TSUYOKU NARERU #1

Every time I think about this song in any capacity, I think of my sister suddenly belting the opening line randomly… this one’s for her. I don’t actually know if I’ll finish this arrangement anytime soon, but I have this recording from earlier this month so I figured I’d post it for now… Fukane arrangements are pretty fun, but the relentless octaves really do a number on my hands so it’s hard to keep at them consistently. Legit feels like I have nerve damage sometimes and it is downright terrifying LOL.

Detailed Analysis

The opening melody is very distinct… for the most part, I’m letting go of voicing for this arrangement for the sake of note accuracy + speed, but here I’m able to dedicate some attention to voicing. The phrase at 0:12 was very intimidating while sightplaying, but is actually very doable after learning the notes. Then the verse(? I don’t know anything) starts at 0:20 and the LH is very sparse!! Lots of space, and subsequently I can conserve a lot of energy. The syncopation is kind of tricky in some of these parts, like at 0:24, for whatever reason… but it sounds very smooth now, at least. I get tripped up at 0:32 often due to that same syncopation from 0:24 when practicing, and there are still some jumps in the LH throughout this section but overall, it’s very manageable.

Then the next section starts at 0:36- it actually sounds really smooth and nice despite not putting much time into it, and I got too big of a head and immediately lapsed at 0:47 LOL. That’s what I get for feeling smug while recording… literally was thinking “wow this section is so easy heh” and then proceeded to miss my notes *hand on face emoji* There are some RH octaves that slipped into the melody but at this tempo, it’s manageable. We return to the opening melody at 0:53, and then build up to the chorus and I cannot reach that chord at 1:05 so I roll it. We have a page turn and then—

We reach the chorus at 1:11, and it takes me a few bars to lock in the syncopation between both hands, but I get there. There are a lot of repeating notes in the RH, which are tricky at this tempo, not to mention that I am not even remotely familiar with repeating notes in general… but I think I’m making do for now. I really like the chord progression at 1:22, and I love the brief “reset” phrase at 1:26; the syncopation is really open compared to how dense the rest of the section is, and serves as a nice break physically before I have to go through it all over again lol.

And then I slow down from 1:28 because I’d just learned the notes and wasn’t feeling up to playing at the same tempo as the rest of the arrangement so far. The bit at 1:33 goes HARD (you know which one), and then we repeat things from 1:43… I actually hadn’t practiced the repeat which adds the eighth notes in the gaps in the LH, so I was just letting Jesus take the wheel, but it didn’t come out too bad in the recording, I guess. I stopped right before the intense part because it’s a lot of octaves and intervals and I wasn’t emotionally prepared to learn those notes yet (spoiler, I still haven’t learned them!!).

Current Thoughts

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not going to fuss over voicing or even how cleanly I play chords/intervals most of the time because I simply do NOT have the leisure to do so lol. Yes, the arrangement isn’t super difficult technically, but it does take almost 100% of my concentration just to hit all the right notes at tempo… and since this is an arrangement of a song (which is an absolute banger, might I add), I’m more willing to sacrifice ~*~musicality~*~ than I’d normally be. Basically, if I can make it sound like the song, I’m good with it. Not going to beat myself up over being unable to isolate certain fingers.

This arrangement is DEFINITELY easier than the Yoasobi one- now Fukane’s arranger note about the Yoasobi arrangement being the most difficult one in the book makes a little more sense. “Gurenge” is a lot easier in the sense that it’s way less dense… it still has a lot going on for sure, but the LH is pretty tame except for the chorus sections, and even then those are smaller jumps/intervals than the Yoasobi arrangement. Learning to this point was fun since this song is a bop and goes really hard lol. And the chord progressions SLAP!!

HOWEVER- I’ve been experiencing pain from my right pinky tip all the way down my forearm to my elbow, and the chiropractor said that’s probably my nerve (ulna??), so… planning to ease off the Fukane arrangements for now, unfortunately. And also from octave-heavy stuff overall… Not sure if it’s related at all to my playing or if it’s just my body in general giving out on me (both are equally probable), but I don’t want to exacerbate things any further if it IS due to piano, since that’s something I can somewhat control.

So, that being said, I don’t know when I’ll finish this, but I do want to eventually finish at least one Fukane arrangement someday, body permitting… figured I’d leave this up as a record of what I’ve covered so far!

(I have not read or watched KnY… but I know enough about the canon to qualify for this arrangement, I think. This one’s for my sister, yes, but it’s also for my mans Giyuu)