Kawaki wo Ameku (Crying for Rain), from Domestic Girlfriend, music by Minami, piano arranged by Animenz, played by Richard Yang on Yamaha N1X with Garritan CFX VST.
This piece is the spiritual successor to Unravel, says Animenz. No kidding, this was insanely difficult. Right after the intro, we have non-stop action like Guren no Yumiya; except in this piece the excitement is practically sustained until the end. In order to build stamina, I usually practice at and push for max tempo, notably faster than Animenz. After learning the piece, when I slow down to the proper tempo, it actually feels unnaturally slow now. But of course I wanted to release the max tempo version, even at the cost of some understandable mistakes.
What’s difficult about this? First, the rhythm takes a while to really understand (by your hands). Then you’ll be blown away by just how fast this goes (when still learning). Working on clarity of notes and RH/LH coordination at this tempo is extremely difficult. After so much stretching of hands at high speed, they’re about to give out, then you arrive at the last page, which is even more punishing. With Swordland, those LH arpeggios consume your stamina at a fairly constant rate. But in Crying for Rain, between 3:34 and 3:41, in just 7 seconds it pretty much depletes all your (remaining) stamina, rendering 3:41 and on unplayable (it would otherwise be fine without having to play 3:34 first). The way to NOT get this “stressed” is by having bigger hands, so you don’t need to constantly stretch to the limit, leaving some “buffer” for the end. Or, like me, you push for max tempo. When you can consistently crank it through, it will become much easier when you slow back down.
On difficulty, I placed this between My Dearest and Snow Halation for the amount of techniques required. But if you have small hands like mine, having to overcome building-tension, this can almost feel hopeless at first. I learned the notes fairly quickly, but for a LONG time I was unable to sustain my stamina past 3:34. The good thing is, once it “clicks”, the piece does feel easier, unlike Unravel (or Kantai Collection), which remains difficult no matter how much you play.
As with all of my performances, I have my own interpretation, so the tempo, dynamics, etc may feel quite different from the original recording. Simply put, I play the way I like it.
