Sailing Home to Martinique

[macetheace]

soundcloud.com/mason-gregory-wright/sailing-home-to-martinique



www.scoreexchange.com/scores/569611.html

[macetheace]

Can this piece be played by a single piano player, or are two required?

[mikelyons85]

Hi Mason.

1. your upper piano part appears not to be using a standard piano grand staff. Is there a reaon for this?
2. The 2nd part is consistently higher than the other part, so should be placed above it in the score.. Tis part is very high, requiring loads of leger lines, so I'd suggest using an 8ve clef or using 8ve lines.
3. This part is also written on only a single stave of the grand staff. Why bother with the lower (Bass) staff at all, even if it is for keyboard/piano right hand?

It's a nice tune, but it would greatly benefit from some dynamics and some tempo changes (rall/a tempo, rit/a tempo) Just to give it a bit of character. I don't know how you have created the upper piano part(s), but they don't seem to be normal at all. The quavers are notated with flags, not beams, so I would guess voice staves...? Why?

I rather think this might go well with clarinet and harpsichord or zither.

Would you send me the sib file so I can have a play with it, please?

[macetheace]

Here you go....

Attachments:

Sailing Home to Martinique.sib (108.1 KB)

[mikelyons85]

Hi Mason.

As it's not my job to be your editor, I've just made a few suggestions for possible dynamics. I decided that the 'zither' sound in NP is just a harp, and it didn'tmake a good enough mock-up. I ended up using Sib sounds and NP in combination. You should experiment a bit more.

Sailing Home to Martinique_S7.sib (117.9 KB)

[macetheace]

Hi. I am not using a grand staff for the main melodic part (treble clef and bass clef) because I wanted different volume levels on each. Sibelius forces the user to maintain a volume level for certain instruments that is the same. This is true for a given dual clef instrument, such as keyboard or harp.

Your suggestions were good. I put in some 8va notations for segments that were very high. I added dynamics throughout. I erased the bass on the secondary piano part, and I also put that part on top.

I liked the flags for the melody, I think it makes the notes look like sails. I also think the piano part should stay, seems more majestic that way. I did like the recorder sound in your mock up, however.


I don't know if you play piano, but if you do can you try to play it? I am wondering if it is playable for one person. If so, I will adjust the the instrumentation setting on the Score.

Attachments:

Sailing Home to Martinique.sib (108.29 KB)

[mikelyons85]

Hi Mason, I am not a pianist, but I would say the answer to it being playable on piano by one person is - no.

It doesn't work like that, Mason. The piano is a "Gand staff instrument" and even if, for the reasons you have stated, you want to treat the left and right hands differently, you still need to make it look like a grand staff.

Nobody writes notes for piano like that. Flagged notes are almost exclusively the province of voices. They use flags rather than beams because it makes the rhythm and phrasing clearer - especially in complex passages. This just does not work for other instruments. People will just think you've made a silly mistake.

You ca\n make sib create the right look by just adding a brace (select both staves, rt-click->Other-->Bracket or Brace-->Brace) and sorting the barlines out.

[macetheace]

Okay, here is a copy with corrections.

Attachments:

Sailing Home to Martinique.sib (108.28 KB)

[mikelyons85]

Sailing Home to Martinique_S7.sib (119.28 KB)

Here's a thought - if you want it to be one piano 3 hands, that could work. However, again, you need to lay it out properly. See attached. The lower staves are braced together, but the upper staff (which is, effectively, a different instrument) should be braced with itself.

These settings will let you separate playback of the piano part (grand staff).

[macetheace]

Mike: I think it is fine the way it is. Thank you for your help.

[mikelyons85]

I seriously do not know why I bother.

[macetheace]

I appreciate that you do, my scores look much better subsequent to your help.