Start Mandarin Now Through Pop Songwriting – Step I

> Start Mandarin Now!

Tutorial Mandarin Step 1) – Watch

Study and perform a well known Mandarin song.

Step 1. Watch, listen, and imitate video of famous Mandarin pop musician.

i) Discover Mandarin pop songs for yourself.  Search YouTube.  Start with search terms such as: Mandarin, chinese, mandopop, song, taiwan

ii) Find something that you like.  Just cut and paste the Chinese characters of the title and/or artist into the search engine for the lyrics.  If it is a famous artist, someone would have posted the lyrics as pinyin.  Start singing with the pinyin verson of the lyrics.  I have provided pinyin as captions in the video below for your convenience.  Generally, the only captions in a video will be in Chinese characters.

iii) Imitate vocals as best you can.  You will need confidence in your performance ability later with your own song.  Your song will be comprised of legitimate expressions found in Mandarin pop songs of famous musicians.  Start with Jay Chou.

NOTE: Check “cc” for the subtitles.  When you push “play,” you will see a red box with a “cc.”  Put your cursor over that and a menu will appear.  Start with the Pinyin cc “channel.”  Just in case you are unaware, Pinyin is a phonetic representation of Mandarin that uses Roman characters.  The lines over the words indicate the tones that must be pronounced for the expression to be understood.  Fortunately in mandopop, you don’t have to worry about tones.  They are ignored.

This is why I have suggested that mandopop is a good way to start using Mandarin immediately.  So let’s go!

Larry R. Leathers, Jr., Macroeconomist

Start Mandarin Now Through Pop Songwriting – Step III

>Start Mandarin Now!

Tutorial Mandarin Step 3) – Reuse

Create Your Own Song from Mandarin Songs.

Step 3. Compose Your Own Original Song.

i) Write the Chorus first. Use the phrase translations in Step 2. to guide your choice of candidates for the chorus of your own original song.  Find a few closely related phrases that describe what the feeling of “Love” does to you or inspires you to do.  Then find one phrase that can be used to identify “Love” directly.  If desired, you may use metaphor to avoid direct use of the word “Love.”

Arrange the phrases like this in the chorus of your first Mandarin pop song:

Line 1: “How love affects or inspires…” – Put Discovered Chinese Phrase #1 here

Line 2: “How love affects or inspires…” – Put Discovered Chinese Phrase #2 here

…

Line N: “Summary about love directly in context of lines 1 through N-1″ – Put Discovered Chinese Phrase #N here

“N” should not be larger than 4.

ii) Now for verses.  Find simple expressions that illustrate how you have arrived to the feeling expressed by the chorus.  These expressions will represent the verses.  Please, keep it simple!  For example, a phrase should not exceed 6 Chinese characters. Beyond 6 characters, expressions become too complicated to be immediately understood.  Remember, these words are going to be sung, not spoken.  When sung, Mandarin becomes difficult to understand because the spoken tones are missing.  You may use at most two phrases in a line.  Also, no more than eight lines of verse should precede the chorus.  Let us strive for brevity in our rhetoric.  Use the verses to inform, convince, and tantalize the listener as he or she anticipates the chorus.

iii) Set lyrics to music.  The found expressions that you have uniquely compiled are now saying something familiar, yet truly original.  This is exactly what a pop song should be.  Now customize an original melody to effectively convey the meaning of your words to a mass audience of Mandarin speakers.  Congratulations!  You have just composed your first Mandarin pop song!

Consult Jay Chou’s, Black Sweater:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWTyDEOmhao

I shall shortly demonstrate this method with an original song of my own.

Larry R. Leathers, Jr., Macroeconomist

Start Mandarin Now Through Pop Songwriting – Step II

>Start Mandarin Now!

Tutorial Mandarin Step 2) – Acquire

Study expressions in Mandarin song for reuse.

Step 2. Acquire simple expressions from Mandarin pop song for use in your song.

i) Find the Chinese character version of the lyrics you have in pinyin.  If the artist is from Taiwan, as are the internationally famous Mandopop artists, the original lyrics will be in traditional Chinese characters.  If from mainland China, the lyrics will be in simplified Chinese.  Assume traditional by default; the Taiwan and Hong Kong commercial music scene is predominant in Asia.

ii) From the lyrics, randomly choose the shortest phrases that you can find — at most six Chinese characters.  Keep it simple.  These will be potential candidates for your song.  Cut and past each into Google search.  Make sure you put parentheses around your phrases before you submit to Google.  Check the response.  In this step, you want to make sure that each expression is actually used by Chinese speakers.  If you do not see many hits, do not use this phrase.

iii) Now open Google Translate.  Copy and past your entire chosen phrases from the last step (ii) for meaning.  Then decompose phrases further by translating each of the characters.  Note that some of these characters are to be interpreted together as a word. Chinese words are either 1 or 2 characters long.  Check to see whether adjacent characters in a phrase resolve as Chinese words.  Record all definitions for future reference.

