Katamari Damacy: 'Katamari on the Rocks' (marching band) DONE!

[Blake]

Yeah this sounds awesome. Just throw any fast paced marching drumline beat in and it will sound twice as good.

[cobaltstarfire]

You mentioned something about haveing trouble getting a recording....it shouldn't really be that hard, you arranged the music, just ask if you can have a copy of it being played by a band. That's what the guy that arranged music for the band I was in did. (Granted we had to pay for his services)

It doesn't hurt to ask.

[Sil]

Wow, what's going on with your tied notes? The slurs are sometimes facing the opposite directions they should be.

Also, if two parts are playing the same line, don't write two stems on the one note. Write "a2" instead. This especially makes sense for the 16th notes in the winds at G. You often resort to unison doublings when octave doublings would work just as well.

[Steben]

Yeah this sounds awesome. Just throw any fast paced marching drumline beat in and it will sound twice as good.

Working on this today, hopefully. My percussion guy said he'd be all for it if he "isn't hungover".

So maybe tomorrow! >_<

You mentioned something about haveing trouble getting a recording....it shouldn't really be that hard, you arranged the music, just ask if you can have a copy of it being played by a band. That's what the guy that arranged music for the band I was in did. (Granted we had to pay for his services)

It doesn't hurt to ask.

I'm sure I could get a recording. I was more curious as to whether I could get a recording good enough for OCR submission, or at least to post on VGMix.

Wow, what's going on with your tied notes? The slurs are sometimes facing the opposite directions they should be.

Also, if two parts are playing the same line, don't write two stems on the one note. Write "a2" instead. This especially makes sense for the 16th notes in the winds at G. You often resort to unison doublings when octave doublings would work just as well.

Problem with using $40 notation software is that sometimes you just can't always get what you want. The layering system (which I discovered between writing the 4th and 5th draft) is kind of clunky. What I do, is write each part on a sepearte staff, and then layer the staffs over each other. Which means I don't really get the choice of only having one stem on unisons. On the bright side, now that I have the parts written on seperate staves, I can print out individual parts easily. For an amatuer effort, I think a little bit of clunkiness in the conductor's score is acceptable as long as the individual parts are good.

As for octave doublings, I could see a few instruments I could do that with at F. Other than that, I'm not sure there are any other places where I'd want to put any unisons in octaves, considering range issues and just the sound of the notes an octave up and down. Do you have any suggestions? Note that I'm planning on scrapping the second flute and tenor sax parts once I figure out how to cover their notes, so as to match a more traditional marching band instrumentation. (1 flute, 2 clarinets, 2 altos, 1 tenor, 3 trumpets, 2 f horns, 3 trombones, 1 baritone, 1 tuba)

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

links not working?

[Steben]

links not working?

Y'know, it'd certainly help that if I were to move the files on my webspace, to update the links that lead to them, eh?

They're almost at the same place, just in a subfolder called wip/ now. I've updated the links to the latest versions of the score and recording. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Sil]

Tenor sax unisons are not so great, but I can see that there's some craziness with all those homophonic rhythms. If you could come up with a second rhythmic line, counterpoint if you will, that contrasts the rhythms here, imitates them, offsets them, and moves in contrary motion, you could put it in the lower second voices (of the saxes and clarinets) and it would sound great. Also lots of unison at C and D.

Trombones in octaves for those long whole notes is good for pedal points, but at times you can just move the first trombone down so it plays the third or fifth of the chord, and it would sound better (like it would for bassoons.)

I don't full understand the piccolo/flute line since it's going to sound like they're playing in 10ths (piccolos sound an octave higher than written.) Piccolos are great for octave doublings over the flutes, or even bass line instruments. For example, the flute can continue what it's doing at E, but the piccolo would sound more interesting if it was playing 2 octaves above the trumpet line.

Speaking of brass, the trumpet and trombone lines starting at D and E aren't too pretty in their doublings and could be spread out over their individual octaves. The trumpet part maybe could be raised by an octave entirely and the lower line could play in 6ths below that instead of 8vas so it doesn't have to go so low.

At F I don't know what that will sound like, but I like the contrasting rhythms at 56 and 60. Again at 64 consider using thirds, or more chordal textures instead of unisons. At G, I don't know why you still have the tenor saxes up so high. If you wanted, you could put the seconds doubling the bass line in the trombones, which would sound more spread out. At H the trombones look like they should be playing in octaves here. It might clash with the third trombone voice, so yeah, it will be tough to make it work. This is why writing things like fugues is so hard.

