Aria maestosa pitched percussion how to#
Aria maestosa pitched percussion movie#

I used Musescore (version 2, which is AWESOME) to write out the music. Playing it and trying to get a clean version for the video cameras? That was another story altogether. In some ways, writing out the arrangement was the 'easy' part. Hence, towards the climax, you'll see me jumping around a lot to cover all three layers in both hands. I always think it sounds more orchestral when you can spread your parts as far apart on the keyboard as possible. Then you have the challenge of spacing out the various music lines - bass, melody, accompaniment/rhythm. On top of the 3+3+2 rhythm line, the strings start playing in constant triplets (another really difficult thing to do well on the piano), and the trumpets interject with triplet figures of their own, adding an exciting layer of energy throughout the theme. The other challenge is coming up with rhythmic textures to simulate a percussion section, and this theme has oodles of heavy percussion. The trick is to come up with an accompanying texture that can simulate the sustain of a melody from note to note, and hopefully in a convincingly dramatic fashion. There's always a decay immediately after the note. One of the biggest limitations for the piano is its inability to sustain notes beyond what the damper pedal can hold.

Aria maestosa pitched percussion how to#

Once I notated the basic elements, I then had to figure out how to 'orchestrify' them on the piano. Thankfully I've had great training in music dictation as a kid, and having perfect pitch is also a huge help for this. The first step was to write down the actual elements of the score. I based the arrangement on this version of Hans Zimmer's theme for the Superman movie, 'Man Of Steel' (2013): With the better written parts, I've seen many techniques for capturing the orchestral sound on a limited piano palette - some work, some don't, but it's always a fun challenge to make your instrument sound like more than it really is. Some of the parts are well written, but many of them are pretty sparse and I'll often improvise to 'fill in' the music to make it sound more orchestral. 'accompanist'), I'm regularly called to play orchestra parts that have been reduced for piano to accompany solo instrumentalists. In my work as a professional collaborative pianist (aka.

Aria maestosa pitched percussion movie#

I came across a number of amateur pianists who made their own arrangements of various movie soundtracks, and while many were quite good, I couldn't help thinking: 'Wait a minute! I do this for a living! Why don't I try coming up with my own soundtrack transcriptions?' The idea to make this arrangement came from a bit of random YouTube surfing.