[Piano Arrangement]Again ＆ Again - Plastic Memories OST

Finally finished editing and uploading the video as September winds down. Truthfully, the first draft of this arrangement was done back in January—but I never quite felt it was right. I tinkered with it off and on, only finalizing the current version in early September. The piece has an incredibly beautiful melody, like a gentle retelling of someone’s story. Since it’s not an intense work, I kept the bass line simple this time—no complex rhythms, no virtuosic flourishes—just focusing on holding the overall sonic texture together. But without extra voices, it risked feeling flat, so I leaned heavily on three-part voicings here. Every voice shines on its own. To let each part do its job, my hands sometimes have to leap across the keyboard—lol. Worth calling out: Most of the chords at the start and end are inverted, whereas root-position chords just didn’t work as well. My best guess? The opening/closing melodies are so calm that inverted chords create a smooth, unbroken line—root-position chords might “jump out,” stealing the spotlight from the main tune. Or maybe inverted chords serve their functional role without being too colorful (these two points kinda overlap, haha). I still can’t wrap my head around the mode at first—I was confused by the accidentals and thought it might be Dorian, but now I’m leaning toward ​​♭E melodic major​​ because of the ♭C and ♭D. But the last few bars? Totally stumped. How do I explain that ♮E? So confused. 00:10 Love the bass harmony here. 00:50 The crescendo-diminuendo feels sosmooth. 01:22 Lots of three-part writing from here (a lot of it actually comes from the original piece!). 01:40 The original’s high melody here wrecks me—it’s sobeautiful. 01:48 The left hand has a marked melodic line in the score—even playing just the left hand sounds melodic. Is this polyphony? (Confused theory newbie alert.) 01:55 Here, the bass uses accents instead of octaves—to build emotion. Octaves would be too strong. Can’t believe it’s already been a year—today’s my 21st birthday, what a perfect coincidence. I’ve put out five covers this year; definitely need to update faster. Both my arrangements and playing need work. This video has a few missed notes, but no wrong ones—lol. Next year, let’s keep pushing forward! Composed by Yokoyama Masaru Performed by Melody Chubak