Kiss Me Good-Bye (FFXII) - Original Piano Arrangement

Kiss Me Good-Bye is a main song featured in the video game Final Fantasy XII (Playstation 2). The song was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, arranged by Kenichiro Fukui, and with lyrics by Angela Aki, who is also the vocalist.

I had started this project almost two years ago and have been arranging it on and off but haven't found time to typeset the actual score until now. These projects can take anywhere from 4 to 40 hours, depending on the inherent complexity of the source song or composition, and this one was definitely one of the more challenging ones. Incidentally, since my last video, I have upgraded to Sibelius 6, which allows for very complex slurs. You will first see them at measure 24 and then throughout the chorus. Measure 49 shows a more advanced usage of the slur. (I am a notation zealot!)

You may notice that I have provided two introductions. Introduction I is heard in the English version. It is slighly easier and slower. Introduction II is heard in the DVD Japanese music video that comes with the limited edition CD release of "Kiss me Good-Bye." It is accompanied by strings with some nice, artistic close ups of Angela Aki performing at the piano.

In this arrangement, the tricky part is bringing out the melodic line as it often crosses under the other parts which serve to harmonize and emulate the orchestral parts. It is important to keep a steady beat and not to rush. At bar 30, there is a chord that immediately comes after an ascending scale, which can be challenging to play correctly. It is advisable to take a slight ritard and roll the chord if it helps.


Feedback and suggestions are welcome. :)

Score available on my website: www.audiomuse.ca .


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Category:

Music

Tags:

• ffxii
• final
• fantasy
• 12
• nobuo
• uematsu
• piano
• reduction
• arrangement
• original
• vincent
• lo
• audiomuse
• angela
• aki

[Acrozius]

Oh, I'm so sorry to ask again. Could you please tell me how you wrote notes that crossed over staves but stayed in the same grouping? (Example: Bars 6 and 11.)

[zeryx28]

@Acrozius No problem. First, determine which staff will have more of the notes for the voice that does the crossing. Input all the notes on that staff first, and then select the note (or CTRL-select the notes) you want to cross over. Hit CTRL+SHIFT+[up or down] depending on in which "direction" the voice is crossing.

[Acrozius]

Zeryx, I am dying to know how you constructed chords including notes of differing durations with Sibelius. For example, bar 3 with the dotted quaver and basic quaver. And especially bar 33 where you have a chord including two minims and three crotchets in one chord.

Any help very much appreciated.

[zeryx28]

@Acrozius Oh, that is done using the "voices" interface. The active voice is indicated by the number that is highlighted at the bottom of main keypad. There isn't really a rule for which voice gets the top note, but a general rule of thumb that seems to work for me is (top to bottom): 1, 3, 2, 4, but only on rare occasions do you need to use more than two voices. To create a multi-voice chord, simply enter a note in one voice, and successive notes in other voices by changing the active voice.

[MichaelLougas]

Do you have a pdf of this notation?

[zeryx28]

@MichaelLougas Yes. You can find the PDF score on my website, on the "work" page. See video description for URL. Thanks.

[Kiamet]

This is such a well-written pop ballad arrangement, I'd love to hear a live version of it. Great stuff my friend.

[Verdegrand]

I like how the player gets to choose between different intros. IMHO this style of music, which kind of reminds me of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, is prone to sounding cheesy on the piano very easily, but you managed to avoid that.

[Pr0udDragon]

@Verdegrand Well, the first intro was actually used in the English version of the original song, but the second intro was used in the Japanese version of the song. You may have already found that out, though.

[UonKou]

*desperately touched*

this is a really amazing arrangement!

I have been searching around for this! :')

oh, and don't mind me asking,

would it be alright if my friend or I were to cover this song, using your arrangement? :)

[justa16thnote]

@zeryx28 I also have Sibelius. I'm separating the vocal part from the piano so it can be sung. Just letting you know ;)

[DudethatyelledMurloc]

Lol that intro 2 sounded so funky...

[sonya66]

AMAZING vincent!

[Acrozius]

@zeryx28 Thank you! That was amazingly helpful. I'll now be able to use this in my pieces. I was always frustrated when I couldn't get more than one kind of note in a beat.