I hate syncopation.

[bladespark]

So I have this piano, right? And there's this game Portal with a really catchy theme song, right? And then there's me, who cannot play by ear, I suck soooooooooooooooo very bad at it, but my ear is good enough for me to sit down and, going one measure or so at a time, figure out the notes to something.

So this is what I'm doing. Given that I'm also kind of iffy on translating heard rythms to the correct notes, and the song hasn't got a plain rythmic line in it, it's going veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly. And then putting the harmony and bass line and so on to it is going to take even more time, but here's what I have so far:



This was about half an hour's work, and is the lines "This was a triumph, I'm making a note here, huge success." with the melody line only.

So... don't expect the whole thing any time soon.

Comments

[jfoxfire.livejournal.com]

i can not play the piano ether

[jtbeckett.livejournal.com]

hey... i play by ear, but can't read music very well at all... so you could send me a clip of the song, i could play it on my midi controller, and convert it to sheet music in that mid-converting program we have. I wouldn't be able to do it today, but after october 21st...

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm. That would probable get it done faster than my rather slow method. I'll drop you an e-mail after the 21st with the song then, if you don't mind.

[jtbeckett.livejournal.com]

You can send the song earlier than that... that way i can at least hear it a few times before attempting to play it. but you'll probably need to send me a little reminder after the 21st.

[jtbeckett.livejournal.com]

so... i'm assuming from what you have written here it's in the key of C?

[jtbeckett.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RthZgszykLs is this it? the music starts like a minute into the video.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's it.

[jtbeckett.livejournal.com]

well, it's very pretty... but those are some very disturbing lyrics... don't get me wrong... I laughed my but off at them, but, wow... must be a very kooky game.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's a very kooky game

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

No, this was me working on the rhythm, so I didn't bother to stick in the key signature. It's actually in two keys, the bit here is in D, and then there's another section in F, and it goes back and forth between them. There's a rough guitar tab of it here: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2007/10/15/portal-the-skinny/