Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Trouble understanding these directives (simile and arpeggio)

(Source: sheet for 'Ending theme', composed by Nobuo Uematsu, from the album Piano Collections: Final Fantasy X).

Hello folks, I'd like to ask for your help deciphering the directives in the first bar shown above.

1. It says "simile", but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. I believe I need to play more notes than what's explicitly written in the sheet, but what notes exactly?

2. "Arpeggio": which notes are supposed to be arpeggios? I assume the answer to this question might depend on that to the 1st question.

The time signature is 3/4.

Does anyone have a clue? Thanks!

Simile means similar to what came before, so you should just continue with the same pattern of notes in the arpeggio all the way up to the top notes shown.

Look at the pattern of how the first three notes relate to each other. Continue with the same pattern and relationship throughout.

You continue the F-major arpeggio up to the top chord.

So the right hand, as started with A, C, F, would continue with A, C, F, A, C, F etc.

and the left hand: F, A, C, F, A, C, etc.

The arpeggio would need to be played through beats two and three so that the chord arrives on beat one of the next measure.

It's a shorthand that I've not seen before; lazy transcribing is my guess.

Regards,

I've never seen it notated like that, but I assume you are meant to play the upward F major arpeggio (assuming there is no A flat in the key signature, in which case it would be F minor arpeggio) with both hands, with the RH playing the upper one starting on A/A flat, a third above the LH.

When you get to the top, you stop with that F major/minor chord in first inversion, when your LH lands on A (or A flat) and the RH lands on C. The RH plays the upper three notes of that chord.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I think I understand what notes I need to play, but I'm still not sure where the arpeggios are.

Since I need everything spelt out for me - which this particular sheet definitely does not do, I went to the trouble of messing around with MuseScore to transcribe the measure. I don't know MuseScore well enough to do this properly, but the transcription should at least make it easier to understand what I'm talking about.

Original:


Terrible transcription by Calavera:

The parts in blue (1 and 2) are supposed to show the two arpeggios for the LH, while the yellow parts (3 and 4) are the arpeggios for the RH. Is this correct?

That's right - though you have to go on with the arpeggio for a bit longer until you reach that chord at the start of the next bar.

All right, I think I get it now. Thanks!