As some of you might know, for my birthday, I got a book of over 50 piano arrangements of DQ songs from across the 9 main series games. And since one of my summer goals is to learn some more of the songs and reacquaint myself with the piano on the whole. And since my brother has rented a marimba and the very first thing I did with it was play the right hand part to "Traveling with Friends," I thought I should talk a bit more about what this lovely book has inside of it. After all, the only reason I haven't taken pictures is because my camera isn't working and I don't have any of those new-fangled camera phones.
Since the book is in Japanese, none of the song titles were in English. But since I am the DQ nerd that I am, I was able to identify most of the songs by sight and sound. Though some do remain for me to identify. I intend to identify those last three I missed months ago soon. Oh DQVII, I need you.
Song list:
Dragon Quest 1: Chateau Ladutorm People Unknown World Dungeon King Dragon (the only song with an instrument other than piano in it! I wish I owned a gong!)
Dragon Quest II: Love Song Town Endless World Traveling with Friends
Dragon Quest III: Rondo Adventure Town Village Requiem Small Shrine Into the Legend
Dragon Quest IV: Menuet Town Balloon's Flight Sea Breeze The Unknown Castle The End
Dragon Quest V: Melody of Love Violent Enemies Noble Requiem Saint Satan Heaven
Dragon Quest VI: At The Palace In the Town Pegasus Saint's Wreath Dungeons Satan's Castle
Dragon Quest VII: Saraband Strolling in the Town Fighting Spirit ? ?
Dragon Quest VIII: Overture Traveling with Wagon Strange World Warcry Quiet Village Majestic Castle ~ Gavotte de Chateau Carry these Feelings on the Harp
Dragon Quest IX: Angelic Land Oboe Melody in the Castle Beckoning Hills and Medows Stella's Theme Time of Decisive Battle Are You a Loser? ?
I have opinions and such on the song list here, but what do you think? What would you have added or taken off? I thought I was getting a different songbook initially, and it had a different array of songs. There's a few different DQ solo books floating around, apparently.
So far, the only song I've learned in full is Saint. I am starting a little slow, so I've been testing more of the songs and waters, including People, Traveling with Friends, Requiem, Small Shrine, and In The Palace, among others here and there. Give me some suggestions. What songs do you think would be good to help me get back into pianoland? You think I can muster up the skill to play some of my favorite songs, like Melody of Love and Strange World? Will I ever find means to show people the fruits of practice? We'll find out!
Also, forgive the lack of topics and posts lately. More to come, soon.
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 2:54 pm
Personally, I'd love to see Malroth's theme on there, the 8bit version has such a badass bass line to it, and I can imagine all the fun one would have in slamming their left hand into the keys, emulating the amazing bass line.
From a glance over the list, "Rondo" would sound amazingly beautiful, but challenging, I'd imagine, "Chateau Ladutorm" would also sounds great. Gotta love those mellow castle themes! Again, I must comment on II, seeing as it's my current favourite soundtrack in the series, "My Road, My Journey" would be an awesome addition as well, seeing as it's almost the poster boy to the series. I'm glad to see you're doing "Travelling with Friends", seeing as it's one of my favourite pieces in Dragon Warrior II. "The End" would probably take awhile to preform, but I'd imagine there'd be no big challenging surprises in it or anything.
Hopefully, I'll be around more, seeing as I now have the rest of this month, and August to myself.
Update since original posting (especially since it has been almost a year).
I have been bringing a keyboard to college with me for the past two semesters. It has helped relax me, since when I get stressed and can't draw, I can play some music instead. I haven't been able to work on these pieces as much as I would like, but I'll share what progress I have made.
I can play Small Shrine and Saint in their entirety. I am working on Requiem and Noble Requiem to compliment both of those so I can play them in their respective pairs. I know most of requiem and around half of Noble Requiem. I know the first half of Melody of Love, and I can play the right hand part for the entire piece, as well as both hands for those last few measures (those slow scales and chords in the second ending on always get me and I tend to end my practice sessions with them no matter what... it's like when their eyes meet... WUB!). I have played through a chunk of Hills and Medows, but I haven't done it for a while so I don't know how good it will sound. I have done some fooling around with People, Dungeon (DQ1), Traveling with Friends, Menuet, At the Palace, Pegasus, and many others to a lesser degree.
Noble Requiem I'd like to give special mention to since I only feel satisfied working on it at my house where there is an actual piano (though one in need of some fixing) due to the fact that it covers a larger range of octaves than my keyboard can handle. The first time I played those low notes at the beginning, I felt my heart sink a few inches. The heaviness becomes apparent in a different way when you play it yourself and you reach down and play those pounding low notes. It undoubtedly keys into my own adoration of Dragon Quest V, but I thought I would share it anyway. Playing Sugiyama's music in some form is an experience of a slightly different color.
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 7:07 pm
I actually purchased the "Official Best Album" myself, being a sucker for DQ merchandise, and finally having a credit card. I cannot play the piano of course, but I've been picking apart the treble lines with my trusty ol' flute, and I currently can only play the treble to "Rondo" and "Homeland", both turned out better than expected even the face of having heavy bass accompaniments n' all. Was it worth the $50? Definitely. Although the pieces may be a bit tough, music is universal and I was able to piece the compositions together with no language barrier that and the titles are translated into English under the Japanese titles.
Also, my roster varies slightly a little from yours, the main difference I can spot without consulting my copy is I lack "Travelling with Friends" (to my dismay), and you lack "Homeland". I take it the "Super Best" and "Official Best" are pretty much the same?
Homeland would have been great to have. Not in place of Traveling with Friends, but I can see Homeland being great on a piano. Plus I was miffed that I didn't get a single DQIV world map theme in there. I got Balloon's Flight and Sea Breeze, but not one of the great and varied world map themes. Why are there so many town themes and none of those? I guess it's move obvious for the DQs that have the best soundtracks, like IV. Part of me feels like they did this so that you'd be more compelled to buy the game specific songbooks.