Consult Jay Chou’s, Black Sweater:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWTyDEOmhao

Larry R. Leathers, Jr., Macroeconomist

Start Mandarin Now Through Pop Songwriting – Tutorial Overview

Overview: You will write a Mandarin Song.

Step 1) Watch Video. Study imitate performer.

Step 2) Acquire Mandarin expressions.

Step 3) Reuse Mandarin in your songs.

First you will need to  study my English translation.  Check under the “cc” for English. Have fun!

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself crying.  Jay really pours a lot of empathy in his songs.

Larry R. Leathers, Jr., Macroeconomist

A 10-Step Collaborative Songwriting Method.

To give you some insights of the creative songwriting process, I submit to you a transcript excerpt of a chat that I had with a female vocalist from Hong Kong. I was writing a song for her a few years ago here in New York City.

BTW: I have yet to write a pop song in Cantonese, but I shall do so eventually.  Oh, yeah, this is my Microsoft live account, where I am “Günther.”

Günther says:

The first one is “Don’t Close Your Eyes (To The Reality That You Love Me)”

Günther says:

The second concept is “Are You My Kind of Guy?”

Günther says:

Now, it works like this.  (1) We discuss a situation.  And the feelings that are “in the moment”  Then there is some kind of history–related things that happened in the past that brings you “into the moment” now

Günther says:

(2) We come up with some expressions in Cantonese that capture the essence of the things we discussed in (1).  The first expressions we experiment with will usually make up the chorus but not necessarily so.  We just play with the sounds.  A melody will ensue naturally.

Günther says:

(3) As we play around with the chorus we find words that rhyme.  This will help us in the refinement process.  Eventually we will be left with some great ideas for a chorus.

Günther says:

(4) But we cannot commit to a chorus yet until we figure out the verses.  So remember in (1) where I refer to the history that takes us into “the moment”?  Let us investigate this history.

Günther says:

(5) OK. We just talk about whatever we want to.  We create a story.  Have a slice of pizza.  Just pitch ideas to each other.  Don’t focus on the words yet–just the feelings.  This is the pitching session.  We might draw charts on a sheet of paper that indicates how we get “into the moment”–which is the chorus.

Günther says:

6)  At the end of the pitching session, we will have quite a few ideas.  Each idea consists of a sequence of events.  Each event in a sequence has a specific feeling attached to it.  Let us now find the words that help us to create that feeling.  The best way to work it is to explore the events that happen closest to “the moment”, which is the chorus and work back from there to the beginning.

Günther says:

7) Now some of these pathways will feel more natural than others.  Get rid of the ideas that don’t seem to work immediately.  Now we are left with the information that we need to create the verses.

Günther says:

8 ) There is some epiphany or major realization about what is happening in the conflict–some major change of perspective.  Usually in a pop song, the feeling will be optimistic–especially if the verses are ‘kinda’ sad.  These new particular ideas will be candidates for the bridge.

Günther says:

9) in 8 ) I said, “there is some…” Well I was not quite precise here–There does not exist anything unless it is deliberately created, hence we have to go out of our way to change the perspective.  We must find a way to see the conflict from another point of view.  For example, if you are really hungry, after eating, everything looks a lot different–it is like that.

Günther says:

10) Basically, you “make the verses meet the chorus” and “the chorus meet the verses” in terms of the feelings. There can be no discontinuities in terms of the expectations of the listener.  The feelings must flow from the verses to the chorus naturally.

Günther says:

It is like a mathematical proof.  Only you deal with feelings as axioms.  There are feelings that imply other feelings–not necessarily articulated directly in the song.  These are like your “rules of inference.”  We have to discuss those beforehand–so the logic of feelings makes sense to both of us because feelings have very little logic and our experiences will in some ways be quite different.

Günther says:

And in other ways our experiences will have been very much the same…

Günther says:

Where our experiences have been the same, your logic and mine will be recognizable.  Meaningfully, it will be interesting to look at where our logic diverges.  This investigation might yield some compelling ideas that bring character and interest to the song.

Günther says:

Yes I am crazy. But necessarily so.  I have to go this far.  This is all about marketing.  I have to get “hands on” to reach my audience and I will reach them no matter what.

Günther says:

I have given you a method to writing a pop song.  Funny thing is that I just came up with it just now.

Wow!  Looking back on this, I am so impressed.

Larry R. Leathers, Jr.,  Macroeconomist

SM Entertainment USA Auditions 2009 – NYC

My SM Entertainment audition in New York City on Friday, Nov 27, 2009:

Hey.  Since I am writing a blog here about rhetoric and reaching ‘the masses’, it makes perfect sense that I would audition for SM Entertainment.  You already have a general understanding of my objectives.  Of course I am not trying to be SHINee.  Too old for that.  But I could be cast for a Chinese or Korean television drama.  SM Entertainment is huge in Korea.  The point is–SM can greatly amplify the reach of my rhetorical voice.  By the way, I have deliberately started learning Korean to enhance my acquisition of Chinese.

