I’ve finally come back to “Stand Your Ground”- this is an initial recording to gauge where I’m at, but this isn’t a blind sightread since I have worked a bit on this piece before. With that said, it’s been well over a year since I’ve touched this, so my memory is foggy at best.. and a warning that the audio is just phone audio, I never know how long these first videos will take so I just opt for phone-only recordings.

Detailed Analysis

The opening phrase is aggressive right off the bat; I’m going to need to work on powering through the sixteenths cleanly and then directly stretching into the RH octave chord. The LH is relatively simple, thankfully, so it’s easier to focus on the RH. I’ve clearly forgotten the fingering at 0:20 for the first half of the phrase, while the second half came back to me in a sudden burst at 0:32. I was able to play this part pretty well before, so it’s physically possible.. the LH is also difficult due to the jumping octaves, but it feels SO good when I nail it.

0:41 begins the “quieter” part of the piece; the LH continues to be simple octaves in a driving rhythm consistently while the RH is going ham with voicing and supporting notes. The simplicity of the LH really frees up my mental bandwidth for focusing on the gymnastics my RH is going through.. this section was definitely written for hands bigger than mine so some of the jumps and twists and turns are hard to navigate. One particular jump I’m already fearing is from middle C at 1:11 up to the 4 5 interval.. I really hate deviating from written score, but I may bump that middle C up an octave to reduce the jump.

The tension escalates a bit at 2:05, and the LH begins to ramp up. I love the ascending bass line in the LH at 2:05, but the jump for the F interval is Bad for my hand.. I’ll have to practice that jump for sure. The LH at 2:21 is also terrible ergonomically; the interval is WAY too big for my hand, and there’s really no comfortable way around it. 2:34 presents a similar challenge, but luckily the hand shape is a lot easier to work with. RH continues to have voicing + supporting notes, with the rhythm changing up a bit in the melody.

We return to the phrase from 0:41 at 2:48, though it’s supposed to be a little louder this time around. 3:14 is also similar to the previous section, just an octave lower, and the arpeggios are a little different but the chords are the same. Arguably, this permutation is a little easier on my RH since the range is smaller. It’s a pain having to maneuver so much, but I’m pretty sure it’ll look sick once I have it down pat, so I’m looking forward to that.

3:57 is one of the main reasons I wanted to learn this piece- it’s not obvious at this tempo, but with the LH going rapid-fire sixteenth notes and the RH introducing the main melody/theme, it sounds SO cool!! However, I’m already anticipating a lot of physical challenges for this section in the LH because you can already see my hand swinging side to side a lot at this tempo.. I’m considering using a 2 1 5 fingering at 4:10 instead of 1 2 5, but that would involve switching fingering really, really quickly.. it’s a work in progress. I’m already crying over 4:16 because sure it’s a descending scale, but there’s a slight gap at 4:22 and AT TEMPO this will.. be very difficult to pull off. I DIDN’T DO MY HANON AND IT SHOWS Exhibit #135431.

The LH goes ham from 4:30 while the RH gets to chill out with some bangin’ (but easier) octaves for the melody. The good news is that the LH is a really simple pattern, which is why I was able to remember it so much and play it decently compared to the rest of this trainwreck lol. However, the challenge is definitely going to be getting a clean sixteenth note rhythm along with even playing and of course, dealing with the jumps (these arrangers.. they don’t play around, ever). The LH introduces a different pattern around 4:52, and the fingering might be a little awkward at tempo, but I think it’s doable. Hopefully. And finally, we end the phrase and I struggle at 5:14 in the RH because I cannot reach the octave chord and am trying to figure out which notes need to come out.. same thing at 5:30 omg LOL this is…… a very accurate depiction of what I spend my time doing when I encounter octave chords I can’t play……

5:36 is supposed to be really Cool and Fierce with the rapid sixteenth octaves split between the LH and RH and the dramatic bass chords. I underestimated this part because I was like “lol just one note per hand, easy” but I was wrong.. I’ll need to put in time to figure out optimal fingerings for each hand.

