Rising Hope (Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei OP)-LiSA

Rising Hope is definitely one of the most HYPED songs from LiSA and I have been really looking forward to finally arranging this song for this week's upload. The second season of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei is also airing in this fall season 2020 and I can't wait to hear more "onii-sama!" memes from everyone's favorite character Miyuki-chan.

Interestingly, Rising Hope has a fairly unusual song structure because the second chorus is not immediately played after the second verse, but instead it's played at the very end, followed by the third chorus. Perhaps this is the reason why the chorus feels more exciting than usual, because it feels more "unique".

Whenever I am encountering "speaking" parts in Anime songs, I am at loss at what to do first, because I am relying heavily on my ear to identify the exact melody of the original song. But how should I translate it to the piano if the melody itself doesn't have a clear pitch? The first (00:41) and second verse (01:51) of Rising Hope have a very intense call and response "speaking" part featuring the voice of LiSA and an unidentified crowd, greatly raising the atmosphere. I tried many things on the piano, and what worked the best for me was simply representing the rhythmic energy of the "speaking" parts on the piano to maintain the exciting atmosphere.

Another interesting feature of Rising Hope is the distinct piano voice in the background that is present in many key moments, including the famous piano introduction part. I used the three hand technique to mirror the piano voice in many key moments such as the pre-chorus part in 01:02 and in 03:09.

I was also experimenting with a few jazzy elements in the bridge part in 02:27, as well in the outro in 04:00. To be honest, I still don't understand how Jazz scales truly works and I have to conduct many trial-and-error experiments on the piano, until I can find the best right hand pattern. But my golden rule is: if it sounds good, it's good.

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Piano arrangement by Animenz

Original Song: Rising Hope

Anime: Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei / The Irregular at Magic High School / 魔法科高校の劣等生

Published by: Aniplex (2014)

Composed by: Tomoya Tabuchi / 田淵 智也

Performed by: LiSA