Those Who Fight #0
I’m finally starting “Those Who Fight” from FFVII properly after MONTHS- there are a lot of sacrifices I have to make and live with because in all honesty, I really am not suited to play this with my hand size, but I REALLY WANT TO TRY IT ANYWAY!! This sightplay take is from May 2020… I actually bought this book specifically because it has this arrangement and I couldn’t find the FFVII piano collections book for a reasonable price for years, but I actually just found a copy of it for a good price recently? So I got it. But… still glad I got the best of book since it has a bunch of pieces from other FF books I don’t plan to buy. Anyway!! Onto “Those Who Fight”. I’m not going to review the entire video in a ton of detail because it’s over 20 minutes long (hence the “#0”), but I do want to write out my thoughts before I start posting progress.
Detailed Analysis
The opening phrase isn’t too bad- the trickiest part will be the accents, as well as the LH which spans a ninth with the descending D C# C bass line in the intervals (0:19). I also straight up misread one of the notes in the LH LOL but I’ve since fixed it, don’t worry. After the bombastic opening, we transition into some smoother eighth notes and chord progressions before entering the Famous buildup from 1:36. So this phrase will recur over and over and over again, which is good from a practice standpoint, but the LH is pretty problematic from the start. I’ll have to stretch for almost every sequence in the LH, and for several in the RH.. the ninths are probably somewhat doable since I’ve played similar patterns in the past, but I’m most worried about the LH at 2:16 and RH at 2:11- the LH is A HUGE STRETCH for ninths and tenths and will be FAST, and RH is rapid triplets with 3 5 intervals… fast. And the second interval is kinda big for my 3 5 fingers so… pray for me. I might omit the intervals, but even just the jump for the pinky without the interval is tough!
Lots of repetitive sequences in this phrase; 3:00 returns many times in that general form, and while the staccato intervals are probably fine, I’m worried about the RH octave sixteenths at 3:06 while the LH is supposed to take the melody??? IN OCTAVES???? Actually, I’m also worried about the straight octaves in the RH lol. I’m just worried in general. There are lots of little arpeggios sprinkled in here and there which alarm me, but… we’ll worry about them when we cross that bridge.
6:09 transitions us into one of my favorite parts of this piece, but also one of the scariest!! It is just straight octaves in the RH for the melody, and it is really hard for me to play them clean because it is rapid octaves that are not right next to each other (can’t think of the word I wanted to use…). I feel like this phrase really marks a highlight in the piece, especially before we go into the “prettier” section at 7:40. All the triplets have a really dream-like quality for me, and I think the chord progressions and accidentals also help with that ethereal feel. We still have the main melody here, but with sixths this time, and we hear phrases from earlier woven in as we continue with the almost discordant melody.
9:52 marks another section with a nightmarish LH segment with the huge stretches, but I think if I can get one section with a similar pattern, it might be doable. Maybe. The part in the RH at 10:35 is going to sound and feel INCREDIBLE if I can ever get it at tempo. A huge arpeggio that resolves in a powerful octave… chef’s kiss. Then we segue into the next section-
We see a new section at 11:18, though it still feels familiar because it uses the same chords as the buildup phrase from 3:00. LH is constant eighth note octaves that continue to drive while the RH is sixths galore. There are octaves in the RH occasionally, but I get an extra eighth note worth of time to stretch, so I think I’ll make them. Lots of repetition here, too, so once I can learn the basics, I should be okay.
The part at 13:00 is brief but really cool! I love the powerful intervals in the RH before the buildup at 13:19. Another potentially cool arpeggio in the RH at 13:34 before we come back to a permutation of the soothing eighth note sequence from the beginning of the piece. But this time we go through some different chord progressions before we hit a DEL SIGNO (it’s been a HOT minute since I saw one of these) and go back to the beginning at 3:00… then to the CODA at 16:59. We have a very cool dramatic LH part at 17:16 before we see some backwards RH arpeggios that are already giving me nightmares, and more preposterous LH stretching, and then we slowly change chords as we repeat the same small phrase a few times.
19:43 brings us closer to the end, as we return to the form from 11:18 briefly before we have Dramatics and then MORE arpeggios… and we return to the main melody from the very beginning of the piece one last time. I’m gonna be honest, like 40% of the reason I want to learn this piece is because of the LH at 21:40 LOL. The ascending octaves bass line in the LH is just SO DAMN COOL, especially at this moment as we’re right at the end, and this section is supposed to be played ACCEL!!! And the ending will be so satisfying once I learn it properly… I love powerful endings that strike the keys.
Current Thoughts
This piece is a decent length, but it goes by FAST with the written tempo being presto. I won’t be able to play this at presto on a normal-sized keyboard without actually causing injuries, but I’m hoping to at least be able to achieve a moderately fast tempo. I’m also considering stitching together multiple takes for the first time ever- I’m very much a one-take kinda person, but I honestly don’t know if I have the stamina to get through this in one take and come out the other end in one piece LOL. But I feel like trying to stitch multiple takes may have its own obstacles, so we’ll see.
I think this arrangement would be plenty challenging even with bigger hands, so it’s honestly quite daunting to try and take this on. BUT, I’ve really wanted to try learning this because it’s one of my favorite battle themes ever, and this arrangement especially is really near and dear to me. It already kills me knowing how many sacrifices I’m going to have to make with tempo, as well as potentially omitting or substituting some notes if the stretch ends up being too severe at faster tempos, but hopefully it’ll build character. And stamina.