Where Love Doesn’t Reach #1
Woooo, I got this take on July 31 so it’s been a couple weeks, but wanted to post this before I finalize the piece (which is probably going to happen this month). This one was on my list for a longggg time, and I ended up caving and buying the book specifically for this arrangement!! (Though I have luckily found some other pieces in the book that I also want to learn lol.) I have not played FFIX, but ever since I first heard this arrangement, I have been VERY IN LOVE with it… more on that later.
Detailed Analysis
To preface, I will say that I had already sightplayed this multiple times before buying the book; the scans I found online weren’t that great, so I could never really read all the notes easily, but it was enough to make out the bulk of the notes. So, this is a not a true “First Impressions” post… since I didn’t start practicing this completely cold. The last section, however, was fairly new since the scans were super potato for those pages lol. Also, this piece is fairly sightplayable anyway, so it’s not like I got that much of a head start… but worth mentioning for my own records.
The opening section introduces the melody right off the bat, and the biggest thing in this section is definitely voicing. I already goofed four seconds in since I’m supposed to play that B in the RH instead of LH, but it’s fine. Also didn’t play the quarter note triplets very accurately right after that… but I also don’t want to play them too rigidly since this whole piece is pretty expressive. Voicing brings out the top notes in the RH at 0:07, and same deal at 0:13.. and 0:18ish (making sure the RH thumb doesn’t accent is always on my mind here) and 0:22. Oh lordie I botched those ornaments at 0:28 in the RH but it’s okay!!! Those are interesting since typically ornaments go from bottom to top but these drop down the octave. Then the melody repeats, this time with a slight variation at 0:38. The LH part at 0:45 was actually not super sightplayable so I had to put some practice into that spot. For the most part, this section is very easy note-wise, but the voicing still needs work… also, I need to go back and figure out which notes to hold down and all that jazz. I’ve been very lazy about that…
Next section from 0:55 uses my least favorite consecutive thirds in the RH as we enter a “B” section. Least favorite because I’m BAD at them lol. I am still working on voicing for the RH top notes in sections like 1:04; it is tricky to spread my hand AND nail voicing, even at slower tempos. The part at 1:12 is fun since the LH and RH mix in the same range, and then there are lots of intervals and fun chord stuff I don’t actually know before we return to the B section melody again at 1:25. Pretend 1:28 didn’t happen because I have literally NEVER done that when practicing LOL it was 100% one of those on-camera panic things… The sixteenth notes in the LH at 1:38 are the spiciest thing to happen yet, and then resolves in an even spicier chord at 1:44. Then a slow transition into…
ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS!! 1:54 is a rubato section, which means that tempo is basically up to me, and I get to be as expressive as I want here. I also love that the tone shifts into a more jazzy mood. I attempted to do some music theory thinking and it seems that the first part of this piece is in D major, while this section shifts into D minor, which is very sexy of the arrangement imo. I LOVE the RH ornament at 1:57… playing it crisply is so satisfying. And I love the melody syncing with the LH amidst the RH triplets at 1:58, 2:04, and 2:11. There is an accidental in the RH at 2:13 which adds more flavor to the progression as the piece then transitions to the next section at 2:23.
The rubato ends and we are back to tempo, and at forte dynamic, which is the loudest moment in the entire arrangement. I have been working on making that swell more obvious and holding more energy since this take… I was initially super intimidated by the LH arpeggios because you know I can’t play those, but these were actually very manageable thanks to the tempo. And the book also has some fingerings written in which is very nice of them (also applies to the rest of the arrangement!). The trickiest part for me is the little interval in the LH around 2:39 for some reason… it might be because I’m going single notes and then suddenly have to deal with an interval in the middle of it. The LH crossover at 2:48 probably would be way harder at faster tempos, but it’s doable here. This is also one of my favorite sections of the piece… the flowing arpeggios are so pretty, and at tempo, the RH intervals mixed into the RH octaves for the melody are really neat!! Again, voicing is super important in this section, but I had just learned this section (as you can tell) so there wasn’t much voicing happening in the take.
2:56 transitions us back into D major and the “dream-like” part (as referenced by the official arranger’s note). The sixteenth notes sound super uneven, but I’m working on evening them out a bit. I don’t want them robotically even since that’ll take away from the ethereal quality, but I do want to have better control and consistency over both hands as they trade off the sixteenths.
The melody is reintroduced in the original key of D major at 3:26, but this time, the melody is relatively isolated in the higher range while the sixteenth notes continue to fill in the space around it. The sixteenth notes somehow feel like I’m being rocked back and forth soothingly… I really like playing the RH melody at 3:36. I am cracking up watching this playback… I straight up did not know how to play anything LOL, whoops. 4:18 is supposed to go down from piano to pianissimo, but it’s hard to show that change. That’s something I’ve been working on since this take. The ending phrase is actually lento after a slight rit., but I don’t think I had understood that by this take. I played the broken chord at 4:55 way too fast; I’ve been practicing opening it up a lot more. And the very final ending phrase is a synced arpeggio of sorts in both hands, ending in a pretty high spot on the keyboard so I want to make sure it’s delicate there.
Current Thoughts
It’s kind of funny to see this two weeks later since it makes me realize I’ve actually made a lot more improvement than I felt like. This was the worse of two takes; the first one came out at a weird angle so I ended up re-recording for this take… but honestly, I think the mistakes make it more organic and also is a good step towards me trying to treat this blog more casually, so it’s a win-win. I hadn’t put much time into this piece by July 31 so I just wanted something to upload. (I had also recorded something else but it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped so… I ended up recording this piece, too. But hopefully I can get a better take of the other project soon.)
At this point, I’m really just working on polishing some final spots and improving confidence in overall accuracy. Aside from the voicing I mentioned before and maybe some of the sixteenth note stuff near the end, nothing about this piece is necessarily difficult from a technical perspective, but a lot of the challenges come from trying to play delicately and achieve the “dream-like” quality for the last section. I guess it’s really the musicality side that is the biggest struggle, in some ways… though I think the lack of technique is also contributing since it prevents me from reaching my Full Expressive Potential. Probably. Also, I played this pretty slowly in this take, but the written tempo is more like 80 bpm, so it’s quite a bit faster than what’s played here.
Anyway, I am just super happy to play this piece in its full glory finally!! I think the melody is so lovely but something about it is also quite bittersweet… then I realized the title is literally “Where Love Doesn’t Reach” which is like?? SO DRAMATIC but also so good. I am trying really hard to stay motivated for piano (haven’t been having a ton of luck on that front) so I hope I can post the final take for this sometime this month. That’ll be my goal… and then we’ll see what’s next.