Arrangement Highlights of 2019

[Latios212]

Past topics
2018
2017

As the year comes to a close, what are your favorite arrangements that you've made in 2019? ^^

(If you're not an arranger, you can your favorite sheets by other arrangers instead!)

[NineLives]

I had a lot of fun arranging this year! I'm pretty proud of the arrangements I made for a couple of the Leisure Suit Larry games. I'll probably keep on making and submitting more arrangements from that series throughout 2020 since there's a lot of good tunes from it.
I'm also proud of the duet arrangements I did for Mario Paint's "Monkeys" and Mario Kart 64's "Staff Roll." Incorporating all those different parts into duets was a joy for me.

[LeviR.star]

After rooting through my PA for posts made in the last year, I picked out the sheets that not only took me the longest, but helped me learn the most and just happened to turn out the best:


5. [Wii] Kirby's Epic Yarn - "Future City"

4. [SNES] Kirby Super Star - "Gladiator Kirby"

3. [3DS] StreetPass Mii Plaza - "Find Mii"

2. [3DS] Team Kirby Clash Deluxe - "Quest Board"

1. [Wii] Kirby's Return to Dream Land - "Road to Victory (The Arena)"

All of the above sheets have been accepted onto the site, thanks to the hard work from the fantastic updater team!


Honorable mentions go to my full-OST projects for Game Boy titles Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (19 sheets), and Kirby's Block Ball (27 sheets).

[Latios212]

My few:

5 - "KISEKI" from Pokémon X & Y

Sheet

This is one of my favorite pieces of video game music. I had started it years ago, but was never really satisfied with it whenever I looked back at it. Finally in 2019 I took the time to clean it up into something workable after a lot of trying things out.

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4 - "Orchestra Piece 1" from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Sheet

One of the most sorely needed replacements on the site. I was happy with how I was able to condense down the orchestra into something viable on the piano, particularly the section at m. 41+.

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3 - "Fire Emblem: Three Houses Main Theme" from Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Sheet

Not unlike the above, this was a fun exercise in translating a large orchestration over to piano. The bass pattern and the chords carry over pretty nicely, and it was fun to work out the last few measures (dubstep!).

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2 - "Lavender Town" from Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver

Sheet

Unlike the above, this is not a particularly complex piece. I wasn't sure about how I was arranging it at first, but I ended up with something both simple and sweet. If there's one sheet I arranged in 2019 that I'd suggest to just pick up and play on a whim, it'd be this one, as it has such a warm, inviting sound.

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1 - "Life at Garreg Mach Monastery" from Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Sheet

I love this song, and was initially worried that I wouldn't be able to vary up the arrangement enough to maintain interest through its length, since it plays around a lot with a couple of particular melodic lines. It turned out not to be a problem, and the entire thing is a blast to play through.

Performance video by Sayshi!

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Honorable mentions:
- "The Beginning of Our Memory" from Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- "Determination" from Octopath Traveler
- "New Donk City" from Super Mario Odyssey
- "Thrilling! Is this Love? (Fan Club)" from Rhythm Heaven

[SlowPokemon]

It was my only arrangement on the site this year, but my arrangement of the Luigi's Mansion 3 theme is something I'm really proud of, I have to admit. The opening key center of C-sharp minor means that, according to traditional rules, the B section had to be notated in D-sharp minor. Though I've played in six sharps before (the Ravel Sonatine and most recently the Beethoven F-sharp sonata, which contains sections in both D-sharp major, which isn't even a real key, and D-sharp minor) it's quite a difficult key to read and even more difficult to write. I think I did as good a job as anyone could hope with that part of the arrangement, and in general I think for the half-step shifting chords I used the most elegant enharmonic spellings throughout.

Also—the sheet checkers approved my tempo marking "Moderate ghost waltz," which came to me in a stroke of genius and which I just absolutely love as expressive text.

[Libera]

I still really like this thread idea and it was nice getting to see what everyone was proud of this past year!  Here are mine; I've restricted to only ones that I submitted to the site since those ones are properly finished (i.e. have been through getting feedback and such).  As with last year, you can try and guess them if you like!

