[PS4] Marvel's Spider-Man - "Anything for a Story" by Fantastic Ike

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Other
Game: Marvel's Spider-Man
Console: PlayStation 4
Title: Anything for a Story
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: Fantastic Ike

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[Fantastic Ike]

So, not SUPER difficult. Just one or two hitches to what'd otherwise be a pretty straightforward sheet.

The main issue is that there are some note distances that are impossible to strike simultaneously. However, I was thinking that since this is a slow tempo, one could strike the bottom note then immediately leap up to the top note and hold it. Problem is, I'm not sure how to notate it.

There's also some textural stuff that makes it a bit hard to notate, especially in the last section.

If this makes the piece too much of a pain to go through submissions, please let me know and I'll delete it and submit a new sheet. I'd rather be told now and avoid any guilt/issues on your end then drag this out unnecessarily

[Dekkadeci]

In general, you can use arpeggios at otherwise impossible held intervals. Arpeggios are assumed to go up by default. If you're not using pedal, though, you might be safer off using grace notes for the lower notes of the impossible "held" intervals and keep regular notes for the higher notes.

[Fantastic Ike]

Okay, thanks. Although I'll hold off on changing anything until I get specific suggestions! I did just want to make it clear that I realize that the notes aren't currently possible to hit the way I currently have it notated

[Bloop]

The main issue is that there are some note distances that are impossible to strike simultaneously. However, I was thinking that since this is a slow tempo, one could strike the bottom note then immediately leap up to the top note and hold it. Problem is, I'm not sure how to notate it.

I think I'd personally choose for notating them as tying a grace note before the first bottom note. However, I think it's mostly a problem in m1-12 right? If you use the pedal here, you can have the L.H. play some of the R.H. notes instead. You'll lose the staccato effect of the top line, but I think that's not too bad of a sacrifice. You could even still add staccatos to those as well as a pedal marking, because staccato'd notes do have a different sound on acoustic or grand pianos (and I think even some electric pianos don't sustain the note as long as it would normally when played staccato)

About the other stuff:
-I think it's better to write this piece in Eb minor (6 flats) rather than D# minor, this is a more natural key signature for pianists to read and changes all double sharps to naturals instead.
-In the staccato flute line, I can hear a second line below as well. It's an Bb below for the first few measures at least.
-m4 and m11: You can have the lower R.H. line go the Dn on beat 4
-m8: Same as above but to an Fn
-m13-16: I think you can extend the pedal lines here to cover the full measure, since the harp notes still ring on for a bit in beat 3-4
-m14: I hear an Eb (or D#) in the R.H. on beat 2.5, instead of a Dn (or Cx)
-m15: I hear an Cb (or Bn) in the R.H. on beat 2.75, instead of a Db (or C#)
-m16: This two staves are a bit close to each other, but there should be plenty space to spread them out a bit.
-m21-34: I think you can add a lower octave to all bass notes here, they're there in the original and add a lot more depth to the bass notes.
-m35-44: All L.H. F's and Gb's should be An's. I think there's only a Bb on beat 1 (as a dyad with an An) whenever there's and Eb in the bass.
-m42: I hear the bass note restrike here too

[Fantastic Ike]

Okay, hopefully this is more along the lines of what you were talking about.

[Bloop]

Kinda yeah, for m1-12 it might look better to keep the notes in the R.H. staff but add a marking saying "L.H." and/or a bracket (like here, but upside down). Or you could leave it to the performer to choose whether they'll play it with the L.H. or R.H., as some big-handed folk could get them both.

As for the rest, most of the dynamics are pretty messily placed now, you might wanna fix that as well :p

[Fantastic Ike]

Okay, hopefully this looks a little better now.

[Bloop]

Just a few small things (most of which I think I forgot to mention last time, sorry about that!)
-You're currently using two different pedal markings for m1-12 and the rest of the sheet, it might look better to just choose one for consistency. For the second version (with brackets) I prefer them to be with a Ped. mark (either the fancy or the normal text one) at the first one, and arrowheads instead of breaks as pedal lifts:
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I'll leave it up to you what you think is best ^^
-I think you can flip the middle ties in m23 (so the top two go over and the bottom two go under), since they're clashing now.
-There are staccatos on the whole notes in m35, 37 and 39 that shouldn't be there.

[Fantastic Ike]

Took a while to figure out, but hope it looks good now!

[Bloop]

Yep, looks good! The pedal mark at m15 could go a little bit down and to the left, but I won't hold up the approval for that :p
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[Fantastic Ike]

Awesome thanks! (Fixed)

[Libera]

With a piece like this, I think one of the more important things to get right in the arrangement is the texture, and sometimes the specific notes don't matter quite as much, especially since the recording is so unclear in many places.  The main place I feel like this goes wrong in your sheet is bars 17-20.  The original sounds pretty uniform here but the left hand is anything but, with bar 18 suddenly standing out in comparison to the other bars.  I would try to homogenise this a bit and worry a bit less about the details of what you are making out of the recording (and to be honest, I don't really hear what you've written in anyway, though it is very unclear to me).  Everywhere else in the sheet I think you do a pretty good job of keeping the texture consistent.