The higher wind parts actually look really good with lots of intervals. I just don't know if the piccolo/flute combo are doing what you think they're doing. I'd actually suggest having that line be two flutes, and then you can start a new staff and put a piccolo line to double in octaves the most important melodic content throughout the piece (or play typical Sousa-like trills and runs contrasting various rhythms.)

[Dryad-Forgotten]

I'm not sure weather you are referring to the chords or the range of the tenors at G, but everything in here is easily in a tenor's range, especially a high school tenor.

Also, I don't know if this has been addressed yet, but although it might not be a traditiona marching band setup (I thought it was, but I guess I was mistaken), but a lot of marching bands have bari saxes. It would be better if you wrote them a line, especially because if a school has some bari's (which they should), they'd have to either write their own part from the tubas, or play the only other thing in Eb (alto).

Also, I do partially agree with the tenor sax unison thing. as a tenor saxophoneist myself, I find that tenors are best for harmonies and countermelodies. But that's just my opinion.

[Steben]

Tenor sax unisons are not so great, but I can see that there's some craziness with all those homophonic rhythms. If you could come up with a second rhythmic line, counterpoint if you will, that contrasts the rhythms here, imitates them, offsets them, and moves in contrary motion, you could put it in the lower second voices (of the saxes and clarinets) and it would sound great. Also lots of unison at C and D.

I've actually reduced it to a single tenor sax part. I've been told there's a chance my school could play it on the field next year, so I'm arranging it with our instrumentation in mind.

Trombones in octaves for those long whole notes is good for pedal points, but at times you can just move the first trombone down so it plays the third or fifth of the chord, and it would sound better (like it would for bassoons.)

The original song has the synth bass playing a single note. I'm not really going for the sound of a complete chord. My reasoning for the octaves (instead of unisons) was that it'd be easier to hear in the stands.

I don't full understand the piccolo/flute line since it's going to sound like they're playing in 10ths (piccolos sound an octave higher than written.) Piccolos are great for octave doublings over the flutes, or even bass line instruments. For example, the flute can continue what it's doing at E, but the piccolo would sound more interesting if it was playing 2 octaves above the trumpet line.

I was confused about this at first, but then I realized what you meant. The flute/piccolo line was meant to be played by either two parts of piccolos, or two parts of flutes, not both. However, I've also since axed the second flute/piccolo part, so it's not really an issue I guess.

Speaking of brass, the trumpet and trombone lines starting at D and E aren't too pretty in their doublings and could be spread out over their individual octaves. The trumpet part maybe could be raised by an octave entirely and the lower line could play in 6ths below that instead of 8vas so it doesn't have to go so low.

Again, I'm trying to stick with the original here. A tenor voice solo has that melody in Katamari on the Rocks, so I don't want any harmony there. That's also why the trumpets only play for a few measures at E - I didn't want to make the trombones play high A flats while marching. Range issues bar me from putting the 2nd trombones an octave below - they could do it, but it'd sound really muddy on a marching field.

At F I don't know what that will sound like, but I like the contrasting rhythms at 56 and 60. Again at 64 consider using thirds, or more chordal textures instead of unisons. At G, I don't know why you still have the tenor saxes up so high. If you wanted, you could put the seconds doubling the bass line in the trombones, which would sound more spread out. At H the trombones look like they should be playing in octaves here. It might clash with the third trombone voice, so yeah, it will be tough to make it work. This is why writing things like fugues is so hard.

Again, I'm just really not going for the sound of a full chord here. Octaves are something to consider though. If anything, I may put in some 5ths... maybe I can plug that in and see how it sounds.

The higher wind parts actually look really good with lots of intervals. I just don't know if the piccolo/flute combo are doing what you think they're doing. I'd actually suggest having that line be two flutes, and then you can start a new staff and put a piccolo line to double in octaves the most important melodic content throughout the piece (or play typical Sousa-like trills and runs contrasting various rhythms.)

I covered the confusion with the flute/piccolo line. At Auburn, we recently switched from flutes to piccolos, so I'm writing just for that instrument. However, I wrote flutes/piccolos since alternately, a flute line could cover the part.

Thanks for the input, Sil.

---

I'm not sure weather you are referring to the chords or the range of the tenors at G, but everything in here is easily in a tenor's range, especially a high school tenor.

Also, I don't know if this has been addressed yet, but although it might not be a traditiona marching band setup (I thought it was, but I guess I was mistaken), but a lot of marching bands have bari saxes. It would be better if you wrote them a line, especially because if a school has some bari's (which they should), they'd have to either write their own part from the tubas, or play the only other thing in Eb (alto).

