How to Sing ‘Marigold’ by Aimyon in Japanese!

Useful techniques you need to know when you sing Japanese songs

Hello, Jpop 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 learn how to sing “Marigold” by Aimyon in Japanese.  Let’s get started!

Three Points about Japanese Sound

First thing first, let me begin with the explanation about basic Japanese pronunciation rules that you need to apply when singing Japanese contemporary songs.

• Each syllable ends with a vowel with one exception.
• Each vowel has only one way to pronounce it.
• Each syllable consists of either one vowel or “one vowel + one consonant”.

When it comes to singing Japanese songs, you need to make sure that each syllable of the lyrics ends with a vowel with a single exception. There are five different types of vowels in Japanese; a (ahh), i(ihh), u(wuuh), e(ehh), o(ohh) and each vowel has only one sound.

For the third point, If you have a look at the lyrics of the chorus section, you’ll see  each syllable consists of either a single vowel or the combination of a consonant and vowel. When we put a consonant in front of the vowel, all you need to do is make the sound of that consonant and add the sound of the vowel.

If you take one of the syllable sounds from the first chorus of Marigold, you can see the combination of consonant 「w」and vowel 「a」and according to the Japanese pronunciation rule, you need to pronounce this syllable with the combination of 「w」and 「a」sound at the same time.

You can apply this rule to the rest of the syllables of the song.

Let’s Go Through the Lyrics & Singing Techiniques

Let’s move on to the essential techniques that you need to know when singing Marigold in Japanese.You can have a look at the lyrics picture that I inserted here on this page so that it’ll be easier for everyone to make sense all the terms I explain.

There are three terms you need to understand before getting into singing.

• Scooping
• Fall (Singing out of tune) 
• Breath

Scooping in singing refers to sliding two pitches instead of hitting them directly. In some styles of music, such as jazz or blues, singers use scooping techniques intentionally to add an expressiveness to the performance. When it comes to singing Marigold, Aimyon intentionally use this technique to make her the singing voice sounds a bit powerful and dynamic rather than weak and soft.

Fall means you need to slightly go out of tune usually for the emphasis. All you have to do is simply lower your pitch slightly to add a bit of a flavor of “lack of motivation” or “laziness” to the singing voice.

You’ll need to make sure when you take a breath while singing, especially for this song since the timing is quite unusual. If we take one of the lines  from the chorus;  「Marii gordo ni ni teru」as an example of a unique way to take a breath, you have to take a quick breath between 「ni」and 「teru」which are supposed to be pronounced as a single word (niteru: 似てる: looks like), in fact.

Lastly, for line 4, you need to put a little 「e」sound in front of 「anohino 」to add an emphasis and impact.

Let’s sing along the chorus section applying these three techniques so your singing will sound more like Aimyon!

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

We offer online lessons at Honey Music School by native Japanese vocal teacher who can teach you many useful techniques and tips to sing your favorite Japanese songs.

If you feel like singing more of the rest of “Marigold” or if you have your favorite Japanese songs to practice, please join us at Honey Music School. See you soon!

Information

• Aimyon Official Web Site
• Aimyon Official YouTube Channel
• Aimyon Instagram