stibbar155 First Arrangement

[stibbar155]

First time trying to arrange game music for piano, makes me appreciate all the sheet music you all create and wonder how long it takes too. Anyways here's some links, I'm not sure how to get pdf from Finale NotePad so it's just the mus and midi files.

Original Song (Wardrobe Idol): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrtI6GO5zMo&index=38&list=PLP5-SvfSr2FOsLfAnlOgCsHRJ9A5YQR74
Updated the sheets! There's two new versions I have files for, the first is the one that I'm arranging for my sister, and the other labelled "Full" has the piano backing melody from the original song but the problem is that I'm not sure how to or if it's possible to arrange this third voice in a solo piano sheet. (BTW if someone could message or PM me the way to type urls as clickable text, so instead of Mus: [link] when you click on the word Mus that is the link, if that makes sense )

Mus Version 3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0921622b8hs7dco/V3.1%20sheet%20Wardrobe%20%28Idol%29.mus?dl=0
Midi Version 3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oj7ahhpzh0cof25/V3.1%20sheet%20Wardrobe%20%28Idol%29.mid?dl=0
Pdf Version 3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/veg63v1pw6yx26u/V3.1%20sheet%20Wardrobe%20%28Idol%29pdf.pdf?dl=0

Mus "Full": https://www.dropbox.com/s/r21lhmwl5a6stl6/Full%20sheet%20Wardrobe%20%28Idol%29.mus?dl=0
Midi "Full": https://www.dropbox.com/s/ob0v7d3oaunkfvo/Full%20sheet%20Wardrobe%20%28Idol%29.mid?dl=0
Pdf "Full": https://www.dropbox.com/s/zjmkktaca14yq4u/Full%20sheet%20Wardrobe%20%28Idol%29pdf.pdf?dl=0

[JDMEK5]

Welcome, friend! Arranging is like anything; you improve with practice. That being said, it looks like you're already off to a solid start!

Firstly, for PDFs, I use PDFCreator. When installed, it becomes an internal printer on your computer. From Finale, print your score as if you actually want to print it, choose PDFCreator as the printer instead of the default, and it should boot up and offer you a PDF of whatever you chose to "print". To be honest, it's so handy I've used it for far more things than just Finale, but definitely for Finale. Many of us use different programs (all similar in function) but it's always a separate program so far as I know.

Frankly, this is not an easy piece to translate to solo piano, but I think what you've done is a solid approach. Textually, if you could get those quick mid-range chords in somehow, that would go a long way to matching the feel of the original. I think they would ideally go with the RH under the melody (could be impossible in some spots) even if they have to change inversions, but be aware that this would make the piece significantly harder to play, which is especially relevant if this is a gift. Just bear that in mind.

I'm sending you the file of the score with a few optimizations, including fulfillment of your request for grace notes.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u64lyksc2nu4b6z/sheet%20Wardrobe%20%28Idol%29%20finale_revamp.mus?dl=0

Before getting into fixing rhythms and notes, I think it would serve you well to clean up what you have a bit rhythmically/visually. What I mean by that is revise your writing so it conforms to traditional music theory protocol for writing rhythms, namely pulse groupings (as you can find in any intermediate music theory book or online). Fixing these up will make everything a thousand times easier to keep track of within your score and therefore easier to figure out/isolate/revise. I did this for the first 4 measures as a model; notice how each beat is clearly defined and isolated using slurs instead of beaming between them.

I also split the voices between the melody and the high dingalings for clarity. I think multiple voices can be done in Notepad using the numbered buttons on the bottom-left corner of the screen, but it's been a while since I worked with Notepad so don't quote me on that.

Lastly, I gave you improved spacing between systems as well as measure numbers. I also removed the "Pno." from every system besides the first, and also added the game title at the top of the first page for aesthetics. If you finish this sheet, I certainly don't see why you couldn't submit it if you felt so inclined. Like I said, every person here started with one arrangement and we'd certainly value you joining our team (but of course, no pressure). Your attention to detail and care for rhythmic and pitch accuracy is very commendable, especially in this kind of work.

