Lyric Advice

So, as I assume, most of us here cannot speak Japanese very well. So do you have any tips on how to get the lyrics correctly?

Like getting the romaji lyrics? Or pronouncing?

I say, watch anime :3
Seriously, it's really, really good.

This might be a bit hard for me to explain in english... er...
All the syllables in japanese are the same length (?) and unlike in english the a i u e o always sounds the same in any word. If you learn how the pronounce those you can say almost anything. Except when you see EI, then it's a "long" E, exemple sensei. But its not wrong to say sense-i, it's very common in singing, it's more ee when talking.
The other one is OU, it's a long O...

Now how to pronounce...

A - kinda like the u in under
I - kinda like the i in sick
U - I don't know how to explain this sound...
E - kinda like the e in ether
O - kinda like the o in october, mabye not so right...

It's good to watch some anime or japanese songs, try to listen and repeat how it's really pronounced, it's hard to use english words to explain, you have to hear it...

Hope this helped a little...

@yanovi: Pronouncing Romanji Lyrics

THIS is helpful. I watched japanese anime too many times to count!

EDIT: I'm going to attempt to do Meltdown. xD

This might be a bit hard for me to explain in english... er...
All the syllables in japanese are the same length (?) and unlike in english the a i u e o always sounds the same in any word. If you learn how the pronounce those you can say almost anything. Except when you see EI, then it's a "long" E, exemple sensei. But its not wrong to say sense-i, it's very common in singing, it's more ee when talking.
The other one is OU, it's a long O...

Adding on to the saying E-I separately or as one..
there are other vowels that do that too. Namely, the U & I.
Like "Desu" can be either pronounced "De-Su" or just "Dess". It depends on the song. Usually it's skipped in normal speech.
Same thing with the word "Ichi" can be pronounced "I-Chi" or just "Ich". Also depends.

Also, the "R" is pronounced differently. It's an L/R sound (hard to explain..) but some singers sing it with a really stong L sound entirely (like clear)

The "Fu" is also pronounced differently too. It's not really a direct pronunciation-- use less lips muscle(w, sorry, i can't explain it well.) as you would pronounce it in english.

Listen repeatedly to Japanese songs and listen to Japanese people speaking. You get an idea of how Japanese people pronounce. Also, trying really hard not to use "English" sounds when you're speaking Japanese (like pronouncing the vowels in a way that's different than what the people before me have mentioned, knowing the difference between how the Japanese say the consonant "t" and how English-speakers say it, etc). Basically, listening. c:

I wish someone had broken down the lyrics of Meltdown for me so I could sing it. ^.^ I can sing Dear with 90% accuracy on pure listening since I listened to it about 600000 times.

What do you mean by break down? Romanize them more clearly (because sometimes the romaji versions I find don't categorize the words correctly)? If that's so, maybe I could help? .-. Or are you talking about something completely different?

@yanovi: Oh yeah Clear is like: "Aligato (arigato) Sayonala (sayonara)

and "fu" when pronounced sorta sounds like "hu"

Like how to prounce each word. >< It's so confusing when I looked it up.

Just listen to the song over and over, maybe small parts several times and then moving on to the next part, while reading the lyrics, and trying to pronounce them. If you have an accent, you will probably (?) be able to get rid of it after some practise, but I wouldn't worry all that much about it. For example, people can move to Japan not knowing a word but after -insert a number- years they could speak it fluently ...
(It wont take years to learn how to pronounce words in a song though lol ;

I heard from someone it takes like 12 - 13 days.

And no I don't have an accent. I am Chinese and can speak chinese. So obviously Japanese is slightly related to Chinese, so yeah, no accent! ^.^

Yay for no accent! C: Um, well, may I ask which lyrics you're using to learn? Like, maybe you could quote them underneath a spoiler? Maybe they're not being spelled correctly. :l

the L/R thing is hard to explain. I usually go more on the R side than the L side, but some singers do it differently, and some have like this perfect balance in between lol.

@AkemiKioku

I know what song your quoting. 8D I like it a lot. Sorreh off topic.

I learned how to do it just by listening to a lot of songs and anime. I swear, anime really really helps. you kinda pick it up without even trying too.

