As a first post, I thought I’d go back to my most popular (still is?!) cover on my channel, which is the Ending Theme of Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku, “Suki no Skill” by Wake Up, Girls!
If you haven’t heard it before, you can take a listen here:
Even now, I’m still really amazed at how I came up with this cover, seeing that I would not have the confidence to maintain that level of arrangement should I attempt to arrange it today. Anyways, let’s jump right into it!
Starting off, the time signature. Time signatures are subjective to many people, but I’ve chosen the 12/8 time signature due to the number of triplet-y notes there are in the piece, and so instead of chaining triplets for the entire song, I decided to just go by 12/8 to save me some sanity :p
The piece starts off simple, with a single melody line.
After that, however, there are now little inserts, providing some sort of a fluttery feel. (bear with me from here on as I’m not really a technical person, and hence I tend to use more feelings to describe the temperament of the piece.)
As you’ve probably known by now, I decided to merge the melody with this to arrive at the following.
Why those notes only? Other than the fact that it’d make it humanely possible to be played by the right hand, those were the notes that stand out more, since the singers’ voices weren’t covering it at all. All in all, this part became quite complete in my opinion c:
After which, the verse is standard work, transcribing the melody and having an apt accompaniment, which in this case simply takes inspiration from the beat of the song.
The idea shown above is similar to the intro, but due to the more limited space we have to work with our right hand, the insert is simplified!
I’m a sucker for the little details and aesthetics, and as such, I’m not sure how many of you guys noticed, but I’m really incredibly proud of the following part:
The song presents these 2 bars as a bridge to the chorus in a rather interesting way, opting for some sort of an ascending line in both the melody and the countermelody to a climax.
Initially when I was arranging, I didn’t know how to fit it in, but the yolo spirit made me attempt to replicate that ascending line, represented by the notes in blue previously. This turned out to be the part I’m most proud of, even till today. In fact, I used it once again in another cover, do you know which one is it? (Hint: https://youtu.be/eW1WBcFUio4)
The last part I’ll cover in this post today will probably be the second half of the chorus, where I opted for an octave up in the melody.
Raising it by one octave, primarily, was to distinguish between the 2 moods, to signify that the emotions are higher now. It also adds a benefit of sounding nicer, to be honest, that’s about it. To put it simply, compare it with keeping the second half of the chorus in the same octave and you’d probably think it’s dull and boring. :p
With that, this arrangement reaches the conclusion, ending with the insert shown in the intro again, as it fades off.
If you’re interested, you can listen to the final arrangement, or browse the sheet here and take a look at it yourself: https://sheet.host/sheet/HKrMT5
If you enjoy this analysis, please do share it on social media, and comment down below if you have any suggestions for improvement! Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this, and maybe you’ve learnt something from this post!
See you next time!