I would love to offer some suggestions concerning more accurate pitches and rhythms, but I lack the time at the moment. That being said, I think if you take the time to revise your rhythm writing as I suggested earlier, it wouldn't surprise me if you could even go a decent way into finding these fixes yourself. Of course, we're here to help; but I think those aesthetic revisions would be a great and very helpful place to start.

EDIT: I also noticed you requested this song in the Request board. To be honest, given the start you've already got into it, I don't see why you couldn't take care of it yourself (even with some assistance). As a gift as well, I think this would also be phenomenal.

[stibbar155]

Thanks so much for the feedback! I agree that there's a lot of cleaning that needs to be done, I'll try to fix the beams/tails and spacing so it's easier to read musically for the rest of the song first. I don't think I'll run into much trouble revising the notes into the pulse grouping you showed, but in terms of tails/stems pointing up and down I'm not sure what is best so I'll just go with my eye for now.

Textually, if you could get those quick mid-range chords in somehow, that would go a long way to matching the feel of the original. I think they would ideally go with the RH under the melody (could be impossible in some spots) even if they have to change inversions, but be aware that this would make the piece significantly harder to play, which is especially relevant if this is a gift. Just bear that in mind.

I agree, that was my original plan but my sister isn't the best at playing a jumping melody/bass. So I sorta mashed up the piano and bass that I could pick out the notes for and put it in this bassline. I think for my purpose, I'll stick closer to what have right now for the melody and bass, even if that is a kinda strange way to arrange a piece. If I get the time, I would like to rewrite it the way you're describing, it would be challenging to play but probably sound pretty nice!

EDIT: I also noticed you requested this song in the Request board. To be honest, given the start you've already got into it, I don't see why you couldn't take care of it yourself (even with some assistance). As a gift as well, I think this would also be phenomenal.

Yup, sent out that message at the Request Board a few days ago, should probably comment that I'm working on it now to finish a sheet of it. Since I'm still on break for a week I thought why not give it a shot myself arranging it for piano, no harm in trying. Like I said earlier, it makes me respect all the time and work the people here put into their sheets, and to helping others revise their sheets too 

But yeah I'll get started on cleaning the rhythm, beams, spacing first. After that, I'll see if I can fix some of the chords/bass that sounds wonky but if I run into trouble, I'll just post here again for help. I've learned so much already, so thanks for all of the feedback and advice again!

[stibbar155]

Updated mus file, midi and pdf in my first post!

Tried my best to fix the notation, but if I still made any errors feel free to let me know! In measures 6 & 8 when I used layers to separate the different melodies I tried to hide the extra rests with the H key but couldn't get it to work, so I moved the rests into the beams of the other layer. If someone knows how to input hiding rests on Finale Notepad, please let me know, or else I might need someone's help to do that. Also if anyone has any recommendations or advice about moving/changing notes in the bass/melody, or rhythmical changes I'd appreciate that too.

[JDMEK5]

It looks better.. but still not without further problems. I finished it off for you though so now the all rhythms are correctly written:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v7rpk8d24oec7tg/V2%20sheet%20Wardrobe%20%28Idol%29%20rhythm_polish.mus?dl=0
I also fixed your rest hiding. It could be that Notepad can't handle that kind of thing; in which case I like your approach. I didn't even notice them till I read your thing on them. That being said, I would only hide them as a temporary solution; it's still much better for them to be eventually hidden.

A couple other things I fixed while I was at it:

• I gave you a bit of clef changing action near the end to make things more legible. Not sure if this is how it should stay in the end but it'll help for now.
• In measure 4 I moved the dingalings up to A based on the original. They're on an A.
• In a couple spots (such as measure 34 RH), fixing the rhythm would've resulted in a staccato on top of a tied note. Since these things work against each other when used on the same note at the same time, I used a rest in order to kill the tie. Another example of where I did this is measure 20 RH.

I have 3 general comments to make on what you have here before I continue with a suggested procedure:

• Measures 10, 18; LH: In these measures you have your last chord (F# and D) tying over to an F# and C# chord. But D cannot tie to C#. Is this a typo? If not, you'll definitely have to remove the tie between the D and the C#.
• Between measure 34 and 35 the left hand has a tie but only over the high A. This is deliberate, correct? It looks a little funny but if that's how you planned it then that is indeed the way to write it.
• Great use of courtesy accidentals in measures 15 and 23 in the left hand.

