Nine Lives' "Too Hot to Handle" Project Sheets

[NineLives]

For this update, I'll be having a couple of desert-based stages.

DuckTales 2
"Egypt" | MUSX | Source

Star Fox
"Titania" | MUSX | Source

[Bloop]

Egypt
-Maybe I'm being a bit pedantic about these, but I feel the over-amount of repeat signs might make it harder to read through the sheat chronologically than needed. If you wanna keep it to two pages you can't really get rid of all of them, but with the space you have at your disposal, you could write out all of the 2 bar repeats as just full 4 bar sections
-m1: The beam at beat 1 of the L.H. should be flipped: if you wanna make space for the dynamic marking, you can just lower the bottom staff.
-m4 and similar places: The G at beat 3.5 in the R.H. should be an Ab. Also, I hear the F on beat 3.75 tied over into beat 4.
-m12 and 13: You can write the Db at beat 1 as C#, since it resolves to the D.
-m14-15: I don't think you need any 16th rests in this bar: the time needed to lift the finger and restrike the note is about the same as a 16th note anyway. Leaving out the 16ths and just writing them out fully makes the rhythm a bit easier to read.
-m14-16: Depending on how you interpret this rhythm (2+2+3 or 3+2+2), the beaming should reflect this. Going with 3+2+2 would mean the beaming should look like this (taking my previous point into account):
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The rhythm at the start could also be dotted 8th + dotted 8th, or written like this but with the 8th on beat 3 beamed to the rest of beat 1-2, if you want

[NineLives]

"Egypt" has been updated! 

[Bloop]

Awesome, I'll approve of Egypt!

[Kricketune54]

Titania

• m1 and m3 I feel like beat 2.75 is easier/more accurately written as 8th grace notes as opposed to a full 16th note. Make 2.75 the same pitch as beat 3-4, and tie the two together. Can keep top two pitches of current beat 2.75 in both places as the grace pitches.
• m11 and m15,19 RH could add Bn grace note
• m23-34 what was your reasoning for doubling the bassline into the RH as well? I don't exactly hear this part twice, and I think you could have some more variation by adding in the the high notes like in m25-26 for example (the same instrument as m34 beat 3-4). And for m27-34 you could do the same fade outs for the notes starting on beat 1 like in m35-42 with all the decresc. 8th notes (but quarter notes for this section).

[NineLives]

"Titania" has been updated taking some of my own concerns into account.

Titania
• m1 and m3 I feel like beat 2.75 is easier/more accurately written as 8th grace notes as opposed to a full 16th note. Make 2.75 the same pitch as beat 3-4, and tie the two together. Can keep the top two pitches of current beat 2.75 in both places as the grace pitches.
• m11 and m15,19 RH could add Bn grace note
• m23-34 what was your reasoning for doubling the bassline into the RH as well? I don't exactly hear this part twice, and I think you could have some more variation by adding in the high notes like in m25-26 for example (the same instrument as m34 beat 3-4). And for m27-34 you could do the same fade-outs for the notes starting on beat 1 like in m35-42 with all the decresc. 8th notes (but quarter notes for this section).

I don't agree with the first statement. I think it's more accurate as a sixteenth note because compared to the grace notes of measures 2 and 4 of the original source, which are much shorter in comparison. I did, however, update the chords there, since I found them to be incorrect on my latest listen.
For the second suggestion, I'm trying to keep restriking to a minimum with the grace notes being the same as the notes before them. This being said, I did add grace notes to the count 4's of measures 10, 14, and 18 while keeping the main notes tenuto.
The reason I doubled the bassline for measures 23 through 34 was because both the guitar and bass play them at the same time and I thought I should emphasize it in that section to match the feel of the original. I also believed doing the parts in the higher register instead would make it harder to return to the dyads, which are fairly important to the section. I made the exception of measure 34 because the next measure starts at that higher register, making the scale a lot better of a lead into it than if I kept going with the bass. I also found the way I wrote it more engaging than just the quarter note decrescendo. I found the echoes of measures 35 through 42 to be more prominent, which is why I shifted the focus toward that.

[XiaoMigros]

Not much to add here, but I did want to touch up on the repeats again: I don't know what they looked like before, but the first half of the track can be repeated in groups of 4 measures, even if you don't want to repeat in groups of 2 measures later on. Like this, the sheet fits nicely onto 2 pages:
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[NineLives]

Not much to add here, but I did want to touch up on the repeats again: I don't know what they looked like before, but the first half of the track can be repeated in groups of 4 measures, even if you don't want to repeat in groups of 2 measures later on. Like this, the sheet fits nicely onto 2 pages:
You cannot view this attachment.

I did this with the slight edit of having sections end at their last measure. I tend to prefer double barlines to be at the end rather than in the middle of a system. Given there aren't too many accidentals in measures 7 and 8/9, I didn't think it was too scrunched the way I have them now.

[XiaoMigros]

That's fine by me, both options have their pros and cons. I don't have anything else to add, so I'll accept this arrangement!

[Kricketune54]

"Titania" has been updated taking some of my own concerns into account.I don't agree with the first statement. I think it's more accurate as a sixteenth note because compared to the grace notes of measures 2 and 4 of the original source, which are much shorter in comparison. I did, however, update the chords there, since I found them to be incorrect on my latest listen.

I feel the 16ths on 2.75 are too long, and it sounds awkward as is. The original is more of a pitch slide and I don't believe it makes sense to write that as a 16th note. Hearing chords as you now have them.