Some other feedback:

-From 13 onwards you have this repeating eighth note pattern in the left hand, but it really stands out to me far more in the original as a repeated quarter note pattern.  I see you have the staccatos to emphasise this, but I personally feel it would better to give everything more space and just focus on the rhythm that stands out.  I don't know, maybe you hear this very differently to me.
-In bars 17-20 I'm hearing a lot of Bbs in the strings which would help to thicken up the harmony here a little bit.
-I don't really hear this Gb-F thing in bars 21-28 and my ears more gravitate towards the pulsing bass pattern that fades in and out.  Did you consider focusing on that instead?  Some of the markings here are also in dire need of some more space and you have some spare white space at the bottom of the page to use up.
-The first four sixteenths of bar 29 I can't hear in the original, it sounds like it comes in on beat 2 (or at least it should crescendo into beat 2).
-I'm really not sure about some of the chord choices in the final section (bars 43-44), particularly in bars 41-42 which sounds nothing even close to the original to me.  Would you mind having another look at these for me?  This section sounds pretty ethereal to me in the original which is being lost with the very harsh dissonances that are written in here.  Some aspect of this may also be choosing voicings that avoid some of the very close intervals and spread them out wider across the piano.  If you're struggling let me know and I can help out more, but I figured I would let you have another go first.
-Do you really only want pedal in the places you've written in?  All of this piece feels like it would benefit massively from usage of the pedal in my opinion, since there's so much reverb in the original.
-Be careful with your L.H. markings which are colliding with stems in places.  Also, they should be implemented as expressions rather than text, so that they attach properly to staves etc.
-The copyright/url isn't quite aligned to the bottom margin.

I hope that helps.

[Fantastic Ike]

Hey, appreciate you looking at this. I know "fuzzy" (for lack of a better word) sheets like this are a pain to go over. I thought my arrangement was a bit more solid than it turned out being, so apologies if it's lacking in certain areas. I wanted to clarify some things before I go around making some pretty big changes, I think it'll be easier on us this way.

The main place I feel like this goes wrong in your sheet is bars 17-20.  The original sounds pretty uniform here but the left hand is anything but, with bar 18 suddenly standing out in comparison to the other bars.  I would try to homogenise this a bit and worry a bit less about the details of what you are making out of the recording (and to be honest, I don't really hear what you've written in anyway, though it is very unclear to me).

As you can probably tell, the pizzicato strings are what makes this arrangement particularly tricky. I'm assuming it'd be best to delete the clashing semitones and maybe simplify/delete the countermelody in top LH?

-From 13 onwards you have this repeating eighth note pattern in the left hand, but it really stands out to me far more in the original as a repeated quarter note pattern.  I see you have the staccatos to emphasise this, but I personally feel it would better to give everything more space and just focus on the rhythm that stands out.  I don't know, maybe you hear this very differently to me.

This is an issue of texture over melody for me. The notes don't technically hit there but there are some pizzicatos/string harmonics on 8th notes. I incorporated it into my arrangement like so to kind of give this section a drive. If you think I should just make it quarters then I'm not opposed.

-I don't really hear this Gb-F thing in bars 21-28 and my ears more gravitate towards the pulsing bass pattern that fades in and out.  Did you consider focusing on that instead?

Another attempt by me to flesh out the texture of the piece. The section felt really really empty to me on its own, so I put some tremolo on the Gb area to kind of replicate the hazy sound in the recording. Should I try to put tremolo in the bass instead?

-I'm really not sure about some of the chord choices in the final section (bars 43-44), particularly in bars 41-42 which sounds nothing even close to the original to me.  Would you mind having another look at these for me?  This section sounds pretty ethereal to me in the original which is being lost with the very harsh dissonances that are written in here.  Some aspect of this may also be choosing voicings that avoid some of the very close intervals and spread them out wider across the piano.  If you're struggling let me know and I can help out more, but I figured I would let you have another go first.

I'll give this another shot, but I'm not expecting it to go well. I still struggle with chords, especially when it comes to strategically voicing them.

-Do you really only want pedal in the places you've written in?  All of this piece feels like it would benefit massively from usage of the pedal in my opinion, since there's so much reverb in the original.

Would it be better to just write con pedale in that case? Would save a lot of space in the piece and avoid me ripping my hair out with every adjustment lol

If you want to do this over Discord DMs so it's quicker, you're more than welcome to.

[Libera]

As you can probably tell, the pizzicato strings are what makes this arrangement particularly tricky. I'm assuming it'd be best to delete the clashing semitones and maybe simplify/delete the countermelody in top LH?

I guess it's more about making it a little more consistent.  Compare bar 17 to bar 20: do these really need to be presented differently?  I find it hard to hear any real difference between these aurally.  But yes, simplifying, particularly in bar 18 would go a long way.

This is an issue of texture over melody for me. The notes don't technically hit there but there are some pizzicatos/string harmonics on 8th notes. I incorporated it into my arrangement like so to kind of give this section a drive. If you think I should just make it quarters then I'm not opposed.

I think my personal preference is towards giving the arrangement a bit more space and leaving them as quarters, but you should try them both out and see what you think.

Another attempt by me to flesh out the texture of the piece. The section felt really really empty to me on its own, so I put some tremolo on the Gb area to kind of replicate the hazy sound in the recording. Should I try to put tremolo in the bass instead?

Yeah something like that might work better because the pulsing bass stands out a lot to me, with how it fades in and out.  A slow tremolo could be nice there.

Would it be better to just write con pedale in that case? Would save a lot of space in the piece and avoid me ripping my hair out with every adjustment lol

That would be fine probably.

If you want any help with anything in a more "real time" manner then feel free to ping me on the discord server.