How to sing “First Love” by Hikaru Utada
Hi everyone, this is Emily from Honey Music School and today we’re going to be learning First Love by Utada Hikaru.
I’ll be introducing some tips and tricks for pronunciation and how to add just a little bit of style to the song so you kind of sound like the queen herself! So let’s get started.
Useful techniques and points you need to know
Okay, so all in all, there’s four points for pronunciation that I’d like to introduce. And then, I will talk about adding style a little bit.
How to pronounce the vowels themselves
So point number 1 is about how to pronounce the vowels themselves because they are a little bit different from English vowels.
So I’d like to practice together a little bit just to get the basics down. So in Japanese, there’s 5 vowels – ah, ee, oo, eh, oh.
And that’s it. Every single syllable in the Japanese alphabet practically has these vowels and they are always the same.
So if you practice these, your pronunciation will be pretty solid for the most part. Let’s practice! Rewind as many times as you’d like, so you can get them down. Ready?
Ah. Ee. Oo. Eh. Oh.
So, how was it? If you can’t get it down right away, no worries. Just practice again!
Pronouncing r’s
Okay, so this is part of point number 1 but I wanted to mention pronouncing r’s because it’s probably the most challenging part of pronouncing Japanese.
Ra, Ri, Roo, Re, Roh. It’s not R and it’s not L, it’s kind of in the middle. But one thing to mention is when you’re making the sound, you don’t really have to roll the r’s necessarily, but if you can kind of touch the roof of your mouth, like right near the teeth.
Not behind the teeth, but right near them, still touching the roof of your mouth.
Thinking about that might be helpful but it’s really difficult to pronounce these vowels so if you can’t get them right away, it’s okay. Let’s practice together! Ready? Ra. Ri. Roo. Re. Roh.
There’s a small “tsoo”
So one more thing that I’d like to practice with you guys.
In Japanese, sometimes you have to take a small pause when there’s a small っ(tsoo). In the song, she says “omotteru.” There’s a small “tsoo” in there so you wanna take a pause.
How to do that naturally is to hold your breathe a little bit. Not too much. At first, it’s good to practice exaggerated but after doing that a few times, maybe try to see if you can do it naturally.
If you can get that down, it will be very helpful for the song.
Sounds “tsoo”
The last pronunciation thing that I’d like to practice with you guys is the sound “tsoo”. It doesn’t exist in English.
You kind of add a t sound before the s. First, you can pronounce “soo” with an s and then add the t sound, but not too much.
Cut it really short. You don’t wanna go “tuh-soo”. It might be a little difficult but if you can get this down, it does come out in the song once or twice. Let’s try one more time. Ready? Tsoo. There we go.
Point2. Let’s get down to it with the actual song.
Okay guys. Now that we got the pronunciation basics down, let’s get down to it with the actual song.
Deliberate pauses
Point number two, I want to introduce this idea of taking deliberate pauses.
When we’re speaking, we’re not going to be taking these pauses at all, but in the song, Utada Hikaru does take these pauses within the song.
They can kind of feel unnatural because we would never usually take those pauses when we’re talking but yeah, take some notes and let’s go!
So just the first line, try to listen carefully for the deliberate pauses.
“Sa (pause) igo no (pause) kisu wa.”
First Love by Hikaru Utada
Did you hear it? So, that’s the first line. For the second line, there’s just one pause.
She sings “tabako no flavor ga shita.” Quick note, yes there’s some English in there. But after taba, pause, ko no flavor ga shita. So let’s try the second line.
“Taba (pause) ko no flavor ga shita.”
First Love by Hikaru Utada
Did you hear the pause? So remember, take a little breathe. A little breathe.
The third line, she sings “nigakute setsunai kaori.” And there’s also one deliberate pause after niga (pause) kute. So let’s try it.
“Niga (pause) kute setsunai kaori.”
First Love by Hikaru Utada
There we go! So let’s try it through, just the first few lines together. And try to think about the deliberate pauses but you don’t have to overthink it. So let’s try.
“Sa (pause) igo no (pause) kisu wa Taba (pause) ko no flavor ga shita Niga (pause) kute setsunai kaori”
First Love by Hikaru Utada
So how did you do? It’s okay if you can’t get it! Practice makes perfect!
Point3. Emphasis
Let’s go on to the next point. Which is, emphasizing certain vowels and consonants.
So like anything in life, too much is never a good thing. Even when you emphasize certain vowels that I’m about to introduce, you don’t need to that much. Just think, really gentle emphasizing. So let’s see here. From the beginning, there’s sa-I.
You’re going to emphasize the ii sound.
Then KIsu wa TabaKO no flavor-R ga shita. Niga KU te se TSU nai kaori.
So it’s going to be like that. Every time I sort of did a hand motion, that’s where you’re going to emphasize just a little bit.
You don’t even have to think emphasizing. Maybe think forward motion.
Try with your hand or finger, think forward. So that’s point number 3.
Point4. Extended vowels
Point number four. There’s some extending of the vowels throughout the song.
Utada Hikaru kind of uses the same pattern a little bit but it’s kind of difficult to do right off the bat. So let’s see. In the beginning she sings saigo no kisu wa.
Sa, I-I, GO-O. Do you see, it’s kind of like a stair.
She’s kind of going down the stairs with that one. You want to make sure you’re singing each note and not skipping over anything. Very important. And then she sings KI-I, su wa.
I kind of trill that part because I like adding the style, but if you can’t do that, it’s fine to just do the stair thing. And then tabako no flavor ga shita, there’s nothing there. And the next line, she sings nigaKU-U, te setsunai kaori. Yeah.
That’s about it for the extended vowels. So see if you can get those down.
Adding style
So that’s it for the most part. If you can get those four points down, then you’re almost there. The last thing is just adding style. If you wanna sound like Utada Hikaru, there’s some things you can do that she’s also doing.
Of course, you can always make it your own, which I always recommend of course. The sky’s the limit with these sorts of things, you’re free to do whatever you want. But, if you wanna kind of sound like her, which is also fun, she does this thing where she kind of sighs out of the note a few times. For example, in the very beginning, Sa (sigh), i go No (sigh). It’s a bit difficult but it’s kind of like really sighing.
Ahhh. Ahhh. Try it! Really loose. You don’t have to do a lot, just a little bit. She does it near the end again, anata wa doko ni (sigh).
That’s a little bit more powerful than in the beginning so you kind of want to add a little bit more momentum there. And last one, omotterun (sigh). Yeah, something like that. Very gentle. Nothing too much.
So that’s it for the sighs. If you wanna add a trill with kisu, it’s a little bit difficult so if you can’t get it, that’s okay. Just do Ki-i-su wa. Then the very last thing, da-rou. Yeah, that’s a doozy, it’s gonna take a lot of practice.
But, if you can go from chest voice to very light head voice or falsetto, that’s what she does in the music video. It’s very falsetto-like, with a lot of air. An airy sound. If you can do that, it will bring out the atmosphere of the song.
Learn More About How to Sing Japanese Songs at Honey Music School!!
Okay, that’s it for today! I hope you were able to get something out of this column.
I know there’s a lot to practice and I know sometimes it can be discouraging when you can’t get things right, right away.
But you got this. I know you can do it! I know it’s cheesy, but don’t give up!
I’ll see you next time! Bye!
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