Rikku’s Theme #1

This may not come as a surprise, but I haven’t really been playing anything of substance lately… I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to stick with one piece for more than a few days. I also just haven’t really been playing piano consistently in general… But, I woke up yesterday morning and for some reason this piece just popped into my head so I went to play it- surprisingly, it’s coming pretty easily to me so I’m hoping I can finish this properly. (If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said this…)

Detailed Analysis

The opening phrase is not super exciting, though there is some voicing opportunity in the first half so that’s always fun. I’ll need to work more on refining this section and making sure that the LH is clean while the RH is well-balanced both within itself and with the LH.

The melody starts at 0:16 and we have some staccato bits intermixed with pedaled parts, which is never my favorite thing to play (because it requires a level of coordination I don’t always have right away lol), but a necessary evil… luckily, this part isn’t too complex. We have a more legato section with plenty of slurs and rolled chords from 0:24. One challenge is to ensure that the RH melody is playing on time while also rolling the chords into them open enough. I don’t like crunching rolls personally. The phrase from 0:24 to 0:36 is the reason I wanted to learn this piece. Something about the chords are just so pleasing to listen to…

We have another “filler” section similar to the opening at 0:37, though we shift down in preparation for the next section.

The melody repeats at 0:52, this time one octave lower and with a little more complexity. I am not sure why I struggled so hard in this take, but I still need to work on my overall coordination so it’s okay. While the first melody section had a simple one-note RH melody, this melody section now has the RH melody as well as supporting notes in the RH, ALONG WITH a mix of staccato and pedaling… so it’s more challenging. It’s honestly nothing crazy, but it is a new type of syncopation for me to work on. Another legato section appears at 1:02, except we have arpeggios in the LH which span ninths and tenths so I’m doing some crossover action. I played the wrong bottom note in the RH interval at 1:10 (AND I DO IT AGAIN LATER) so that sucks, but I’ll make sure to learn it correctly lol.

And then yet another “filler” section from 1:21. The written score just adds a quarter note interval in the LH on the 4th beat, but the official piano recording kinda pops off with a more bossa nova-ish rhythm, so I’ve tried to do the same. I feel like it’s a lot more interesting than the quarter note half note quarter note written rhythm, and since this section recurs so frequently, it adds a new dimension to it. I KEEP playing Eb at 1:34, I don’t know why.

1:42 is kind of a melody section, though there’s a little bit of a variation happening to keep things fresh. The variation repeats at 1:51 and I haven’t actually practiced this part, so I was just slowly sightplaying; it’s a fun little bit with both hands moving at a relatively fast velocity within the context of this arrangement. And then another filler section as we transition to the final part of the arrangement…

We return to the melody at 2:22 (NO I misplayed another note SIGH) which is really similar to one of the previous melody sections, and then we finish the piece with one final filler section. The official recording repeats this last filler section so I’m not sure whether I’ll do the same… as a side note, it is interesting to listen to the official recordings and pick out the little interpretations that were added!

Current Thoughts

Considering I’ve only spent one (1) day on this, I’m pretty happy with the progress made. There’s nothing particularly hard about the arrangement, but I want to try and make it as clean as I can. Biggest things to look out for will be the use of staccato vs. tenuto/pedaling as well as keeping the tempo up throughout the piece.

This is a piece I’ve sightread a few times over the years, but I never committed to actually learning it, particularly because of the larger arpeggios that appear in the LH. This was YEARSSS ago, though, so now I have a lot more experience with that kind of pattern, which is gratifying. I should probably also just buy the FFX piano book at this point… ironically, the pieces I’ve learned from it aren’t in the larger compilation book I have lol.

I think this piece has a really cheerful and easygoing vibe, which matches well with Rikku’s character; I think this arrangement could be a stepping stone for another similar arrangement, but we’ll see…