Sebastian's Arrangement Library

[JDMEK5]

Adding: "Young grasshopper."

I dont get it??

That's right little grasshopper keep your chin up

whatever 

You'll get it one day, young cricket.

[Sebastian]

Mysteries of the Pit
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
[ZIP]
I could use some help with this arrangment. So, dont be afraid to say anything about it.

[FierceDeity]

So, dont be afraid to say anything about it.

I never am, am I?

Notation Issues

-While it's ok to have either "Composed by" or "Composition by", you should make sure that it corresponds with what you write for the arranger credit, i.e. "Arranged by" or "Arrangement by".

-There are times when you properly tie notes over the center of the bar, but then there are some weird spots, i.e. the first 8 measures in the left hand, and measures 4, 8, 12, 18, and 20 in the right hand, where you start a half note or a dotted quarter note on the fourth eighth note of the measure. For these, I'm pretty sure you know how to do it properly (as evident by the rest of the arrangement), you just probably got a little careless. So yeah, eighth note tied to whatever when it's starting on the fourth eighth note of a measure. It's technically acceptable to have written in "dotted quarter note, dotted quarter note, quarter note" with a rhythm like this, since beaming is allowed to be manipulated to emphasize the strong beats, but as far as I know, it's still better to do it this way.

-Measure 16, Finale should have filled in the right hand with rests after that eighth note, but for some reason it didn't (at least when I opened it), so you should probably do that.

-Those first two measures in the right hand should definitely be in bass clef. It doesn't even go any higher than the rest of the piece, haha.

-Every spot where you have eighth notes in octaves in the left hand, you have nothing in the right hand, so you could easily split the octaves between two hands. That'd make it a lot more convenient to play, especially since it's not all staccato.

-Really not sure what's going on with the second half of measure 13 in the right hand, haha xD That should just be a dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth note tied to a quarter note. Nothing fancy required

-In measure 18, you should either put a courtesy accidental on that G, or (and this is what I would do), make the G# before it into an Ab, so as to follow the A, Ab, G chromatic line.

[close]

Now, for the fun part:

Accuracy Issues

-Measure 1, that second note in the right hand should be a G.

-Pay close attention to the bassline for the first 8 measures; it's not just the same 2 measures repeating. Measure 2, beat 4 in the left hand should be a quarter note B an octave down; measure 6, the B should be an octave down, still on the "eighth note tied over to quarter note, quarter note" rhythm; measure 8, the left hand should be the same as in measure 2.

-Note length in the right hand should be more held out; it may fade in the original, but hey, so does a piano. There's no cutoff on a mallet instrument I mean, except for on vibes, but this isn't vibes, so...

-As for note length in the left hand, there should be about an eighth rest of space between each note (except for in the second half of measures 2, 6, and 8 ). So, essentially, every one of those dotted quarter notes should be a quarter note followed by an eighth rest. Normally, this wouldn't be such a big deal, but I think it does a lot to represent the contrast between the voices present in the original; the melody is held out for full value, and the bass is much more electronic, and so it cuts off sharply. Of the criticisms I'm making, this is probably one of the less important ones, but I think it'd definitely help make the arrangement sound more like the original.

-Measures 9-12...ooh, that's a fun one to translate to piano. While there's definitely an A, I don't think there's a B in the original, so I'd take that out. Then, I'd move the A down an octave, because having it on top gets rid of the notion that E is the primary focus. Also, make sure all of the note lengths are the same. Just because something lands on a downbeat and has nothing after it doesn't mean it should be a quarter note; specificity in note length is important. In other words, those hits should all be eighth notes.

-Leading into measure 13, I'm 99% certain there's no F# in the original. HOWEVER, I think that it works very nicely for the arrangement. I don't have a correction to make there, I just thought that was nice

-I'm pretty sure that grace note in measure 16 is G natural, not G flat.

-Measures 13-20, it sounds pretty empty. Granted, it's hard to replicate a lot of this song without the percussion, but there is a bassline that you could put in. Rather than type it all out, I've gone ahead and put it into a .mus file. I also moved up the eighth notes in octaves to the next octave up, to allow for that bassline.

[close]

I actually went ahead and put all these changes into a .mus file (except for the clef change) because why not. So, this entire thing has basically been me telling you what changes I put into the .mus file, in case you agree with and want to keep them
Here's the file.

Oh, one edit I didn't make, your file name and arrangement title don't match up. Not that this is an issue, but make sure that you have the correct name as the actual title, if you haven't already.

[Sebastian]

Thanks.
I will get to work on that 

[Sebastian]

Can I kepp your copy and use it as mine or..

[FierceDeity]

Yeah of course, haha. I made that for you to use however you want just make sure you actually agree with the changes I made before you keep them

[Sebastian]

Ok
I can't open that finale file. Could you give me a PDF please?

[FierceDeity]

I was about to tell you to get notepad 2012, but then I realized you wouldn't be able to change clefs in that (at least, not to my knowledge).

Here you go.

[Sebastian]

Man, Im terrible 
I totally agree with all these changes.  Thank You

[FierceDeity]

Man, Im terrible 

No way, man. You're miles ahead of where I was at your age. A couple more years of musical experience, and you'll be golden. It just takes practice, haha. Three years ago, I didn't even know that this site existed, let alone how to arrange for it, so you've already got a huge head start in the right direction. And that's not even saying that your arrangements are just good "for your age". Your arrangements are good, period. Paper mario music is just difficult as fuck I'm sure that a lot of people on this site could do a better job than I can on it. But yeah, don't put yourself down so much; you're doing great, so keep at it

I totally agree with all these changes.  Thank You

And you're very welcome

[spitllama]

I can't seem to listen to the MUS here. It says "Missing VST Instrument Plug-In: Aria Player"

Am I the only one experiencing this? Both MLF and Fierce's versions give me this.

[Jompa]

go to the MIDI-tool-thing on the top line (if you're using mac (idk where it is on Windows)) and choose it to play through whichever isn't the one it's currently set on ("MIDI" or "Audio Units")

[Sebastian]

No way, man. You're miles ahead of where I was at your age. A couple more years of musical experience, and you'll be golden. It just takes practice, haha. Three years ago, I didn't even know that this site existed, let alone how to arrange for it, so you've already got a huge head start in the right direction. And that's not even saying that your arrangements are just good "for your age". Your arrangements are good, period. Paper mario music is just difficult as fuck I'm sure that a lot of people on this site could do a better job than I can on it. But yeah, don't put yourself down so much; you're doing great, so keep at it

And you're very welcome

Thanks. I needed that

[SlowPokemon]

He's totally right. Make sure you keep arranging. Oh, and this is important: make sure you arrange music that you love. You'll only be motivated to get better.

[Sebastian]

Dont worry!
I won't quit arranging