Hi! I’m Majd, a self-taught anime pianist - please leave a like if you loved my cover of Animenz’s Blue Bird! Let me know in the comments if you want a full detailed and thorough tutorial on how I practiced the piece. Also, which song do you want me to play next? :)

Instagram Account: [ Ссылка ]

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Blue Bird, one of the most iconic anime songs from one of the best and most popular anime shows - Naruto. Each time I listen to it I recall those happy days when I binge watched Naruto Shippuden and enjoyed every moment of it without any care in the world.

I listened to multiple piano arrangements for Blue Bird, but I liked Animenz’s the most as it is a very beautiful and thrilling piece with many different and new techniques. The piece in total took me two months to learn and reach performance level almost at full tempo with an average of 30-45mins practice per day. I wanted to finish it quicker but had a very stressful and busy period at work and that didn’t leave me with much time to practice :(

The piece overall is not as difficult compared to the rest of Animenz’s pieces from 2015 such as Unravel, No game no Life, My Dearest, etc., as the left hand mostly consists of jumps that repeat throughout the song (especially the chorus) but with enough practice and slow training, it will become natural and somewhat easier to play it when your muscle memory sets in.

As for the right hand, I encountered two parts which gave me trouble since I didn’t play anything similar before. The first is the two alternating descending scales at 02:13 which took me ~2 weeks to master and using different rhythmic exercises; I tried Animenz’s fingering which uses the pinky but since mine is weaker, I opted for another fingering which made it much easier to play. Also, this section heavily relies on forearm rotation at very high speed which reminds me of Winder Wind, and after practicing it long enough, I felt like I unlocked a new insight and mind-muscle connection when using my forearm!

The second is the octave tremolos at 02:51 ; These are hard to practice as your forearm will get tired fast after mins and you need to take a break very often. Honestly I thought I played it perfectly, but when I prepared the video I found out that I didn’t :’)

I tried my best to imitate all of the dynamics and the pedalling that Animenz used (the music sheets do not mention when to use the sustain and soft pedals so I had to watch carefully in slow motion how Animenz pedals in some sections). I added the pedalling that I used at the bottom right and hope it helps you if you decide to learn this piece!

Finally, this is the first time I tried overhead recording and using piano particles and it’s definitely not easy! It literally took me a week of experimenting just to understand what’s the best way to record, best angle, what to use to cover the floor, avoiding sunlight, avoiding the air conditioner from moving the camera, how to align the keyboard to Seemusic’s template etc.

Anyways, I hope you guys liked the video! Please leave a like, comment and subscribe for more!

####### Song Details #######

- Name: Blue Bird - Ikimono-gakari
- Piano Arrangement by: Animenz
- Original Piano Cover: [ Ссылка ]


#### Recording Setup #######

- Digital Piano: Kawai CA79
- VST: Garritan CFX Concert Grand
- Laptop: Macbook Pro
- DAW: Reaper

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#animenz #bluebird #naruto

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