Musique pour la tristesse de Xion #1.5

The Animal Crossing update literally took over my life so I finally am here to update with some older takes from this month- this one is for Xion’s theme, and I’m not really sure how to number it because I worked on it a LOT in the past (right before starting a blog) so it’s not quite like I’m starting from scratch… Anyway, this is a take from a couple of weeks ago after I spent some time knocking the rust off after almost 3 years. My goal for this year was to finish this piece properly (this was before I lost an entire quarter to Depression and other fun things) and I guess I’m on track to meeting that goal?? But I’m also not going to stress myself over a deadline; we’ll see how things go.

Detailed Analysis

So I did learn probably 85% of this piece back in early 2019- there were a couple of bars in “A” that scared me off, and then at the time I didn’t actually own the book so I was working off scans of dubious quality so I just started to lose motivation as I hit the last part of the piece lol. ANYWAY now I own the book proper and so I’ve been tackling this piece since I finished “Yuna’s Determination” last month.

This opening phrase is super delicate and I still need to work on the ~fragility~ of it. (This is a recurring issue in that the opening phrases of anything I learn are usually sightplayable and therefore I am not terribly motivated to Try Very Hard…) I went way too slow in this take since I was still relearning, but I still remember learning the chords starting at 0:25 and being intimidated by the RH chord at 0:38 due to the awkward shape; it still is kind of hard to play cleanly, but I think I’ve found just the right angle where I can play it more confidently.

“A” starts at 0:50 and I CLEARLY remember spending an entire evening on the first four bars of it LOL and by the end of it I could only play it very slowly… it’s so dense. It’s sextuplets in the RH, and sixteenth notes in the LH, so per bar it’s literally 40 notes to learn!! I’m really glad past me practiced this part rather rigorously because I had to spend minimal time relearning most of this section. I definitely need to soften some of the accented notes in the RH for voicing because some just sound downright harsh, but I guess it’ll be easier to tone it down rather than try to bring them out. The jump at 1:06 is getting worse in accuracy the more I play it for some reason… The two bars from 1:21 to 1:26 are literally one of the main reasons I gave up on learning this piece the first time around. In retrospect, it is not even remotely that bad so I don’t know what I was so scared of… yes, it looks mildly scary on paper but ?????? I guess at least this means I’ve improved a bit since then? Hopefully??? No idea why I missed the note at 1:30, embarrassing!!!

The next section from 1:36 is one of my favorites, even though I’m not very good at it lol. The continuous “trill” in the RH is difficult to play evenly, but I think I do a great job with the voicing around it. The phrase at 1:40 is one of the reasons I wanted to learn this piece! The broken tenth in the LH at 1:50 is worlds smoother now than it was back in 2018/2019; I’ve gotten some practice in on other pieces by now. 1:53 is another reason I wanted to learn this piece; the LH melody is just chef’s kiss, man. Still need to work on the voicing when the hands switch around at 2:02, and overall I played this section (and most of the piece) way too fast. I had also not learned 2:05 correctly the first time AKA I ignored which hands should play what and I think I just had the LH play everything LOL but this time I’ve learned the switches properly. I guess it is easier to play.

I remembered the section at 2:08 very well, for whatever reason. Probably the section that I remembered most out of everything. There’s a lot of flowy phrasing that goes between both hands, and it sounds pretty clunky in this take… I’ve been working on it since this recording to make it smoother. I also was pleasantly surprised that the RH octaves at 2:20 come a lot easier than they did before, with better accuracy. The brief interjection of Kairi’s theme at 2:23 still gmfu, and the RH at 2:25 is very difficult to play accurately with all the octave chords… AND the LH is going absolutely ham with arpeggios using awkward shapes. The good news is that I also played this section faster than I plan to now, so I should gain some leeway. Definitely can improve the flow of the closing arpeggio between both hands.

Next is another favorite section of mine from 2:31; it is so dark and dramatic (relative to the previous sections) and you know how I feel about that kind of energy!! The continuous arpeggios build a lot of tension as the melody gets voiced between both hands, and is relatively sparse while the arpeggios continue to pop off in the background. In this take I had a bad habit of accenting the top notes of the RH arpeggios, but I’ve been trying to fix it since then. And, again, I played way too fast here, so slowing it down helps to fix a lot of the issues in this take. The RH melody voiced in the thumb at 2:36 is another reason I wanted to learn this piece. And the phrase at 2:45 is probably THE main reason I wanted to learn this piece, and is my favorite phrase in the entire arrangement to play. The way the RH takes over the melody with the full octave chords as the LH then plays lower register arpeggios is just SO!!! GOOD!!! I have practiced the LH here to make sure I don’t “slip” through the arpeggios; I’m used to playing this faster so I think I got into the habit of just sliding through instead of respecting the rhythm strictly. Again, slowing down helps this issue. The LH arpeggio at 2:52 is one of the hardest parts of this arrangement for me; the arpeggio shape is SO awkward for my LH, but this is the peak of the phrase so I cannot afford to slow down and lose any momentum, AND I have to jump down for the next arpeggio accurately and in time to continue the phrase. There’s just a lot riding on that arpeggio but I think it’s sounding better than when I first learned this piece, at least.

The last section I included in this take is from 3:01; I slowed it WAAYYY down because I had to relearn the fingering for this section. The first time, I had given all the supporting intervals to the LH, while the RH just chilled with the melody, but then when I was studying the arrangement this time, I realized that the arranger probably wants me to split those chords between both hands and then voice out the melody in the RH. So, I learned it that way and I gotta say it’s probably for the best since the tempo will kick up to 72 bpm and these are triplets so it’s pretty brisk. The way I first learned it looked badass for the LH since it jumped so rapidly, but it's probably less practical. Tragic. Big fan of the phrase at 3:22, which is the same part of the melody as 2:52. And then I hit one of the final sections which is where I stopped learning the first time, and I ended here, too.

Current Thoughts

All things considered, it’s actually pretty amazing how much I still remembered through muscle memory. I guess the main challenge with that though is that I have to fight to unlearn the more noob playing habits from back then. It helps that I don’t have to learn many notes- I didn’t realize that this piece has like 3 different key signature changes… maybe more… so many flats, man.

I also just really, really, REALLYYYYY love this arrangement. I think it’s my favorite arrangement I’ve learned so far, in my life… which is saying something. It’s a lot of fun with the different sections, and also the melody is just super bittersweet and emotional and beautiful and I think of the sea salt trio and I just get even MORE emotional… yeah.

Anyway, since this take, I’ve learned the rest of the notes and am now working on the whole piece. I could maybe post an update with the sped up and improved triplet section through the end, or maybe just an overall take for progress… we’ll see. Definitely going to be at least a three-part series, if we include the final take.