and sometimes it rewards amazingly. The Fallen Down quick-learn braix suggested was my first and most decisive step into the Undertale OST, haha, and that was a fantastic experience <3

So yeah! Always open to try your scores if you'd like to hear them live Not all scores will work out but I've only turned down one so far, whoop~

I guess I quick-learn all the songs I play. Usually when I learn a song, it takes from 1 to 2 hours. Albeit, they're not ready to perform like you, but it still is done pretty fast. I usually learn a section of the song, replay it through, learn the next and repeat. I then play it all the way through with the music then do it memorized.

Haha, being able to learn pieces in really short amounts of time is great! But um, don't mind some sharing - the whole purpose for me doing quick-reads/learns was to train focus. Learning a score quick isn't really about doing it until you've got it right. For the Snowdin I spent 60 minutes on the learning, but half of that time was spent on tiny details like the mordents, accompaniment phrasing, same-note-finger-changing, pedalling and all. The rest of the time was spent doing what I call "familiarisation" - i.e. play slow, then build speed; this works for sections which I know are well within my technical reach and I just need to learn the basic stuff well for.

In essence, quick-learns are, to me, about efficiently pinpointing the parts that are to be refined and distinguishing them from those that only need familiarisation, drilling the potential shortfalls (shortcomings/pitfalls) as efficiently as possible, and settling as many rough edges as possible, all that within a short time. That needs immense focus, and that was the whole goal of doing these when I was drilling Classical stuff.

But y'know, VGM is different. You're going to have fun, and you're going to feel awesome. So if you've accomplished that in two hours you've done it right ^^

[cashwarrior1]

In essence, quick-learns are, to me, about efficiently pinpointing the parts that are to be refined and distinguishing them from those that only need familiarisation, drilling the potential shortfalls (shortcomings/pitfalls) as efficiently as possible, and settling as many rough edges as possible, all that within a short time. That needs immense focus, and that was the whole goal of doing these when I was drilling Classical stuff.

Well, I've never tried it like that, maybe there's something I can do when learning a new song.