Also, I do partially agree with the tenor sax unison thing. as a tenor saxophoneist myself, I find that tenors are best for harmonies and countermelodies. But that's just my opinion.

As mentioned above, I'm writing with AU's band in mind at the moment. When I officially release the score for people to download and use in their own marching bands, I'll definitely consider throwing in parts for a bari sax, and maybe a few other things. However, they'll probably only be doubling parts already written here.

----

Anyway, tonight was the rehersal for AU's pep band before they go to the SEC women's basketball tournament. I brought my WIP for them to try out playing. Only one person there had even heard of Katamari Damacy (when I said it was a Playstation game, someone blurted "oh, well, I have X-Box."), so they had a bit of trouble figuring out the tune at first. However, they seemed to get the hang of it after a couple run-throughs.

So yeah, if you're watching Auburn women's basketball in the SEC tourney this week (God knows why you'd actually want to, though... our team kind of sucks), keep an ear out for the pep band. You might hear some Katamari on the Rocks.

[Moppo]

He totally hinted that our band may possibly play this on the field, in the same show as our arrangement of "Tank!" (of Cowboy Bebop fame). Glee!

I hope you put up a recording of your show!

Also, it's hard to get high school marching bands (At least in Arizona) to play video game music. I saw one band last year do FF6 but for the most part the judges like that artsy crap. The bands who know they don't stand a chance are the ones who play the fun stuff.

EDIT: Also, I just realized I have the AU recording of "Hey Baby!" Great sounding band! My high school marching band played it too but didn't sound as good.

[Steben]

He totally hinted that our band may possibly play this on the field, in the same show as our arrangement of "Tank!" (of Cowboy Bebop fame). Glee!

I hope you put up a recording of your show!

Also, it's hard to get high school marching bands (At least in Arizona) to play video game music. I saw one band last year do FF6 but for the most part the judges like that artsy crap. The bands who know they don't stand a chance are the ones who play the fun stuff.

EDIT: Also, I just realized I have the AU recording of "Hey Baby!" Great sounding band! My high school marching band played it too but didn't sound as good.

I've only heard one school do a video game based show at a competition, in 2004. It was called Play On! and featured every gimmick you could imagine, including an electric saxophone. It overall was kind of boring... straight covers of stuff from the Smashing Live! CD pretty much. Then again, maybe I was just jealous because I wanted to be the first one to seriously arrange video game music for marching band.

Thanks for the good words about AU's band. If it makes you feel any better, I bet if my old high school played "Hey Baby!" it wouldn't sound that good either.

EDIT: If Auburn actually ends up playing my arrangement, I'll certainly look into getting a recording. If possible I'd like to submit it to OCR, although getting permission for that might be a little difficult. Also, we only usually record our standard stands tunes, and the show tunes.

So you might see it here someday... on the offchance we play Katamari on the March in a show, on the offchance it gets chosen for recording, on the offchance I get permission to submit it here, and on the offchance the judges think there's enough arrangement in the piece. And that'll probabaly be a year from now at the earliest! D: But I can dream.

[RocketSniper]

EDIT: Trumpet part is mostly cake.... The constant C's above the staff might be a bit much for a Highschool band though, actualy I can gurantee that they are a bit much.

Pfft. I could play that C at the end of middle school.

I could see it now, a big katamari made of tubas rolling around and picking up the flutes. =D

[Steben]

School's kept me busy for the past month, but I'm almost done with this, I think!

Latest score: http://steben.noplaceforatoaster.com/wip/kotraumb.pdf

EDIT: seems I'm retarded and forgot to change the keys from concert to written... just ignore that! D:

Latest sound: http://steben.noplaceforatoaster.com/wip/kotraumb.mp3

I've added in all the articulations that I wanted to do. (Note that the recording reflects this, although not realistically.) I've tweaked the instrumentation a bit more to my liking. With the exception of percussion parts, I think I'm done here.

Speaking of which. Anybody out there know how to arrange for a drumline? It looks like I'm going to have to do it myself otherwise, but I'd prefer someone who actually plays percussion to do it. Send me a PM or reply here if you're interested, thanks!

[ink]

Hey! I was thinking of arranging this or the samba one for my band! This is so cool that someone else had the same idea. Our band is a marching band, and it's pretty good. We're a high school band, but, we've played in some fairly big events. And Everyone would love this... we always play music from movies, T.V., random stuff; game music would be fine.

May I download the score and can we play it?

[Steben]

Hey! I was thinking of arranging this or the samba one for my band! This is so cool that someone else had the same idea. Our band is a marching band, and it's pretty good. We're a high school band, but, we've played in some fairly big events. And Everyone would love this... we always play music from movies, T.V., random stuff; game music would be fine.