We hit the actual quiet part at 6:18, with the melody returning to what we heard at 0:41. I think I should alternate fingers for the LH? I really don’t know.

7:12 leads us into one of the phrases I fear most; it’s short in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a lot of angst I see in my future. This book frickin’ loves their polyrhythms and I appreciate them, but some of these jumps in the RH are pretty bad lol. I do look forward to the challenge with the voicing, though; it’s always super satisfying to properly learn polyrhythm sections. You can see an example of me trying to find a more ergonomic but also more unconventional fingering in the LH at 8:15. I don’t know if it’ll work there yet.. More experimentation at 8:36, this time for the RH. I think I’ll have to jump for the first two chords but should be able to eke out the last two. I was so preoccupied with my RH I honestly don’t know how bad the LH is in terms of feasibility (or lack thereof). We will find out.

9:07 is another reason I wanted to learn this piece; you can probably recognize the Dramatic Chords similar to the ones in “Gods Bound by Rules” (haha we’ll, uh.. we’ll come back to it someday). At tempo, the chords sound so dark and dramatic, and honestly, I just really love the melody, too. Reviewing my footage, though.. there sure are a lot of jumps for my LH lol. RH continues doing its thing at 9:40 while LH goes off again with the sixteenths pattern from before. It’s not too bad at this tempo, but with the RH octave chords requiring my attention, I wonder how I’ll balance the LH’s own jumps between each sequence.

We launch back into those split octaves at 10:35 and this time I seem to remember more than before. I also knew I was on the last page and was like LET’S GOOOOOOOO lol. I then hit the only rapid octave ascending phrase in the RH in this piece at 11:00 and immediately started doing a sanity/reality check. Looks feasible now, I guess.. definitely better than where I was before, which is nice. The final phrase is a bunch of RH octave chords with accented phrasing which will stress my hand out if I’m not careful, but I think it’s physically possible, so.. we’ll work at it. And the last bit is deceivingly written; looks so easy on paper but actually is quite hard to execute with the proper “oomph” factor. I want it to be like.. a thunderous conclusion.

Overview & Anticipated Challenges

Given that I’ve already read through the piece before, I do have the advantage of needing to spend a little less time deciphering notes, but I think the pure technical challenge of the piece will more than make up for it. I actually think this is the easiest battle theme of the book for me, so if I can at least get this one done, then I’ll have a lot more confidence going back to “Veiled in Black” (which I left at about 70% completion once upon a time).. and maybe.. MAYBE.. “Omnis Lacrima”.. but I feel like it’ll have to wait until I get my custom keyboard for smaller hands lol. Too many octaves, man..

I’ve been playing a lot of “easier” pieces lately, and I definitely tricked myself into thinking I’m okay at this piano thing. The answer is that no, I’m not okay at this piano thing (yet). This arrangement is full of technique-heavy phrases.. Since I don’t have any technical foundation, I think my best bet is to just take this piece slow and really thoroughly learn each section, even though it’s going to really take discipline and patience.. but I think it’ll be worth it.

Luckily, while this arrangement has plenty of octaves, I am spared from rapid RH octaves by the grace of God Himself aside from that one little phrase near the end, which I think is workable. I do feel like my octave accuracy has improved a bit recently in my RH ever since learning “Nostalgia”, and given that octaves always give me so much grief, it’s a really satisfying feeling. “1000 Words” also helped, I think.

Probably one of the biggest challenges is going to be having to choreograph my RH through all of those crazy phrases, but the M within me is looking forward to the trials and tribulations. Hopefully I’ll get through this with minimal tears.

Realistically, I don’t think I can play this at tempo anytime soon and be self-satisfactory. I’ll probably take it a little slower as needed instead of trying to hide my messy LH behind a faster tempo. I can always come back to this once I level up in the future. I also will try my best not to put pressure on myself to learn this as fast as I can.. I’ll try to take it slow and learn everything properly. Really hope the end product will be cool.