Formspring Question

I received a Formspring question a few months ago asking the following: "How hard was it to learn a new song and dance in Japanese for you?" I tried to answer this on Formspring, but I have a lot to write about, so I think it's better that I make a blog post about it.

The simple answer is that it's pretty difficult. Japanese is not my mother tongue, but I really like the language. When I listen to a new song that I want to learn, I often don't pay enough attention to the words themselves. If I did, I would understand the context a lot better from the start. ^_^" It's something I need to work on and pay attention to, but it often slips my mind because I'm so into the music of the song. In terms of which is more difficult to memorize between the lyrics and the dance moves, it would have to be the lyrics hands down. It's usually what slows me down and takes the most time for me to learn. 

When it comes to learning a new dance, it's always difficult to follow at first. You have to first start in the right position and then remember which arm or leg moves first, etc. However, when the dance is broken down step-by-step, it becomes a lot easier to follow (watching videos at half speed help a lot). The tricky thing about learning dances is that it is not as simple as it looks. Often times, I replicate the moves as I see them, but they don't look the same as what the original dancers are doing. A good example of this is in my cover of Majide Suka Ska! where in the beginning part, I have to first put both hands on my hips and then both hands behind my back. But when I watch my cover, both parts look exactly the same. This was because I didn't practice in front of a mirror. 

Practicing in front of a mirror is the most important thing to do as it helps you to see what needs perfecting and what moves need to be tweaked to resemble the original dance moves. A good example of this is in my cover of Night Flight, where one of my hands needs to be flat as if I'm holding a tray. When I practiced in front of a mirror, I noticed that the palm of my hand was showing, and so my hand didn't look like it was holding an invisible tray at all. I then figured out that I had to tilt my hand upward a bit, so that only the side of my hand could be seen, which gave the illusion of the top of my hand being flat. 

Sometimes, I only see my mistakes during recordings. With my Fantasy ga Hajimaru cover, the part where I say "Fantasy ga hajimaru", while my right arms moves in a circular motion, it's suppose to end with my arm being straight up. But when I recorded the first few times, my arm was always bent. So I had to go in front of a mirror and practice making sure that my arm was straight. Even though it looks simple to do, I'm exerting a lot more energy than it seems. This is also an important part in dancing: when moves appear effortless, they actually require a lot more energy than you can imagine it would take. That's why simply looking at the monitor and copying the dance moves is simply not enough. Paying attention to nuances, timing, and how sharp or smooth the movement should be makes all the difference. Someone who memorizes the dance completely, but doesn't put enough energy into it will simply look lazy. Those who pay attention to every detail and put as much energy as they can into each move will wow you with their intensity. 

I'm also currently working on better singing the lyrics by using my experience from playing piano pieces. A song is not one volume and monotone singing all the way through. A song contains soft parts, loud parts, slow parts, and fast parts. These are what my piano teacher calls "dynamic details", which gives more depth to the song and makes it more musically interesting. The lyrics may already hold a deep message, but if it can't be conveyed properly in all its colours, then the song has not been done justice. 

Overall, it's difficult to learn a new song and dance in Japanese because it's not simply singing the song and dancing to the song, but being able to convey everything about the song through those two means of expression. This is what I'm currently striving for and I hope to be able to do justice to every song I cover in the future.