[NES] Metal Gear - "Jungle Theme" by PetrifiedLasagna

[Zeta]

Submission Information:
Series: Metal Gear
Game: Metal Gear
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Title: Jungle Theme
Instrumentation Solo Piano
Arranger: PetrifiedLasagna

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[WandringMinstrel]

Good to see someone tackling Metal Gear, I love that soundtrack. I do have a couple suggestions, mostly just for the presentation:

I would strongly recommend modifying the larger chords (10ths and 11ths) so that they don't appear to be played in one hand: for example, moving the lower notes to the bottom staff to be played by the left hand.
I'm curious as to why you chose 3/4 for the metre, listening the song it feels more like 4/4 or similar.
Play around with what accidentals to use, there are places where flats might be more appropriate than sharps.
Finally, there are some general formatting fixes that could help clean the sheet up, but I'll let you and/or a mod work that out; I don't claim to be an expert on NSM's style guide.

Beyond the presentation, the sheet seems pretty accurate note to note. Keep it up!

[PetrifiedLasagna]

Good to see someone tackling Metal Gear, I love that soundtrack. I do have a couple suggestions, mostly just for the presentation:

I would strongly recommend modifying the larger chords (10ths and 11ths) so that they don't appear to be played in one hand: for example, moving the lower notes to the bottom staff to be played by the left hand.
I'm curious as to why you chose 3/4 for the metre, listening the song it feels more like 4/4 or similar.
Play around with what accidentals to use, there are places where flats might be more appropriate than sharps.
Finally, there are some general formatting fixes that could help clean the sheet up, but I'll let you and/or a mod work that out; I don't claim to be an expert on NSM's style guide.

Beyond the presentation, the sheet seems pretty accurate note to note. Keep it up!

Thanks for the feedback. I actually import songs with NSFImport, which is a modified version of Fami Tracker, so I can make sure it is accurate. As for the 3/4 time signature, I am not sure why I chose it now  . I remember listining to the beginning of the song and writing out the first notes in "eigth, eigth, half" and thinking that the next measure should be there.

As for the larger cords do you mean the ones like these?

[WandringMinstrel]

Ah, that explains it. I don't use those types of programs myself, but I can understand the utility.
I'm actually talking about the large 10th/11ths in the top staff. Playing those kinds of intervals in one hand is pretty unfeasible for most people, and it looks like the left hand is free to take the lower note in most of those situations.

[PetrifiedLasagna]

Oh, okay. I know what you mean now. I'll will update it shortly.

[PetrifiedLasagna]

Okay, well that's all done. I also made it more complient with the standard format. Just a quick note, for those that download the PDF version, the 'red' notes are the ones that are hanging notes that look like the following.

[PetrifiedLasagna]

Fixed a few notation problems and renamed to "Jungle Theme" which seems to be a recurring name for videos

[PetrifiedLasagna]

Updated. Fixed some notes to enhance readability, and now has a 4/4 time signature, although I still was not able to get around the weird placement of the Dal Segno. This is due to the fact that the NES could jump from any part of a song to any other part.

[Maelstrom]

Great arrangement! Idk if you're still around, but I'll give you feedback anyway.
-First, off, that chord in m9 (RH) is a aug(or dim, in this case) 10th (or 11th). This is unplayable, and I'd recommend adjusting the octaves to account for that. That, of course, also applies to m10, 16, and wherever impossible harmonies are that I missed. This should also get rid of the colliding stems in m10. In fact, just make 9+10 only one layer, as that second layer is extraneous. If you want the other hand to play it, put it in the other staff or add some sort of marking to indicate that.
-Make some of the short 16ths into staccatoed eights to clean it up, like in m9-15, 16,18,19, and anywhere I missed. THIS ONLY APPLIES WHERE THE 16TH IS FOLLOWED BY A 16TH REST AND THEY ARE ON THE SAME BEAT DIVISION. SO NOT M12 IN THE LH.
-Ah, yes. Note beaming. Whenever you have 2 dotted eighths followed by an eighth, you must make the beat visible. So, notate it as a dotted eighth, a 16th tied to an eighth, and an eighth.
-Hide all the 2nd layer rests in m15 (Use h when selecting them with the simple entry tool)
-In fact, hid a bunch of unnecessary second layer rests, like the whole one in m20, etc. Try to be consistent.
Finally, just use a fermata at the end instead of a held note for an extra measure.
Or, ask someone with a full version of finale to split the last measure into two 2/4 measures so you don't have a D.S. in the middle of a measure, which just feels wrong.

