Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
🌥️ At long last, a Cloudkicker cover. This album is 14 years old.
🌥️ Transcription - blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/CloudkickerPiano
📜 This was an arrangement that one of my students wanted to work on, originally I made a worksheet for them to get ideas flowing for arranging each general section of the Cloudkicker original. They also found a wonderful cover from 2013 that had some beautiful left hand ideas and pacing we took inspiration from: youtube.com/watch?v=qI-HMSgu314.
Since Ben Sharpe’s MO is to layer and layer, an effective piano cover (to my ears) needs to have dynamic contrast and be able to ebb and flow in intensity. Figure I'd give it a whirl as well.
The pdf I made I hope is a good reference for general structure and ideas, but with something like this the performer can continue to tinker with textural decisions throughout the form. Maybe you want to move the vocal lines to a different register so they soar over the rest of the ostinato more? Where will the loudest warm apex of the song be, and how will you plan your dynamics to swell appropriately? Do you want an abrupt cutoff at the end, or maybe return to the opening soft chords to bring it to a close? With an adaptation like this rather than a 1:1 translation, these are the fun decisions we can still make in the moment or plan out beforehand.
😺 come say meow
twitch | twitch.tv/blumenmusic
youtube | youtube.com/channel/UCQhqDbaMPMatLK-bC40HhJg
instagram | instagram.com/richard.m.blumenthal
spotify | open.spotify.com/artist/5anByZL38ayUaLg0TYY5LM
transcriptions | blumenmusic.gumroad.com
donate so I can buy cat food | paypal.me/blumenmusic
#pianocover #postrock #mathrock
🌥️ At long last, a Cloudkicker cover. This album is 14 years old.
🌥️ Transcription - blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/CloudkickerPiano
📜 This was an arrangement that one of my students wanted to work on, originally I made a worksheet for them to get ideas flowing for arranging each general section of the Cloudkicker original. They also found a wonderful cover from 2013 that had some beautiful left hand ideas and pacing we took inspiration from: youtube.com/watch?v=qI-HMSgu314.
Since Ben Sharpe’s MO is to layer and layer, an effective piano cover (to my ears) needs to have dynamic contrast and be able to ebb and flow in intensity. Figure I'd give it a whirl as well.
The pdf I made I hope is a good reference for general structure and ideas, but with something like this the performer can continue to tinker with textural decisions throughout the form. Maybe you want to move the vocal lines to a different register so they soar over the rest of the ostinato more? Where will the loudest warm apex of the song be, and how will you plan your dynamics to swell appropriately? Do you want an abrupt cutoff at the end, or maybe return to the opening soft chords to bring it to a close? With an adaptation like this rather than a 1:1 translation, these are the fun decisions we can still make in the moment or plan out beforehand.
😺 come say meow
twitch | twitch.tv/blumenmusic
youtube | youtube.com/channel/UCQhqDbaMPMatLK-bC40HhJg
instagram | instagram.com/richard.m.blumenthal
spotify | open.spotify.com/artist/5anByZL38ayUaLg0TYY5LM
transcriptions | blumenmusic.gumroad.com
donate so I can buy cat food | paypal.me/blumenmusic
#pianocover #postrock #mathrock
