Shadowlord #1
I wanted to update this blog before we enter December so here I am, frantically typing away on a Monday night lol. It’s been a while!! I was just generally in a slump for the past several weeks and I wasn’t in any mental headspace to record myself, much less update this blog.. I also didn’t have the drive to pursue any pieces properly, as evidenced by the last couple of posts here (we’ll call them hit and runs).
But here I am with “Shadowlord” from the Nier series, which I haven’t played (what’s new). I’ve already learned the whole piece so I think the next video will also be the last for this one. Anyway, we’re back to my roots with this one: dark, dramatic, and bittersweet. It’s a pretty rough take by my standards, but I’ve already made so much progress that I wanted to get a recording up (from two days ago) before I polished it any further.
Detailed Analysis
This piece has a predictable structure, which I actually prefer, though it includes a ton of tempo changes, which is the trickier part of the piece for me. “Shadowlord” features a melody prominently, which we start with in a quiet opening (at 55 bpm); it’s supposed to be piano here, but.. I didn’t do such a great job at this point lol. The opening RH chord is a little big for my hand so I have less control, then the second chord at 0:03 is played with the meat of my RH thumb since I can’t reach that chord with just my fingers. It’s a trick I picked up when learning Noct’s theme way back when. This piece also has a lot of those descending bass lines that I adore; the first one appears around 0:07 in the LH.
The next section at 0:34 embellishes the melody we just heard but with a lot more motion and a deeper register. We’re supposed to be at 64 bpm here but I didn’t quite hit the mark- was a little fast. LH is generally also just too loud here.. Ignore the hiccup at 0:58 and then we get to hear the “B” section of the melody at 1:00, which is my favorite part of the piece!! It also took over two solid hours of me just playing through these 8 bars over.. and over.. and over again because it’s quite the mental gymnastic but it’s so rewarding when I nail it. LH has some bigger jumps like the tenth at 1:03, but the tempo is slow enough that it’s not really an issue (+ I was actually playing too fast here). The phrase at 1:26 with the rapid stringendo arpeggio in the RH actually was the one thing that made me worry that I wouldn’t be able to learn this piece, but with some practice, I managed to learn the arpeggio decently!! I think I took the stringendo too fast here, actually- I’ve been trying to introduce a more gradual accel in more recent practice. The arpeggio leaves much to be desired, but considering it was a little big for my hand, and I never learned my arpeggios in these 25 years of life, I’m pretty happy with my progress!! I do wish I took a day one video of this part, though. It was so sad LOL. The following descending C major arpeggio was a lot easier physically.
*fermata as written for dramatic effect and great place for a page turn* And then 1:44 takes us back down to 55 bpm, which is the same as the beginning of the piece. We’re introduced to a different melody here; this section feels grittier to me, maybe because of the generally lower register? It’s supposed to be quieter before I go up an octave, but I’m workin’ on it. I have some heartache over the bigger octaves not sounding clean when they’re “straining” chords, but I really hate to throw away notes when I know I can physically play them.. even if it physically pains me lol. With enough practice, I could probably improve the chords enough that I won’t cringe as much. Hopefully.
We hit the climax of the piece at 2:22; bpm jumps to 67, which is the fastest bpm we see throughout the entire piece. I took it WAY too fast here; I played closer to 72 bpm… I’ve been working on tempo control since recording this take. This section is supposed to be the one with the most impact in terms of dynamics, but I didn’t do a great job in this take of differentiating the various sections. Something else I’m working on! I really like playing the melody in the RH with all the octaves; it just feels so dramatic, you know?? It’s one of those sections that make me move a lot while playing.. though none of it is recorded at this angle haha. (Probably for the better LOL.) I’d just learned this section the day of the take, so I fumbled a few times, oh well. I love the little phrase in the RH at 2:50, and then we slowly peter out to yet one more.. arpeggio.. the RH chord at 2:53 also needs work because I use my thumb to hit both the G and Ab. Small hand life, baybee!!
I played too fast for this last section from 2:59; should be the slowest at 50 bpm. This part always reminds me of a music box with the higher register. Again, it should be piano, but I really didn’t do a great job LOL. In general, this take was pretty much from the moment I was able to somewhat play the entire thing together.. so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad about not much polish. I hadn’t really learned the section at this point; it’s easy enough to sightplay so a lot of the rolled chords sound really chunky and gross in this take, please forgive me.
(I FORGOT TO EDIT OUT THE END OF THE VIDEO LOLLLLLLLLLLL WHOOPS sorry about that lads it’s been a hot minute)
Current Thoughts
This piece hasn’t been that difficult, relative to other pieces I’ve learned- the biggest challenges are the tempo changes, voicing/dynamics, and keeping the constant sixteenth notes precise. The constant sixteenths are somewhat challenging physically since both of my hands are basically moving nonstop, but I find that kind of challenge very enjoyable to take on and conquer. As I said before, it’s a lot of mental gymnastics with the physical leaps, voicing, and having to stay in line with the other sixteenth notes, but it’s been fun.
Even in the past two days since this take, I’ve already made a lot of improvement for musicality, so I think a week or so more would be enough to help me reach a decent take before closing this one out.