5 -

Desire Below

Sheet

This was the first sheet I made in 2019 and I think it was a really good one.  I think visually it works very well and I particularly liked the textures achieved in the 3/4 section.  It's a shame that the first half of the piece is so hard on the left hand though.

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4 -

Fódlan Winds (Rain)

Sheet

This one was one of the first sheets I went for in the Three Houses OST and it went surprisingly well.  The crazy syncopations initially led me to believe that there was some weird time signature stuff going on but that turned out to not be the case.  Trying to get the rhythms and feel right in the arrangement was difficult, and though I did have to defend it a bit, I think the finished product is of very high standard.

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3 -

Gaur Plain

Sheet

I was really surprised initially to find this not on-site, and considering that it's probably the most well known piece from Xenoblade I felt that it was a shame that we didn't have a version hosted.  I could quickly see the reasons for why it hadn't been done yet though, for one it's 116 bars long and it's difficult to find a way to condense it all into something playable while keeping the rhythms and feel (kind of like in Fódlan Winds).  But once again I think I did a pretty nice job on it (or else it wouldn't be here!) and it stayed reasonably accessible.  I mostly put this ahead of #4 because this one took more effort, but I think in terms of quality they're basically equal.

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2 -

Lightning's Theme

Sheet

Originally I thought this one was going to be a pretty straight forward job, and I think that bars 5-16 pretty much are, but then it got trickier and I put this on the back-burner for a while.  I came back to it so I could post something for my 1-year anniversary on the site and I had another attempt at the second half of the piece.  It's extremely dense and trying to get across the rich harmony in a decent and playable way was interesting, but I was extremely pleased with the finished product.

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1 -

Divine Dragon

Sheet

This is a sheet that when I look back on it, to be honest I'm not entirely sure how I arranged it.  Trying to turn this piece into something that was playable on piano and sounded good was very tricky and I nearly gave up about half-way through.  The only reason I kept going was because this track is just so beautiful and also because I was procrastinating from revising for my exams...  Still for whatever reason, I'm immensely glad that I did stick through it and write this sheet up as it gives me something to be very proud of.

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Here's to 2020 and all the arranging that will take place in it!  I hope we'll all find things to be proud of this time next year.

[Code_Name_Geek]

This was my first year here so it's the first time I've participated in this topic, but here are my favourite arrangements from the year!

5. Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town - Summer

This is one of my favourite summer themes in the whole series (I usually prefer the other seasonal themes over summer), and it was a blast to do despite the arrangement ending up a little difficult to play. It was also the first Friends of Mineral Town sheet on-site which was a cool milestone to reach as it's one of the more popular entries in the series.

Sheet

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4. Harvest Moon 2 GBC - Spring

This one adapted to piano perfectly since it emulates a ragtime style, and it's a really fun one to play (very catchy too). I found the chords easier to figure out in this one than in past arrangements so it was nice to feel a sense of progress. It also involved a lot of research to untangle a mislabeled OST and an uncredited composer, which considering it's a relatively obscure title in the series was not easy, but that was fun in its own way.

Sheet

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 3. Stardew Valley - Spirit's Eve Festival

The instrumentation of this song is quite unique and it was a bit of a challenge to adapt to the piano, but I think it turned out really well all things considered. It was also my first submission to an arrangement project (the 2019 Hallowe'en update) so that was a fun experience as well.

Sheet

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2. Harvest Moon 64 - Spring

This one was the first arrangement I posted and it's the song that drove me to start arranging in the first place. It's still one of the songs I gravitate to whenever I sit down at a piano.

Sheet

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1. Bravely Default - Beneath The Hollow Moon

I fell in love with this song when I heard it in Bravely Default, which has one of my favourite OSTs of all time, and I just had to arrange it. It was quite a challenge for me at the time and I'm very grateful for all the help I got from everyone here.

Sheet

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I do have one honourable mention as well:

BONUS: Persona 3 - Aria of Soul (Collaboration with Samusthedude)

This one needs a bit of work still so I didn't include it in the top 5, but as my first collaborative arrangement it was one of the most fun arrangements to put together. I would not have been able to do this one alone so thanks to my friend, Samusthedude, for making it possible. You can probably expect to see more from this arranging duo in the future...