[PetrifiedLasagna]

Thanks for the feedback Maelstrom! I did my best to address all of the points that you made in your little review.

First, I completely removed the second layer altogether and just put it in the first layer an octave higher to make it playable. The only thing I noticed that this changes is that it feels a little less "echoey," but playability is much more important, and for the most part it is the same.

Second, I noticed that things became off measure after m18 and I realized that it was, because of a time change in m17. So I added a change to 3/4 time and then returned to standard time in m19. This is also what caused the D.S. to be in the middle of a measure, and I was able to remove that in favor of a normal repeat. So there was no need to change to 2/4 time. This also resulted in not having to split up my little extra outro into multiple measures and I just used a dotted half note for the final chord.

Finally, I tried for what seemed like the third or fourth time to try and place a key signature on this, but it is just so liberal with accidentals as well as naturals that getting rid of the accidentals would result in an equal number of natural symbols. So, I just used sharps for most of the sheet, but used flats if it would avoid creating unnecessary naturals.

I will definitely have to keep that one tip in mind, where I organize two dotted notes to show the beat.

Also, wow! November seems like so long ago. If you had even asked me what a fermata was, I would not have even known, but now I am making my own music using notepad 

[The Deku Trombonist]

.musx link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84117653/Assistance/Metal%20Gear%20-%20Jungle%20Theme.musx
Or if you use 2012, .mus link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84117653/Assistance/Metal%20Gear%20-%20Jungle%20Theme.mus

Things I fixed:
-Key signature. It's in G minor.
-Accidentals. All of them.
-The 3/4 section is now in 6/8, as it should be. I also filled in the missing notes in the bass line.
-The bottom note in the RH of bar 10, beat 2 is an E, not an A.
-Bits like bar 21 where you had a quaver (which falls on a beat) tied to semiquaver are much more readable when left as a dotted quaver (as Maelstrom said)
-The dynamics were confusing to read in bar 19-20
-It easily fits on 2 pages
-I was going to re-do bar 12 with some cross staffing because it was confusing, but I thought I'd put the correct notes in instead.

Things I haven't fixed:
-I'm not sure why the chords in the opening are written the way they are. That's not how it sounds, trust your ears more than a midi importer.
-I don't know what you want in bar 28 with the RH marking so I left it as is.
-I'm not totally convinced by the RH of bars 19-20 but eh, I guess it works.

[Maelstrom]

Uhh, not to bug you, but what is that eighth=eighth supposed to do?

[Latios212]

It indicates that the tempo is staying the same even though the time signature's changing (instead of writing a new tempo marking using dotted quarter)

[PetrifiedLasagna]

Updated.

I made a few changes to your file Deku, which is by the way very much appreciated. I decided to give do a quick comparison with the original song and made some adjustments.

-bottom Half/quarter note raised an octave in the intro (i.e. the Bb and A)
-m19-20 the left hand now plays whole notes instead fading quarter notes.
-All volume markings except for the initial were removed.
-m25-27 left hand plays octave chords for the high notes. In the original song, despite going so high, these sounded even louder.
-m28 right hand has some sixteenths played in time with the left hand.
-all LH/RH markings were removed since both hands always had something to be doing

My only concern is m28 being unplayable since the left hand plays the rising chords AND goes up one full octave while doing so. I am not much of a judge on playability, so what are your opinions on it?

It indicates that the tempo is staying the same even though the time signature's changing (instead of writing a new tempo marking using dotted quarter)

I was actually going to ask the same question as Maelstrom, although I had a hunch that it was something along that line.

As of right now I only updated the MUS file

[Olimar12345]

It indicates that the tempo is staying the same even though the time signature's changing (instead of writing a new tempo marking using dotted quarter)

Just to clarify, it means that the eighth notes are staying consistent between the two time signatures.

8 = 8

"the eighth notes in this time signature are of the same duration as the eighth notes in this new time signature."