Well I was playing my piano when I remembered I never posted something I had wanted to post. This is a follow up to the thread that I posted basically asking for your suggestions of songs I should learn. Someone pm'd me telling me to learn Mirrors Edge. I forget who. I did learn many others but I thought most people would enjoy this. Tell me what you think. I only took one take, so don't bite my head off if you notice a mistake. YouTube- Still Alive (Mirrors Edge Theme Song) Piano Cover by Alex Cole Oh yeah, and I arranged this cover myself, but I did take a look at some other girl's sheet music before hand.
OK, I'll start with the good. Penning your own sheets by ear is a chore, so nice job with that. I can only imagine what a nightmare it must be to play on that keyboard too, I'm sure you've done all you can but it's exhibiting the all too familiar wobble of that type of stand. This is your first time playing the piece so as you say, can't really be too critical. But I will be, since it might help if you keep at this one. You launch straight into the piece when the whole first half of the song should be a steady build up to the full theme in all its glory. It's ever so slightly too quick - you're rushing! I'm not sure what's causing this eagerness, but I suspect you are more comfortable with the arpeggiated sections as they are the easier parts to play and sound accurate to the original without too much effort. The arpeggios aren't complete for some reason, an oversight in the manuscript perhaps, but it sounds a little disjointed as a result. Maybe go back and look at those and adjust your sheet. I'm guessing part of the problem here is that you're having to struggle with the keys not being weighted. Despite that you should be able to control the volume more than you're doing here. You're playing each note at pretty much the same volume, which makes it harder to discern the melody. By ear I'm guessing you're going at about 120 bpm - you should be closer to 100. Slow it down, emphasize the melody (live in it rather than anticipating the parts you're more comfortable with!), and build the intensity as you approach the middle of the piece. A side note too - your wrists are occasionally dropping quite low, when you're playing slower try to remember to keep their posture tightly controlled. You're got off to a good start. Good luck! Thanks for recording and sharing man. Maybe you can upload another version in the future? Here is an excellent rendition from YouTube which you might find useful for style guidance. It does help that he has a better keyboard to play on of course (a Privia I think from the looks of it, which is decent) - do you have an upright you could somehow record next to instead? YouTube- Lisa Miskovsky - "Still Alive" (Piano Cover)