[DELETED] [NDS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness -

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Pokémon
Game: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness
Console: Nintendo DS
Title: Temporal Spire
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: PlayfulPiano

[PlayfulPiano]

It's back, but this time as a solo!


I remade the entire thing as a solo instead of a duet, but I might've made some of the measures a *bit* too difficult. I think it's still playable, at least compared to some of the other arrangements I've seen on NSM.

I definitely took some more liberties to fit the piano with the music, so to speak. One big example would be the final climax at m52, where it does not have the common arpeggio within the theme.

Lastly, there are some changes I couldn't do due to my notation software (Finale Allegro 2007), so I labeled (I think) all of the cases which need edits in post, once the sheets are completely approved (once they're edited with a version greater than 2007, I won't be able to edit it again, so that would be the final end all edit).

Anyways, hope this one works out!
-PlayfulPiano

Edit 10PM EST: Forgot a couple accents, added another measure for a longer lasting note. Should be good now!

[Maelstrom]

There's a few formatting things that jump out to me right away:
The mordents are hitting the 1st and 2nd repeat signs on pg 2
I don't think placing glissandos over repeat barlines is a good idea
The bassline clef changes of the system of m35 need to be replaced a bit; they're colliding right now. Same in m50.
Speaking of m50, that whole 2nd repeat to save you from writing out 3 more measures isn't really efficient. Just write it all out.
m17+25 RH beat 1 - It doesn't matter that the first note is a different voice, it still should be beamed with the rest of the notes there.
Since the song changes from 3/4 to 6/8, beat 4 (of 5/8, the middle one) must always be shown. Any quarter notes going over it should be changed to tied 8th notes.
Aaaand here's the big one. You swapped layers and it really screws up the formatting.
Let me explain. In m17-18, the notes on top in the bassline are in the 2nd layer. The stems were pointing the wrong direction, so you fixed them. However, you didn't fix the lower notes - those should have their stems and ties pointed down. Stuff like this happens throughout the entire piece and fixing it would fix most of your note clashes. As a general rule of thumb, finale does the layer formatting differences for you automatically, but only when the 1st layer is on the top and the 2nd layer is on the bottom. It doesn't matter which is the main voicing and which is secondary. You can swap layers with the move/copy (between layers) dialogue box, I think?

Otherwise, nice job.

[PlayfulPiano]

There's a few formatting things that jump out to me right away:
The mordents are hitting the 1st and 2nd repeat signs on pg 2
I don't think placing glissandos over repeat barlines is a good idea
The bassline clef changes of the system of m35 need to be replaced a bit; they're colliding right now. Same in m50.
Speaking of m50, that whole 2nd repeat to save you from writing out 3 more measures isn't really efficient. Just write it all out.
m17+25 RH beat 1 - It doesn't matter that the first note is a different voice, it still should be beamed with the rest of the notes there.
Since the song changes from 3/4 to 6/8, beat 4 (of 5/8, the middle one) must always be shown. Any quarter notes going over it should be changed to tied 8th notes.
Aaaand here's the big one. You swapped layers and it really screws up the formatting.
Let me explain. In m17-18, the notes on top in the bassline are in the 2nd layer. The stems were pointing the wrong direction, so you fixed them. However, you didn't fix the lower notes - those should have their stems and ties pointed down. Stuff like this happens throughout the entire piece and fixing it would fix most of your note clashes. As a general rule of thumb, finale does the layer formatting differences for you automatically, but only when the 1st layer is on the top and the 2nd layer is on the bottom. It doesn't matter which is the main voicing and which is secondary. You can swap layers with the move/copy (between layers) dialogue box, I think?

Otherwise, nice job.

Currently rewriting it (third time's hopefully the charm right) to incorporate a different tempo duration anyways (70=quarter note), so some of the things you mentioned I'm currently changing.