A next step I would suggest for a song this dense is a bit of harmonic analysis to better understand the form and direction. Listen to the original and see if you can figure out what the chords are. No suffixes, no extensions, no passing tones; just simple chords. More often than not (especially with a song like this), the bass line will follow these chords in some way (often the root but perhaps another inversion from time to time). I did the first measure as an example. (With a bit of jazz theory, we can speculate that the Em chord is an Em7 chord (which you have), and that the first 3 chords are a ii-v-I targeting D (meaning that the A chord could be an A7 or A9 with a pile of possible alternate extensions).) Using the chords, you can then start picking out the notes in that middle piano voice easier. Once you've got those, you could probably implement them into a second voice in the right hand without too much trouble (for the most part; or so I'm thinking). But either way, it will go a long way towards helping you get all your notes. I put a text blurb in the left shoulder of the sheet I sent back with basically this direction.

[stibbar155]

Updated sheets with links in the first post!

Your advice was super helpful! It took a while to try to find the right chords, although there's a few I'm not sure about, but either way it made it a lot easier to pinpoint the bass and piano backing melody! If I can implement the backing piano voice into a solo piano sheet, I think it will be too difficult for my sister to play which is why I have two separate mus, etc files for them.

Some changes I made:

• Labeled all the chords that I heard/used, it looks messy but in my final sheet I'll just copy paste the notes only, wanted to post the chords I used tho to see if  I was right or not
• put more chords in the second part of the song since it was kinda plain
• rewrote the bass in the last measure to closer match the original song

A few issues I already know:

• Probably some incorrect chords/ notes in piano melody in the "Full" sheet but it sounded alright to me so I decided to post an updated sheet
• I forgot to unslur the D-> C# in measures 10 +18, and by the time I remembered when I unslured them the measures shifted which meant I would have to move all the chord markings I made.. so I uploaded as is, but it's fixed now!
• The last two measures aren't a part of the song, but I couldn't figure out how to delete measures in notepad lol
• Notepad doesn't playback the grace note chords in the second part of the song correctly, but I tried it IRL and it sounded fine so yay
• EDIT: Just realized I forgot to tie some of the notes in that area which is why it probably sounded weird.. oops
• The note layers in the "Full" mus file are a bit of a mess.. I forgot that I could've used layer 3 the whole time for the piano backing but I already wrote a lot of it in layer 2 and couldn't figure out how to make the notes change layers so I left it as is, hope it doesn't bother anyone too much

I'm glad that I tried to match the piano backing in the "Full" sheet, I think it sounds really good in the beginning! The problem is that I believe it is currently unplayable as a solo sheet, and I'm not sure how to arrange this third voice into the RH. I think it's doable for the last section, but I wanted to see if any arrangers here could give me advice on how to write it, or show me an example measure/line. Chords are my favorite part of music but I don't know that much about them, so mapping and learning different chord progressions was pretty fun! Again, I'd appreciate any comments on how to improve either sheet.

[Latios212]

Before getting into fixing rhythms and notes, I think it would serve you well to clean up what you have a bit rhythmically/visually. What I mean by that is revise your writing so it conforms to traditional music theory protocol for writing rhythms, namely pulse groupings (as you can find in any intermediate music theory book or online). Fixing these up will make everything a thousand times easier to keep track of within your score and therefore easier to figure out/isolate/revise. I did this for the first 4 measures as a model; notice how each beat is clearly defined and isolated using slurs instead of beaming between them.

Tried my best to fix the notation, but if I still made any errors feel free to let me know!

It looks better.. but still not without further problems. I finished it off for you though so now the all rhythms are correctly written:

A bit late but I just wrote up something that should help you get the hang of it. (There's still an error in measure 35 - I'm sure you can fix it!)

And yes, welcome and hope you're having a good time learning how to arrange!

[TheresaAlvarez]

thank you for sharing the information