[PC] Plants vs. Zombies - "Loonboon" by ThatHiddenCharacter

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Submission Information:
Series: Other
Game: Plants vs. Zombies
Console: PC
Title: Loonboon
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: ThatHiddenCharacter

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[ThatHiddenCharacter]

[Fantastic Ike]

Ooh nice was hoping someone would arrange this

[Kricketune54]

🥜🎳
I have some larger suggestions for making this arrangement both a little more varied, and also a building out some chords between m19-28.

EDIT 7/26 Not sure if you had seen my post before this edit THC, but going to go back on suggestion I had to make a pickup measure , can keep measure numbers as they are.  I have been told the 'swung' figure is less readable without the accompanying rests at the beginning

• General rule of thumb is to beam across rests when there is a note rhythm between the rests.  This applies for m1, 3,5,7, and 9.

m1 example

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•Listening to their length I think the notes currently written as 8th notes in the above screenshot and elsewhere sound shorter than full length. You could add staccatos to each of them.
• This arrangement can easily fit on just two pages, try something like this (feel free to space more evenly than my demo version so there's not too much room between the copyright and the last system):

Spoiler

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Notes
• Now, as far as the notes, I think there are a few spots that are a bit empty seeming, specifically ones with melody whole notes or notes longer than a quarter. You could easily incorporate the other instrument lines with the piano. Here's an example of what that could look like at measure 2 and 3:

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More specifics
• m19 and 23 LH beat 1 there's a C# on bottom as well. the next chord the F# should be on the bottom
• m20 and m24 LH beat 1 you could add the audible Bn on bottom of this chord, and on beat 2.5, there's an F# also on the bottom
• m21, 25, 28 LH beat 1 is G#-E-C#-A# top to bottom beat 2.5 this chord is C#-A#-F##-D# from top to bottom
• You could add a cresc. on m26 and 28, maybe start at mp or p up to mf.
• I know m34-41 works as a repeat section - but thoughts on maybe adding 8 more measures and attempting to incorporate the percussion of the second time through into the LH, rhythmically? This will extend the arrangement by 8 bars and invalidate my earlier system distribution setup but it could give this arrangement a bit more flare

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

• General rule of thumb is to beam across rests when there is a note rhythm between the rests.  This applies for m1, 3,5,7, and 9.

m1 example

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Whooper doopers. I do know that, this is an older arrangement and that is a side effect of importing the musicXML from Musescore. I just failed to catch it before submitting, sorry. Luckily, a single click with the simple entry tool and they all automatically fixed.

With that, I have updated the files with the recommended changes, as well as some extra changes I noticed were needed while listening to the song to work on these ones.

[Kricketune54]

Much better. Still have some stuff

• I think it would make sense to have the dynamic line up with the first note? No sense in rests having a dynamic haha
• m3 RH you could hide the lower layer rests and then flip the top layer down.
• m4 RH top layer this run starts on a F# instead of G#, goes to D#, and then third pitch is C##
• m5 RH just like m9, beat 1 you could add the En under the G# and an F# under lower layer beat 3 as well
• m6-7 RH just an alternative idea, but you could write the current top layer down an octave, the original octave of these notes, and have the whole note written as a quarter if you wanted in m7 with a tenuto. Feel free to keep what you have but just thought if you want to keep melody on top could work
• m10-13 Did you try incorporating any of the harmony strings/lower melody layers into the RH? This section still seems a little empty
• m20 and m24 RH middle ties look a bit jumbled, should look a bit like this:

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• m38-39 RH and m46-47 there's a couple lower notes that could be included on beats 1 and 3 in a separate layer here.
• m40-41 and m48-49, could make some adjustments to the bottom layer to look a little more even (m40 pictured)

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[ThatHiddenCharacter]

I honestly completely forgot the ball was in my court on this one...

• m4 RH top layer this run starts on a F# instead of G#, goes to D#, and then third pitch is C##

Indeed it does. Although, since a C# plays next and D# doesn't appear again in the measure, I wrote it as a Dnat since it's a descending line.

• m6-7 RH just an alternative idea, but you could write the current top layer down an octave, the original octave of these notes, and have the whole note written as a quarter if you wanted in m7 with a tenuto. Feel free to keep what you have but just thought if you want to keep melody on top could work

While I do understand where you're coming from, I think I would rather keep it as is.

• m10-13 Did you try incorporating any of the harmony strings/lower melody layers into the RH? This section still seems a little empty

I have now, although I'm not fully sure on that last chord.

• m20 and m24 RH middle ties look a bit jumbled, should look a bit like this:

Spoiler

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This was so difficult to do...

• m40-41 and m48-49, could make some adjustments to the bottom layer to look a little more even (m40 pictured)

Spoiler

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I "applied note spacing" to this part and it seemed to fix it. If not, then I'm not actually sure how to do that. Even after all these years, Finale is still so foreign to me.

I've updated the files.

[Kricketune54]

Sorry for a bit of a reply delay, took some time there to hit projects...

I "applied note spacing" to this part and it seemed to fix it. If not, then I'm not actually sure how to do that. Even after all these years, Finale is still so foreign to me.