For example, this is what the earlier m17 section looks like now:

It should be clearer with which hand is doing what, as I'm also going through the piece while using synthesia to see where each note is located on a visual piano. It really does help with fingering and note placement.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by tied 8th notes, could you show an example in a 6/8 measure of when it has to be tied 8ths?

I'm still working on the layering. I mainly had the chords act as layer 2 and the arpeggio as layer 1, since there are more notes as the main layer. Hopefully this is ok.

Also involving the glissandos, I changed them to just 64th notes to show a scale, meaning I don't have to gliss through a repeat.

[PlayfulPiano]

Sheets have been painstakingly rewritten, now the duration for all notes are halved, plus a bunch of other changes.

Also, thanks to all those over on the NSM discord for the help throughout today to get this completed. I wouldn't be close to making progress if it wasn't for you guys!

[PlayfulPiano]

Update: Simplified a bunch of the measures, should be less confusing and easier to play.

[Latios212]

I'll just leave this here as you neglected to respond to it:

You cannot view this attachment.

[PlayfulPiano]

But I did respond?

[Latios212]

To this piece of feedback... I don't see anything addressing it at all.

[PlayfulPiano]

To this piece of feedback... I don't see anything addressing it at all.

I changed the piece to sort of factor in ben's points before, but if there's anything else that I should do feel free so say where.

I'm not really, uh good with indirect feedback.

[Latios212]

The least you could do is try to discuss what Ben suggested. Do you like Ben's proposition? Why or why not? Didn't understand something he said? Ask away, we're here to help.

It's rather rude to be so dismissive of an earnest recommendation. We're not here to just say things to you, we're trying to help you and work with you to make the sheet the best it can be, and it's awfully hard for that to happen if you don't allow it.

[PlayfulPiano]

The least you could do is try to discuss what Ben suggested. Do you like Ben's proposition? Why or why not? Didn't understand something he said? Ask away, we're here to help.

It's rather rude to be so dismissive of an earnest recommendation. We're not here to just say things to you, we're trying to help you and work with you to make the sheet the best it can be, and it's awfully hard for that to happen if you don't allow it.

It's just that, at that time I was working on the sheet for multiple hours straight, so I sort of gotten burnt out. I'm sorry that I acted rude at that time.

But besides that, I really don't have the background in theory to understand what a lot of the updaters are telling me to do or telling me to use for me to improve my arrangements. I don't understand every term used, and I don't really understand nor know how to apply suggestions that are made in an indirect and open way, like involving emotive effect, or restriking, or anything that probably are simple concepts in music theory. I just don't have that background as I haven't been a part of piano lessons since I was 13, and I haven't really taken lessons seriously since I was at least 10. Only recently did I start lessons again, but most of it is performing preparation rather than learning music theory.

It gets stressful trying to understand and do what many of the updaters tell me indirectly, and I feel both like I'm frustrating/annoying the updaters because I don't understand what they're trying to tell me, and that I'm somehow doing a horrible job with my arrangement because I keep running into problem after problem every time I make a revision,and it feels like I'm no closer to getting an arrangement approved as I did when I started. It was like that with the duet, and now it's like that for this. I feel like I have to include every idea that is suggested, and it gets to the point that I can't catch up with the ideas being told, or understand how they're supposed to be applied.

I'm sorry if this is a bit of a rant, but I'm just getting really upset with myself that I keep feeling like I can't do well with my arrangements.

[Latios212]

It's totally understandable that you're new to theory and arranging stuff. We don't expect you to be good at that right off the bat, of course!

My point is that things would go better if you were more receptive to learning. Your lack of asking for further explanation on a comment to cement your understanding demonstrates a lack of thought you're putting into your sheet, since you're presenting something that's unsatisfactory in both my eyes and yours - it leads to the constant question "are we done yet?", to which the answer is no. What's happening right now is you're half-understanding our suggestions and resultantly glossing over them as a result of not fully knowing what to do. That's frustrating for everyone.

So don't feel like you're being a bother if it's a question about something you don't understand; we're here to explain things to you as long as you're willing to learn.