Genesis - Afterglow - Piano Sheet Music + PDF

Some useful gumpf; click on SHOW MORE (just below).

It's scored, as usual, with Sibelius 7.5

The piano audio was created in Presonus Studio One v4.5 using Modartt’s Pianoteq 6 CP-80 Electric Grand piano and processed thru Valhalla’s UberMod for the chorus effect and FabFilter’s Pro Q2 to tame the piano’s upper ’tizz’, remove the slight lower-mid ‘honkiness’ and boost the bass a bit (see my “Undertow” video for more info about Tony & his Yamaha CP-70B Electric Grand).

Phil’s vocals are from the centre channel of the 5.1 mix of the original recording off “Wind and Wuthering” but I’ve had to speed them up by around 15% as that’s how much faster this version is compared with the studio version.
Also, you may occasionally hear some ‘spill’ (probably bleed-through from the headphones Phil would’ve worn when recording his vocal track) at the end of some of his bits of vocal; nothing I could do about that really as it would’ve meant unnaturally curtailing the delay/reverb that was added to his voice on the original.
This ’spill’ is inaudible on the original W&W track as it’s masked by the rest of the instrumentation, but on it’s own (with just my piano part accompanying) it’s slightly noticeable which is why I’ve mentioned it.

I wanted you to actually hear how I play this piece when singing along to it - thankfully I didn’t include my vocals!! lol ;)
So, my piano part was recorded ‘live’. I’ve tidied up a few ‘accidental’ notes, but apart from that, it’s an actual perfomance that I then sync’ed Phil’s vocals to.

This explains the end of page 3 and all of page 4 of the PDF which looks far more complex than it actually is simply because of all the rhythmic interplay between my right and left hand. I do this just to try to give it a bit of the sort of movement that can be heard on the live version from “Seconds Out” and so I thought it might be interesting to effectively ‘document’ it. I’ve even included an approximation of ‘that drum fill’ in bar 57 :)
But please don’t try to duplicate it all exactly when you play!
Instead, use it as a sort of guide if you feel like going all rhythmical too.
If not, page 5 (see description later) does away with all the frilly stuff :)

On top of that, I’ve also tried to give a hint of the beautiful sustained ‘ahs’ (reminiscent of “I’m Not in Love” by 10cc) on the instrumental outro from the W&W studio version. Hence the D major with added 4th cluster (beginning of bar 58) and the descending top line (bar 59).
This also explains the D9 chords in bar 20 which are a combination of a D major with a C and an E added from that breathy vocal thang :)

So in the end, this is a combination of all 3 versions! (P&T acoustic, W&W studio and SO live)

For those of you who want to play Tony’s acoustic performance, I’ve included the bits that he plays (what I call the ‘alternative’ Eb section and the C and instrumental End section) on page 5 of the PDF.
I play the G sections in the main transcription (intro and vocal verses on pages 1 and 2) pretty much as Tony does.
I’m sure with a bit of effort you’ll be able to fit together Tony’s actual part (on the acoustic version) from all the bits in the score :)

I should say that bars 36-47 are simplified versions of what I play; the right hand is as written, but the left hand has lots of rhythmical stuff happening on my audio. However, it all looked a bit silly, so I just left the complex LH rhythm stuff for you to simulate in your own way if you feel so inclined.

Any ‘cue’ notes (slightly smaller ones) should be played but much more softly than the other notes. This seemed to me to be the best way to indicate this.
The bracketed notes (e.g. bar 55) can be omitted if you struggle to play all four of the RH notes together.

Finally, use the sustain pedal liberally throughout the entire piece!

Phew! I think that’s everything :)

[lucastytla]

And when the world needed him the most.... he returned

[patricklemeur]

merci pour tous ces accords ! la voix de PHIL me surprends !...bravo...

[cheryllawrance]

Thank you. Always loved this track. Beautiful

[pthomas]

Glad to see you back!! More wonderful work, thank you!

[penponds]

I can just imagine those Taurus bass pedals swelling up to underpin the whole piece. Epic!!

[orochimarukishimoto]

This is by far the best keyboard transcription of "Afterglow" by Genesis on YouTube. Job well done!

[taribluejay]

Just saw this, it is beautiful. One of the best Genesis tracks ever👌😎

[pedroalbornoz]

Man you have no idea, you just made all the sheets i needed

[kevincamino]

Well done! One of my all-time favorite Tony Banks songs. What version is this, it sounds like a stripped down version from the original Wind and Wuthering cut?

[Ahma]

Well done.good work.. great work. Thanks so much for share

[geoffa]

Please, please, please do "Anyway" from The Lamb.

[Nave_Artificial_Composer]

Is that the real voice of Phil Collins (isolated)? How did you do it? Great work, btw.

[pawelbilinski.music.official]

So incredible that Phil never used ugly "vibratos" in long phrases, which is very irritating manner in music nowadays. And we don't need that.

[kevincamino]

I take back the question...I just read your notes