How to sing Mayonaka no Door by Miki Matsubara.

Useful techniques you need to know when you sing Japanese songs

Hello, City Pop lovers! Welcome to Honey Music School. If you are interested in singing Japanese songs, this is the best place to join because we are going to sing “Mayonaka no Door ”by Miki Matsubara.

This song was released in 1979, so a long time ago but it’s recently become a hit again especially in the city pop scene. It’s kind of like a bittersweet love song, a bit uptempo, with a raspy, maybe even a little sensual vibe as to how Matsubara Miki sings the song. And yeah, it’s just a fun song to sing so let’s just dive right into it!

Point①：The basics of Japanese pronunciation.

Okay guys, so there’s 5 points that I’d like to share with you guys. The first one is going to be the point that I reiterate in every one of my videos but just the basics of Japanese pronunciation and how to pronounce the vowels.

So in the Japanese language, there’s 5 main vowels.

A-EEH-OOH-EH-OH

So if you can get those 5 vowels down, then you got most of the song down in terms of pronunciation. So let’s try practicing it together!

So how did you do? You can rewind and go back, try one more time or as many times as you need. The vowels are definitely different from the English language, so it’s always good to practice again and again until you get it down.

Point②：The characteristic of R.

After the 5 vowels, we have the R’s. The R’s are really difficult to pronounce because they are completely different from the English R’s. So we want the tongue to be completely relaxed. As much as possible.

In the English language, we kind of curl the tongue a little bit and it doesn’t really touch any other part of our mouth like the roof of our mouth and it’s just in the open space.

But in the Japanese language, when we pronounce the R’s, it’s touching the roof of the mouth but right where the root of the teeth are.

It’s touching lightly and touching the roof of the mouth even before we actually pronounce the R. And then when you pronounce the R, you lightly release from the roof of the mouth. So let’s try RA. It’ll be at the roof of the mouth.

Also, we don’t necessarily roll the R’s. It’s hard to grasp at the beginning so just keep practicing and if you can’t get it right away, that’s totally normal. This will probably take a long time for many of you so take it easy and let’s try doing the R’s with all the vowels.

Ra, Ri, Roo, Re, Roh

So how did you do? Just keep on rewinding and practicing with me as many times as you need.

After the R’s, the last thing I’d like to point out is there’s one part in the lyrics where she sings “futari.” The FU is a little bit different from the English F because in the English version of F, we kind of bit down on the bottom lip a little bit. But in the Japanese F, it’s more like behind the bottom lip, very lightly touching behind. Barely touching.

I would say it’s even closer to H, Hu. But still try to get close to the bottom lip as possible without adding pressure to the bottom lip. It’s a bit difficult but I’m sure you can get it if you practice.

Point③：The slurs & the long notes.

Okay guys! So point number three. The staircase, the slurs, and the long notes. This is more about style and the overall performance of the song.

I used the word “staircase figuratively to represent this phenomenon. Well, usually, there’s one note for every vowel right? But in this case, there’s two notes for one vowel. It could be going up one or down one note, kind of like a stair.

There’s two places in the chorus where that happens. The first place is the second line, “Mayonaka no doa o tataki-i.” So it’s going down on “tataki-i.” And the second place is after the second “stay with me,” where she sings, “kuchiguse o ii nagara-a.” Yeah, those are the two places.

And then the slurs. I’m going to be mentioning these, but when Matsubara Miki sings, you can barely, honestly in my opinion, hear these slurs. It just kind of sounds like a slight emphasis but keep it in mind and don’t overdo it. Just a little bit. So the first one is “mayonaka.” The second one “kaeranaide.” The third one is “futari.” The last one is “daite.” I kind of exaggerated it. The first three are upwards and the last one is downwards.

The last thing to mention is the long notes. So the first one is… Well, I’m sure you noticed already but “stay with me.” You want to have this forward placement. If you need to use your hand, that’s good practice. Or find a point across the room where you can aim your note at. So if you can practice the long notes, it’ll make a big difference, I think!

Point④：The staccato

Okay, so point four is staccato. In the song, Matsubara-san does staccato, but not really sharp. But it’s definitely not connected.

For example, I’m going to skip the first line and come back to it later, because in the third line, she does it in an easy to explain way.

She sings “ki se tsu.” But we don’t want to make it too sharp. Just a little bit. And she does it after that, “me no ma e.” So going back to the first line, it’s a little different because she does the staccato and then this forward emphasis, “do a.” On the “do” we do the staccato, and then on the “a,” a forward emphasis. And after that she sings “ta ta ki.”

On the “ta ta” we want to do the staccato. Further down, she sings “ku chi gu se,” she does staccato on the “ku” and then forward on the “chi,” “gu” staccato and then forward on the “se.”

So it’s rhythmical. And then next is “na ga ra.” “Wa su re” and last, “ji ni shi.”

Point⑤：The emphasis vowels.

Point number 5, the last point is emphasis. So she kind of adds some power to certain vowels.

We don’t want to give too much power but, just a little bit. More weight on certain vowels. (***Sings through song with emphasis on highlighted vowels).

It actually makes it easier to sing if you do this. It gives the song more rhythm and it will also help you get into the groove of the song as well.

Learn More About How to Sing Japanese Songs at Honey Music School!

So those were the 5 points that I wanted to share with you guys today.

I know it was a lot to take in and it might feel overwhelming so just focus on one point. Don’t try to do everything at once.

So just take one point and work on it and when you feel like, “yeah, I got it!” maybe move on the next point and build on that.

You’re doing good! Make sure to be your own best friend throughout this musical journey and I hope you got something useful out of this video.

Thank you for watching until the end and stick around to hear the song one last time so maybe you can sing along with me or just to see if you can hear all the things I pointed out.

So that was it! I hope you enjoyed this video and see you next time! Bye!!