May I download the score and can we play it?

The plan is to have individual parts available to whomever wants to use it for their high school band, once it's finished. (It'll probably only be available by request, since I'd like an idea of who's playing my stuff. But I can't imagine turning anyone down.)

I'll try to remember to send you a PM when it's done.

[ink]

Okay, thank you. I hope you finish it in the near future.

[B3NJ1]

It's awesome to see someone doing this. I'm completely looking forward to this and I pray that you finish it. The one problem that people or stupid 8th graders not completely unlike myself will run in to is many people in marching band use mellophones insted of F.horns. If you could knock the horn stuff up to Bb, that would be awesome.

[Steben]

It's awesome to see someone doing this. I'm completely looking forward to this and I pray that you finish it. The one problem that people or stupid 8th graders not completely unlike myself will run in to is many people in marching band use mellophones insted of F.horns. If you could knock the horn stuff up to Bb, that would be awesome.

That shouldn't be a problem.

Finals are coming up, but I'm hoping to find time to wrap this up before summer starts - I have a few other arrangement projects in mind (not vg-related, mostly) that I want to feel free to work on.

[charliebud12]

I'm loving the 1st Trumpet part alot, because I can wail on high C's like nothing, and I can cap them, up to doubles too. The fun part is that i'm just a 16 year old and can already play double C's, so the regular high C's would be no problem for my band at least. I was just doing them plently for a musical this weekend, and I saw this, and got my Trumpet out and started playing through it, and it's pretty fun. I play all the wind instruments in my band, so it's pretty fun reading through all this on all my instruments. Please, if you can, remember to send this to me when you are done, so my band can use this, i'm sure they'd love it. Plus this reminds me, I need to finish the score for my Kingdom Hearts Band arrangement. If you need help with the percusion parts, I can do Drumline and Aux Perc. stuff, just tell me how many of everything you have. IE Bass Drums, Snare, Quads.

[Rainman DX]

'Sup Steben?

I told you I'm on the drumline at Georgia Tech, right? I have the original on my computer already, and Finale Notepad 2006 - I'd be pleased to arrange for you a percussion part. Let me know if that's satisfactory - a PM would do just fine. I'll get started on it right away.

BTW, good luck on finals.

[Steben]

'Sup Steben?

I told you I'm on the drumline at Georgia Tech, right? I have the original on my computer already, and Finale Notepad 2006 - I'd be pleased to arrange for you a percussion part. Let me know if that's satisfactory - a PM would do just fine. I'll get started on it right away.

BTW, good luck on finals.

Rainman DX is working on the drumline stuff. Double high fives to him!

[Rainman DX]

I intend to finish the drum part today. It's in the final stages, and I'll be sure to post the Finale copy immediately as well as the pages in .pdf form possibly by tomorrow. Thanks for being so patient!

[Rainman DX]

Okay, the Finale NotePad file has been posted at Finale Showcase, and here's the URL:

http://www.finalemusic.com/showcase/fs_home.asp

To find it, type in "Random Percussion" in the Find: box and select "Children's Music" on the scroll-down bar, and you should yield only one result. Click on the name to download it.

Steben, the midis on Finale NotePad suck, so you may have to convert the work to NoteWorthy, but that shouldn't take too long, really. It needs to be converted exactly as you see it written. I'll try to post the .pdfs this afternoon, when I have a chance to go to the library.

Anyway, let me know asap if there is anything, besides converting to .pdf, that you need for me to do. Also, I'd appreciate it if after you convert it to Noteworthy, you'd send me an image and the sound file, with or without the band behind it. Thanks, it's been a pleasure!

[Rainman DX]

... And ... (Drumroll please)

Here's the pdfs of the sheet music. http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg226y/main/music/KOTRPerc.pdf

Regardless of what Finale says, the first staff is Snare, the second staff is Bass, the third staff is Tenors, and the fourth staff is Cymbals.

Yay for triple post.

[Steben]

Rainman DX is the coolest guy on OCR.

I've been running my local NYLT course (Boy Scout leadership training camp) the past week, so I just now had decent internet access (aka better than using my cell phone as a modem).

Once I get my own computer hooked back up I'll look at the parts more indepth, but they look sweet. The plan is to send my director whatever I can asap so I'll know the chances of AU playing this on the field. Either way, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get a student copy of Finale, so I'll be caught up with the times. That way I'll also be able to directly use your drumline parts.

More details as they become available! Thanks again, Rainman. I'll send you a PM if I have any questions. You've been great to work with - maybe we should do it again sometime? Let me know if there's something you're interested in collaborating on.