Xiao also offered up to me that some other notes could have grace notes as well in the first four bars, pictured below:

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For the second suggestion, I'm trying to keep restriking to a minimum with the grace notes being the same as the notes before them. This being said, I did add grace notes to the count 4's of measures 10, 14, and 18 while keeping the main notes tenuto.

Good additions, but the default way a lot of these slurs went is incorrect. Slurs should go to the notehead, but Finale... didn't pick the best way to do that for about half of them (ex. Bb to Bn). This is the correction:

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The reason I doubled the bassline for measures 23 through 34 was because both the guitar and bass play them at the same time and I thought I should emphasize it in that section to match the feel of the original. I also believed doing the parts in the higher register instead would make it harder to return to the dyads, which are fairly important to the section. I made the exception of measure 34 because the next measure starts at that higher register, making the scale a lot better of a lead into it than if I kept going with the bass. I also found the way I wrote it more engaging than just the quarter note decrescendo. I found the echoes of measures 35 through 42 to be more prominent, which is why I shifted the focus toward that.

On reexamination agree with you on m24-26, but the quarter notes fading out imo take more of a focus in m27-34 than both instruments playing the same pitches. Not going to to make you make the change but that's what I personally think.

One last thing, the tonality of this track is C minor, so this should be the key as opposed to Bb.

[NineLives]

I feel the 16ths on 2.75 are too long, and it sounds awkward as is. The original is more of a pitch slide and I don't believe it makes sense to write that as a 16th note. Hearing chords as you now have them.

I've slowed down the source to a quarter of the speed and when I'm counting(1-e-&-a), it lands on the "a" of 2. I hear it clearly as that 16th note. I'm willing to slur the whole beat to take account of the slide effect, but having it as a grace note doesn't sound correct to me.

Xiao also offered up to me that some other notes could have grace notes as well in the first four bars, pictured below:

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I was aware of those, but as I said before, I'm trying to keep restrikes through grace notes at a minimum because I believe it sort of loses its impact that way. I'm hoping that makes sense. It'd be more consistent with the rest of the sheet at the very least as well.

On reexamination agree with you on m24-26, but the quarter notes fading out imo take more of a focus in m27-34 than both instruments playing the same pitches. Not going to make you make the change but that's what I personally think.

This has grown on me. The only thing I kept that doubled the bassline was the little phrase on measure 30 from beat 3.5 onward. As I mentioned before, I feel it leads better towards the next measure.

One last thing, the tonality of this track is C minor, so this should be the key as opposed to Bb.

I did the option to hold the notes chromatically, so some of them may have swapped accents. Let me know if it screwed up anything on that front.

[Kricketune54]

I've slowed down the source to a quarter of the speed and when I'm counting(1-e-&-a), it lands on the "a" of 2. I hear it clearly as that 16th note. I'm willing to slur the whole beat to take account of the slide effect, but having it as a grace note doesn't sound correct to me.I was aware of those, but as I said before, I'm trying to keep restrikes through grace notes at a minimum because I believe it sort of loses its impact that way. I'm hoping that makes sense.

Okay I hear it changing on the "a" as you describe. You can't really replicate the bending on the original, but this is probably the way to do it.

It'd be more consistent with the rest of the sheet at the very least as well.

And that makes sense with the slurs.

This has grown on me. The only thing I kept that doubled the bassline was the little phrase on measure 30 from beat 3.5 onward. As I mentioned before, I feel it leads better towards the next measure.I did the option to hold the notes chromatically, so some of them may have swapped accents. Let me know if it screwed up anything on that front.

m30 sounds good, and nothing stands out as far as swapped accents. Approved!

[XiaoMigros]

I feel the 16ths on 2.75 are too long, and it sounds awkward as is. The original is more of a pitch slide and I don't believe it makes sense to write that as a 16th note.

I agree with this, what's written currently doesn't sound like the correct rhythm. The slide is only as noticeable here as in all other places.

On that note, I still think it's worth including the grace notes in front of the chords in this section, it's what gives them their character imo. By only including one grace note, it's quite possible to preserve the chords' impact and snappiness.

• m11 and similar: Beat 1 in the RH sounds like it should be grace note'ed too
• Some of the hairpins get a little too close to the note stems, would be great if you could move them up a little (while keeping them at the same height per system)
• I'd recommend increasing the space between systems on page 3, to fill the bottom space.

That's all from me though, great job both of you

[NineLives]

I agree with this, what's written currently doesn't sound like the correct rhythm. The slide is only as noticeable here as in all other places.
On that note, I still think it's worth including the grace notes in front of the chords in this section, it's what gives them their character imo. By only including one grace note, it's quite possible to preserve the chords' impact and snappiness.

I still disagree that grace notes would serve better. It's not short enough in the source to feel like grace notes, especially compared to the others present in other parts of the song. I hear the slide start on 2.75 on the notes I have written. I understand it sounds a little awkward without that effect, but I find it more accurate than with the grace note(s).

• m11 and similar: Beat 1 in the RH sounds like it should be grace note'ed too

I addressed this a couple of times before in order to explain why I use tenutos on the notes before instead.

I'm trying to keep restriking to a minimum with the grace notes being the same as the notes before them.

I believe it sort of loses its impact that way. I'm hoping that makes sense.

Other fixes have been made.

[XiaoMigros]

I still disagree that grace notes would serve better. It's not short enough in the source to feel like grace notes, especially compared to the others present in other parts of the song. I hear the slide start on 2.75 on the notes I have written.

That's okay, but I personally don't feel comfortable accepting the sheet in this condition. I will pass the question (of grace notes throughout m1-4 and in m11 beat 1 & similar) on to the next updater. I hope you understand!

Rest of the changes look good :)