Submission topic

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Thanks to the awesome updaters for helping me with my first year of arranging on NSM, I've learned so much already! Hope everyone has a great 2020!

[Zeila]

I didn't finish that many pieces during 2019, but of the ones I completed I would rate these as my favorites:

5. Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Interminable Dilemma (Final Decision)

C O M P L E X  M O T I V E S

This was in a WIP state for a long time, but I only finished it last year. I liked that this version included extra instruments and an extended Morphogenetic Sorrow remix as opposed to CQD END 1, which made it more interesting and varied. I think I did a good job overall in regards to translating it to piano

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4. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - The Edge of Dawn (for piano & vocal)

Sheet

As soon as I heard this song I got to work in arranging for piano accompaniment + voice/other. I decided to go with that route instead of doing a solo piano arrangement as I felt it would be easier to separate the piano line of the original initially and then work my way down into condensing everything if I ever decided to do so in the future. In terms of quality this is probably around equal terms as #5, but I just like this song more tbh so it wins out

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3. Kirby's Epic Yarn - Halberd (for ensemble)

Sheet | mp3

This transcription is for 2 marimba, 1 xylophone, piano, drum set, and bass guitar. I just recently edited this to accommodate for the updates made to my solo piano version, and aside from any formatting cleanups it is basically complete. I mainly did this because I thought it would be fun to play and I'm hoping that happens sometime this year

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2. Hibike! Euphonium Medley

Sheet

There's no official youtube video as this is just an arrangement of multiple pieces, but you can find the soundtrack here. Although I still feel like the last transition is a little weak, I do think it flows together well overall and that the pieces included are meaningful and represent some of the more iconic moments of the anime

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1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - A Funeral of Flowers (Thunder)

Sheet I wonder how long the yt video is going to last this time...

I'm immensely pleased with the result of this arrangement/transcription as I feel it looks very clean and is relatively accurate. Maybe one day if I ever get a better keyboard I'll try learning it

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Thank you to the updaters and any other person who's left feedback on my sheets! As the years go by I've been getting better at the arrangement process, and part of that is thanks to you guys :3

[Static]

I think I did this in 2017, but not in 2018, so I'll make up for it by doing it now... I tried to sort them by how much they challenged me rather than how much I like them, though I do enjoy every piece I arrange.

5. Sakura Taisen - Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan

[SAT] Sakura Wars - "Declaration! Imperial Floral Assault Group"
[MID] [MUS] [MUSX] [PDF] [Original]

A classic 90s anime opening theme, but it's originally from the game on Sega Saturn (speaking of which, it was NSM's first Saturn sheet).

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4. Super Paper Mario - Flipside

[Wii] Super Paper Mario - "Flipside" (Replacement)
[MID] [MUS] [MUSX] [PDF] [Original]

This has a lot of interesting harmonies and interlocking layers

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3. Ridge Racer Type 4 - Quiet Curves

[PS1] R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 - "Quiet Curves"
[MID] [MUS] [MUSX] [PDF] [Original]

Though I enjoy jazz quite a bit, I don't arrange jazz VGM that often. This was a nice change of pace for me and is pretty different stylistically from my usual arrangements.

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2. Muramasa Rebirth - Shigematsu Shinzaemon

[PSV] Muramasa Rebirth - "Shigematsu Shinzaemon"
[MID] [MUS] [MUSX] [PDF] [Original]

Lots of crazy rhythms... That's about it really.

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1. Pikmin - The Impact Site

[GCN] Pikmin - "The Impact Site"
[MID] [MUS] [MUSX] [PDF] [Original]

There's so much stuff going on in this one, and there are 4 variations, meaning 8 pages full of music.

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If we're including non-piano stuff too, then I'd like to mention my jazz big band arrangement of Jazzy NYC '99 from Street Fighter III: Third Strike. I also made a piano arrangement of it, but I prefer this arrangement.