Playing on the Piano

Recently I bought scores for Chihiro's three albums published by Doremi Music Publishing. They are for hikigatari, vocals with piano self-accompaniment.

Although these scores are not composed by Mr. Haketa, the familiar pianist and arranger, it appears he took part in their production as a supervisor. The original key (or tonality) is maintained for all songs (I mean, not transposed for piano beginners). And because these are not band scores, all accompaniment is performed on the solo piano. Therefore it's not exactly the same as Haketa's piano as we hear in her albums. As a result, this is not easy stuff to play.

Unfortunately, I can't possibly play through a single song since my piano skill is only at an entry level. But once I play phrases I picked out from here and there, I appreciate the beauty of her music immediately.

The pensive intro of "Gekko", those sublime strokes for "BACK DOOR", and the exhilarating tones of "Castle · imitation"—to mention only a few. I'm satisfied that I made a good purchase.

Some of my recent findings that I'd like to share with you:

"Rebel Luck" was initially intended to be played in C major. But on the very day when this number was to be recorded, it was determined that for this song, Chihiro's voice sounds best in B major, an unusual key a half tone lower. This brought as many as five sharps in the score. And that made this song very difficult for me to play....

Mr. Haketa wrote a message for the Sugar High score. According to him, Chihiro and her staff (including Haketa) had always given an important role to the piano since her debut, but no other album has ever stuck to concentrating energies on piano accompaniment like Sugar High. Chihiro's songwriting starts with piano hikigatari. Doing the same for yourself will let you experience Chihiro's starting point.

What amused me was Chihiro's comment found in the INSOMNIA score. What she was talking with her staff during the recording session of this album was that she wanted the arrangements for those songs to be such that piano players would want to buy the score.

So I was nicely taken in.

[2004-03-26]

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