Meltdown lyrics

machi-akari hanayaka
EETERU masui no tsumetasu
memure nai gozen niji
subete ga kyuusoku ni kawaru
OIRU gire no RAITAA
yaketsuku youna ino naka
subete ga sou uso nara
hontou ni yokatta noni ne
kimi no kubi o shimeru yume o mita
hikari no afureru hiru sagari
kimi no hosoi nodo ga haneru no o
nakidashi souna mede miteita

kaku-yuugou-ro nisa
tobi-konde mitai to omou
massao na hikari tsutsumarete kirei
kaku-yuugou-ro nisa
tobi-konde mitara soshitara
subete ga yurusareru youna kigashite
BERANDA no mukou gawa
kaidan o nobotte yuku oto
kageri dashita sora ga
mado GARASU ni heya ni ochiru
kakusan suru yuugure
maki harashita youna hi no aka
tokeru you ni sukoshi zutsu
sukoshi zutsu shinde yuku seikai
kimi no kubi o shimeru yume o mita
haru-kaze ni yureru KAATEN
kawaite kireta kuchibiru kara
koboreru kotoba wa awa no you
kaku-yuugou-ro nisa
tobi-konde mitai to omou
masshiro ni kioku toka-sarete kieru
kaku-yuugou-ro nisa
tobi-konde mitara mata makashi mitai ni
memureru youna sonna kigashite
tokei no byoshin ya
TEREBI no shikai-sha ya
soko ni irukedo mienai dareka no
warai-goe houwashite hankyou suru
AREGURO・AJITEETO
miminari ga kienai yamanai
AREGURO・AJITEETO
miminari ga kienai yamanai
daremo minna kieteku yume o mita
mayonaka no heya hirosa to seijaku ga
mune ni tsukkaete
jouzu ni iki ga dekinaku naru
AHHHHHH!!
kaku-yuugou-ro nisa
tobi-konde mitara soshitara
kitto memuru you ni kiete ikerunda
boku no inai asa wa
ima yuri zutto suba-rashikute
subete no haguruma ga kami-atta
kitto sonna seikai da
AHHHHH!

Well, right off the bat, there are a few spelling mistakes.

"machi-akari hanayaka
EETERU masui no tsumetasa
nemurenai gozen niji
subete ga kyuusoku ni kawaru"

...

"kaku-yuugou-ro nisa
tobi-konde mitai to omou
masshiro ni kioku toka-sarete kieru
kaku-yuugou-ro nisa
tobi-konde mitara mata mukashi mitai ni
memureru you na sonna kigashite"

...

"kaku-yuugou-ro nisa
tobi-konde mitara soshitara
kitto memuru you ni kiete ikerunda
boku no inai asa wa
ima yori zutto suba-rashikute
subete no haguruma ga kami-atta
kitto sonna seikai da
AHHHHH!"

Those are just small typos, though. Otherwise, the lyrics are correct and perfectly clear. Is there any specific pronunciation problem you're having?

Well... my timing is off. Help me with that?

Ahh, I see. Is it because of the way the lyrics are spaced? I know it's kind of weird because it ends up sounding like (where the spaces are pauses), "machi aka rihanayakaEETERU ma sui no tsumetasa." The spacing of the syllables is kind of odd. And then at the bridge, it kind of gets faster. If that's the problem, I could try and send you a version of the lyrics that are spaced the way they're said? But I'm not sure that would help.

Please do that. It'll help me a lot.

Okie doke. I'll see what I can do to try and simplify things for you, but I don't know how well I'll do. I'll send them to you as soon as I can.

Arigato gozaimasu!

In the L/R thing sometimes I just copy the lyrics and change the r into l's.
Since I cant do rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr's I automatically say llllllllllllllllllllllllll's.

r/l is like pronouncing the "r" sound putting your tongue against the roof of your mouth.
And "f" and "h" are often mixed, too. Because the "f" sound isn't as rough as it is in English.

a e i o u, think of... Spanish and German vowels. c:
"i" is like "ee"
"o" is like oh, but without closing your lips all the way...
"u" is like "oo"

This lets you hear 'em -> http://www.tokyowithkids.com/fyi/hiragana_chart.html

If you ask me honestly, the r/l is something even Japanese singers have a problem with. They have no problem with speaking it, but it's hard sound to sing. A lot of Japanese singers outright pronouce it as r anyway. It's not a HUGE problem, so long as , for example, you sing "ru" and not "rew" (unless it suits the song)

It helps to literally just think you're speaking to a stupid person and have to enunciate EVERY SINGLE SYLLABLE. Because Japanese is very much a "flat" language, doing that will help you get the hang of singing it. You will FEEL stupid singing like that, but it definitely helps 8D.

Just singing more Japanese songs will improve your ways in singing and pronouncing them all =D! My simple trick is just going by "a,e,i,o,u" all the time and you'll be fluent speaker .

It really depends on the person's experience too =3!