Looking at the various file types I don't think what you did quite fixed it. Go to Tools -> Note Mover and then move the note head and stem to be a bit more even between beat 1.0 and 2.0 for the eight notes, like my screenshot showed (for, m40-41, 49-50)

A couple other final bits:
• m3 RH top layer 1.75 this 16th should be flipped up
• Overall chord note additions work quite well but maybe in m12 just write the second layer as a quarter note with a tenuto to imply length? I couldn't hold those notes with my RH while doing the top layer and you can't do the staccatos if this part was pedaled.

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

Files are updated.

[Kricketune54]

Files are updated.

You could hide the rests in m12 just like they are for m3, and then flip the top layer for beats 2-4 as they would normally be flipped as a solo layer

Tiny thing though, just post the updated files but I'll approve for the next updater! This one is a real nostalgia trip back to the middle school days for me, enjoyed reviewing;D

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

You could hide the rests in m12 just like they are for m3, and then flip the top layer for beats 2-4 as they would normally be flipped as a solo layer

Done!

[Latios212]

Heya! Looking good but there are a handful of things that can be improved to make this sheet shine better. Please bear with me

Notes and stuff:
- Fn in m. 13 should be E# (C# major chord)
- The lowest note of the second chord in m. 20 and 24 should be E instead of F#
- It really sounds to me like only the bass note in m. 30 should be 8vb, not the entire rest of the left hand from there onwards.
- That left hand note in m. 30 should probably also be accented.
- Measure 34 (and similarly 36/42/44) are rather empty right now. How about adding in this lower voice?
You cannot view this attachment.

Aesthetics:
- It looks like Finale's default spacing isn't applied correctly everywhere (notice how the double sharp in the left hand in the next measure is kind of overlapping the flag from beat 2.5). Give each measure a click when using the Note Entry tool just to make sure everything's all set.
- Somewhat personal preference, but I think m. 19-29 would be better off in bass clef rather than treble. If you're keeping this section in one clef, you're ending up with 4 ledger lines off the staff either way, but it's pretty straightforward to read stacks of thirds above bass for the chords - as opposed to the low single notes in m. 22 and 26 as written. If you do change this, make sure to reposition the dynamics.
- Be mindful of your rest placements in places where you have multiple layers. In particular:
  - In measure 3, if beats 2-4 are flipped as normal, the 16th rests should return to their normal mid-staff positions (use m. 1 for comparison).
  - Measure 12's top layer rests on beats 4/4.5 should be at their normal staff heights too
  - The quarter rest on beta 4 of m. 38 is too close to the upper layer G#. I'd suggest moving this down a few notches to be below the staff instead of overlapping the bottom line (and the other quarter rests in m. 39 to match)
- Align the ending numbers in m. 17-18 and 26-27 with the beat 1 notes (they're awkwardly far to the right currently, Finale's default placement isn't good at this)

One other thing:
- You have a bunch of places here where you have a whole note sustained throughout the whole measure, but you have a bunch of places where the note is meant to be restruck. This is okay sometimes to communicate what the voices in the original are doing but it can be unclear for the performer. In places like m. 2 where you have a staccato note overlapping it - should they play the note staccato and then release, preventing the D# from being sustained the whole measure? I wouldn't say this is a requirement, but you may want to consider shortening the beat 1 note accordingly. The thing I would strongly recommend adjusting though is m. 40-41 and 48-49. The whole notes clearly can't be held across the measures because the second layer is playing the notes again, but you could change the lower octave note on beat 1 to the whole note instead to achieve a similar effect performance wise.

Lastly, I suggest giving this topic a read: Staccato placement on stem side. It's not a requirement by means, but I really do recommend defaulting them to center around noteheads.

[XiaoMigros]

Some input from me, also:

• Could you try loading that library file I shared with you over this sheet too?
  Even if you don't change the tempo marking it would be great to achieve closer visual consistency with just a few clicks
• Opening dynamic could be moved down slightly
• I'd recommend changing the eighth+16th rests to dotted eighths, since that's okay in /4 time and makes the sheet look less cluttered
• I'm not sure if the library file fixes this, but mini-title and page number aren't the same height on page 3. Could you look over that, and maybe the page margins in general too? We recommend 0.5in on all sides except the left (0.59in)

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

I'd recommend changing the eighth+16th rests to dotted eighths, since that's okay in /4 time and makes the sheet look less cluttered

I know that dotted eighths are ok (and rather common) in /4 time, there's a reason they aren't dotted in this. Most instances of them have staccatos, which would be counterintuitive to include both a dotted note and a staccato together (I've been told many times in the past not to use both on the same note), and the ones that don't have staccatos are still shorter than a full dotted eighth. Putting it as a regular eighth is kind of like a "soft" staccato in this case.

Otherwise, I've gone through all the stuff from both of you and updated the files!

[Latios212]

Cool! A few small things remain before acceptance:

In places like m. 2 where you have a staccato note overlapping it - should they play the note staccato and then release, preventing the D# from being sustained the whole measure? I wouldn't say this is a requirement, but you may want to consider shortening the beat 1 note accordingly.

m. 8 could use similar adjusting as well

- Fix the alignment of the upper layer beat 1 notes in m. 40-41 and 48-49
- A few dynamic positionings:
  - mf in m. 19 is a bit far to the right
  - m. 28 is a bit crushed. You can use the Page Layout tool to drag the lower staff down a little bit to create more space between staves for this system, and adjust the dynamics accordingly.
  - Lastly, this is a bit minor, but the hairpins don't need to be extremely close to the dynamic symbols or barlines (most apparent in m. 29 but also a bit of 27 and 18 too).