Vimara Village #1

WOOOOOOW I’m finally feeling a little more like myself in terms of playing piano which is amazing!!!! I’ve been working on the nighttime version of Vimara Village from “Genshin Impact”- this one is dedicated to my mom because while I was just flipping through a bunch of different pieces, she was like “hey that one piece you were practicing sounded nice, why don’t you keep working on it” and I was like ok. I first gave up on this arrangement early on because I was super discouraged by a specific section… but somehow I overcame it?? More below- and this one has two videos in one since I made so much progress in 24 hours I wanted to capture it.

Detailed Analysis

The beginning phrase is very peaceful with lots of ornaments (though there are many ornaments throughout the arrangement). Honestly the beginning phrase isn’t that exciting to play and it’s actually a little challenging due to all the space and intervals required… trying to work on holding down the notes where needed but I also can’t really hear a difference so idk. But this phrase sets the stage for the rest of the arrangement since this melody comes back later, so it’s important!! Something that I’ve been working on in general throughout the entire arrangement is the syncopation at 0:13 in the RH; it’s two beats split into dotted eighth note - dotted eighth note - eighth note. I think I learned the syncopation incorrectly at first, so it was a bit of unlearning and then also just figuring out what the heck this rhythm sounds like… although the arrangement OP also seems to play around with the syncopation pretty liberally, so I’m just doing my best.

Next is where the arrangement begins to pick up with the melody at 0:48; at first, the rhythm on paper had me like WHOAAWHOAWHOA but actually it’s not that bad lol. I really like practicing this part since there’s some syncopation and the chord progressions are also nice! It’s difficult to play everything cleanly, especially the 32nd notes at 0:51 and so on, but I am doing my best. There are some ninths that I obviously can’t reach (0:58 and 1:01) so I’m breaking them quickly; luckily since there’re already so many ornaments and “swing” patterns, it kinda blends in.

One of the hardest parts of learning this piece so far was the relentless thirds for the second go-around from 1:08. Everyone knows I can’t play connected thirds which is okay since the arrangement actually has most of them disconnected in the critical spots, but it’s STILL HARD!! Sigh. I was really discouraged for a bit while working on these thirds, but I think they’re improving slowly. And I don’t have to think as hard about playing them anymore in terms of maneuvering- I really just need to focus on playing the thirds themselves cleanly. I like the moving bass line in the RH at 1:14. There’s a small ending phrase to close out this section and then we jump into the next part…

… at 1:30 which is the opening melody again except an octave higher. There’s, again, a lot of space, which provides some reprieve for the listener after the preceding denser syncopated section. I haven’t tried too hard for this section yet in terms of practicing, though I do need to work on voicing for the octaves vs. the “ornaments” in the RH from 1:51. The hardest part of this phrase is playing delicately, while also jumping up an entire octave with very little time… but not that bad once I practice it, I’m pretty sure. I also need to work on better synchronization between both hands when they’re playing the melody line together.

Okay, and then we reach the part at 2:16 that scared me off for several business days but I somehow managed to conquer a bit. I slowed way down because I was not ready to play at tempo lol. We return to the syncopated melody, except now on steroids because the RH is basically all octaves while the LH is popping off with arpeggios that have what I’ll call “mixed mode syncopation” aka it’s a mishmash of different rhythms. At first, I was very intimated because the LH is very mobile and the RH has frickin’ ORNAMENTS on top of the octaves!!! I was like HELLO!!! I can’t do this. But… even after just a single day, I made vast strides in playing more fluidly so that was super encouraging. It’s still not nearly as clean as I’d like, but given the physical barriers, I’m actually really happy with myself for being able to play it like this. The “polyrhythm” at 2:23 didn’t come out properly here; I’m playing triplet sixteenths in the LH and then the 32nds leading into the melody in the RH, so it’s tricky. I had to give up the ornaments in the RH at 2:36 because there is literally no physical way I will be playing those LOL, but it sounds okay without them. The triplet octave chords in the RH at 2:40 were worrisome on paper, but weirdly enough they’re almost easier to play than straight octaves. I think it’s because I have a “support” in the middle of the chords? Who knows. No idea why I accented the top D in the RH at 2:43, super rookie mistake on camera lol.

And then at 2:52 I added a recording from the next day because I was actually shocked at my own progress for this section. The two rhythms sound way better at 3:03 YAY and in general, I literally cannot believe how smooth it looks and sounds in this take lol. And side note, but the fast RH octaves at 2:56 give me anxiety but so far they’ve been coming out pretty clean. I’ll credit that to my improved octave accuracy… also surprised at how much easier the LH is than I was expecting. The bass octaves and subsequent jumps up concerned me, but it’s actually quite comfortable. All in all, this single 24-hour leap of improvement is probably the morale boost I needed to get through the rest of this piece.

Current Thoughts

I have once again picked up a Genshin arrangement without actually playing the game, but that’s okay. I think my favorite thing about this arrangement is the chord progressions! This melody actually doesn’t make me feel too bittersweet for once, but it’s more just soothing and peaceful.

This is rated a 3.5/5 on the arranger’s scale, which was also another intimidating factor at first- the hardest I’ve learned so far from this arranger is a 3/5, and I specifically remember spending a LOT of time on it. I forget which one it was… maybe “Tender Strength” (THE FEELS…). But, for some reason I feel like the learning process is going a lot smoother for this one? Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself. Above all, though, I’m just happy to be able to focus on learning something and experience that rewarding feeling of learning a difficult chunk and playing it nicely.

I’ve got a little under a page left to learn, and the LH scares me a little bit because it’s a lot of triplets with big leaps for me, but the RH luckily isn’t anything new, so I think I can do it. Maybe. Hopefully. Stay tuned to see if I manage to get through to the end!