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I'm a beginner (2 months playing, no teachers so far), and I'm trying to learn how to play Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone's piano sheet. However, I cannot figure out how to position my hand for the chord presented in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 - Chord in question, C, G, B

Figure 1 - Chord in question, C, G, B.

The C is two octaves down (I think), and I can't figure out how to play it. Thanks for the help.

Source:Full music Sheet

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4 Answers 4

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Listening to a recording of the piece (around 0:12), the arranger of the score above created an accurate transcription, but not a playable one at that point. However, in the recording the bass part doesn't become prominent until the second half of the measure shown. My recommendation is to leave the bass C as middle C for the first half of the measure and then play as written in the second half, dropping the chord. This will have the effect of preserving the melody -- the chord -- as long as possible while still maintaining the bass run up to the next measure of the arrangement.

X:1
T:Green Hill Zone
T:Sonic the Hedgehog
K:C
M:C
%%score (V1) | (V2 V3)
V:V1
V:V2 clef=bass
V:V3 clef=bass
[V:V1]c'bag c'bag | c'bag c'bag |
[V:V2][Ac]3 [GB]4-[GB]- | [GB]4 x4 |
[V:V3]CCCC CCCC | CCCC C,C,D,E, |

NOTE: In the video provided in @piiperiReinstateMonica's answer, the arranger drops the chord entirely when entering the second measure of the OP.

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The only way this is playable with two hands is to 'catch' the G and B from the bar before with the sostenuto pedal That's the middle one of three. Assuming that isn't a practice pedal, like it is on lots of pianos.

The sostenuto pedal is designed so that it works like a sustain (damper) pedal, but only holds the notes that were actually played as it is pressed. If you use the sustain pedal instead, you'll have all sorts ringing out where they shouldn't be.

That way, your l.h. is free to play the low Cs, and r.h. for the high notes.

If you happen to be asking where the B and G notes are, they're above middle C on the piano. But they are in the music earlier, so I guess it's not that.

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I don't know if this is a proper answer, but ... here is a video of the arranger playing the song:

It looks like he's not playing the G and B notes at all in that bar! And to me it doesn't sound like he's pressing the pedal either. :) The answer to the mystery is probably that the arranger should have been more careful with writing the notes - but then again he did provide a video example.

I found that from the site that was mentioned on the Scribd PDF: http://www.gamemusicthemes.com/sheetmusic/segagenesis/sonicthehedgehog/greenhillzone/index.html

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  • @pedroaugustomiranda No problem. It's a nice piano version, I think I know people who might be interested in learning to play it! Dec 18, 2020 at 17:41
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This is just another bad online "piano arrangement."

If it were a real piano arrangement, the "arranger" would have put in pedal markings or some other indicator at the point you highlighted.

There is also no tempo indication. Old Baroque scores often had no tempo markings, but there were tempo conventions for certain meter and typical rhythm patterns. In a modern score leaving off the tempo isn't normal. This isn't just a quibble. When looking at the left hand repeated note figure with doubled thirds played simultaneously in the left hand I wonder just how fast it's expected to be played!

Signs like these tell me there was no thought put into how a performer is actually supposed to play the music. That's a stranger indifference to the performer when the whole point of arranging is to make music available to performers on different instruments. Quite a bit of change can go into an arrangement for the sake of performance on a specific instrument.

Just putting notes in notation software doesn't make an "arrangement." My suspicion is the "arranger" has never even played this from their own "arrangement." They only listed to the notation software playback.

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  • An effective comment on the plethora of bad arrangements, but not an answer to the question.
    – Aaron
    Dec 18, 2020 at 17:37
  • This was my initial thought as well, but as it turns out, the arranger very much plays the arrangements himself, and I think it's nice stuff, completely playable - if you play it like he does. :) But he could have been more careful with writing notes. Dec 18, 2020 at 17:37

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