【Ado】初夏 / Shoka (Piano Cover)

Описание: Original Song:
Shoka · Ado
   • 【Ado】初夏 (Shoka)  

Piano Arrangement by Justin Wai

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An incredibly different song choice for this week's cover. Ado's worldwide popularity can, in my opinion, be largely attributed to her ability to capture that feeling of deep frustration many of us have through her insanely gifted voice. This song is almost the pinnacle of that - filled with so much angst and emotion it practically bleeds through the screen.

Nothing I can arrange on the solo piano is going to be able to emulate Ado's voice perfectly, but there are key elements of this arrangement that try and capture it as best as possible. An important part of this was ensuring a dynamic contrast between sections - from the high energy choruses, to the anguished 'screaming' and the quiet interludes. A lot of the time as classical pianists we are taught to be careful of sounds 'harsh' when playing too loud, but in this song, I felt free to throw that away in the most painful sections, especially during the screamed lines at 1:04 and 2:55 (TELL ME!). This gave way to the more lyrical verses, such as at 1:33 and 2:59.

The other part is to tackle the instrumentation. We start from almost nothing - a single line in the RH, before building into the full intro - with LH hand syncopated chord stabs complementing this melody. The first verse is much more difficult to play than it may seem at first - as I transcribed many of the syncopated lead guitar lines into the LH! This pattern continues into the pre-chorus as we build into the first BIG chorus. As the RH soars above with your typical octave melody, the LH is hard at work, with non stop eigth notes to really fill out the harmony as much as possible. At 1:27 I made sure to sneak that organ line from the original into the LH, it really helps add character to end off the chorus.

The second verse is much more 'hollow' than the first, which gives it a contrasting texture and character. I deliberately left a lot more space in the LH, opting to only play key parts of the bass / lead guitar line to maintain this contrast. This is followed by a similar full band second chorus which is largely similar to the first with some minor variation in accompaniment.

We eventually hit the instrumental at 2:24, which counter-intuitively was one of the simpler sections to arrange, since I had a very clear goal - HAMMER those chords in, holding nothing back. I substituted some runs to transition into the repeated section at a higher register. We dip a bit as the vocals re-enter to make room to grow to what i consider to be the climax of the song - Ado yelling 'OSHIETE!' at 2:55. This is immediately followed by a quiet but equally painful interlude before suddenly returning to the full band chorus from before. Finally, we end with that same riff from the intro, but with the syncopated chords line extended in a chromatically descending sequence, ending on the final C Minor stab (Unfortunately I can't do a guitar growl on the piano xD).

Thank you for reading this week's MUCH longer than usual arranger's commentary! This one took longer to cook than usual, and I hope the extra effort paid off and that this cover that does the song justice. The original spoke to me as it did many others, and it was my desire to express some of my own feelings through this cover as well.

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Piano 🎹: Yamaha GC1
Mic🎙️: Zoom H6 Black
Camera 📷: iPhone 13

tags
#piano #cover #jpop #instrumental #movie #音楽 #鋼琴 #Ado #初夏 #Shoka #ピアノ #弾いてみた