So this is what I did on Friday, November 27th.  I am going to publish my story here:

Anyway, I looked at the time at the bottom right bar of my WinXP screen.  It was like 3:00pm.  I knew it was past time to go to the SM Entertainment auditions.  Who knew how long the line would be to see the judges?  The travel would take about 2 hours from Brooklyn College, where I was, to “Korean Village” in Flushing, Queens.  Whew!  Fortunately, there was enough time.  I had my song ready.  At least I reckoned so.  For the last couple of days, I had been practicing a song I sort of knew–but I had not committed the lyrics to memory.  I knew 黑色毛衣 by Jay Chou by heart, but it was not as dramatic as the song I had been preparing.  The song of all songs to sing from Jay Chou is 黑色幽默 (Hei1 Se4 You1 Mo4).  Now it was time to see if I could sing this in public–and particularly for SM Entertainment.

Was I worthy enough to be represented by SM?  I grabbed my Chinese dictionary, the CD liner from Jay’s Album with the lyrics and hopped on the #2 train to Times Square.  Yes, I actually did buy Jay’s CD and it was not bootlegged either–I know bootleg.  I purchased it from one of the last legitimate mom and pop record stores in Flushing. This one was on Prince St., opposite the apartment buildings, which has since a few years ago been closed.   I liked going there because literally “the Mom” was exceedingly attractive.  And now I digress…

Back to the story..

Basically, the melody of “黑色幽默” has always been a part of me since I had first heard Jay singing this song about four years ago from a bootleg I purchased from another shop on Main St. in Flushing.  I discovered Jay from a SONY/BMG website not long before.

And now, here I was on the #2 train, on my way to destiny, writing out the lyrics in traditional Chinese to ensure that all resources for mental access during my performance were entirely at my disposal, at least subconsciously.  Actually lyric transcription is a great exercise.  Write out what you say; it is one means of reinforcing the meaning because when you sing Chinese, the “tones” necessary for intelligibility are entirely stripped from the expressions.  As a performer, you want to make sure that you are understanding completely what you are singing and not just emitting mellifluous sounds.

Anyhow, it was about 2hrs later and I found myself getting off at the Main St. Flushing stop at the end of the MTA (7) line.  I was not particularly stressed because I had practiced for the past two days.  Nonetheless, I do remember having brief memory lapses during my performances that morning.  I guess I was a little bit scared.  That is why I stopped singing and started writing the lyrics so my mind could nimbly latch onto other sources for dynamic performance recall.

It was about a 15 minute walk along Roosevelt Avenue as the most direct route to Korea Village on Northern Boulevard from the (7) station.

When I arrived there were absolutely no signs pointing to like “the most major international entertainment industry event happening in New York City”.  My God!  If you are in any way enlightened about Asian pop culture, you know that SM Entertainment is huge.  And particularly, Korea has a very distinguished pop music industry in Asia next to Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

If you had ever desired to perform in front of a global pan-Asian audience–that would be me–you would be first on line to audition.  So I wandered upstairs, walked around, then came back downstairs to a little dessert cafe on the first floor.  I asked the cute Korean girls behind the counter where the event was.  They pointed me down the hallway and downstairs.

And there, at the base of the stairwell, I found an L-shaped hallway with Asian-American teens milling about.  A door was opened to my left, and as I approached, I saw the room packed with SM hopefuls.  Everyone had a number stickered onto his or her chest.  This was it.   

I didn’t quite know who was in charge.  There was a desk in the hallway with a young man sitting behind it and some other people standing nearby.  I asked him, “What was going on?”  He informed me that I should talk to the people in the other room.

This was the “Epicenter”.  The room was about the size of a large sized meeting room in an average NYC hotel.  At one end were youthful SM hopefuls and some parents.  At the other end was a table where interns were handing out applications and numbers for the audition.  I was given one.  Well, actually we had to fill out two copies of the audition application. 

After having accepted a sticker with my number, I myself became a member of the club of SM hopefuls, and took a seat.

So there I was.  I found an empty seat in the middle of the room.  The room was about 80% filled. 

By the way, when I looked around, it was so pleasant to see so many beautiful and optimistic young people.  Everybody was so upbeat and positive.  I returned back to reciting on paper, the lyrics of  the song I would soon perform, in traditional Chinese, to calm my mind.

Every now and then, the SM interns would call numbers in groups of 10.  SM candidates would line up and stand against a wall.  We would shortly be led into an adjacent room to be judged.

One time I looked up and saw this most wonderous vision of beauty.  She was definitely Korean.  She must have been about 18.  She was extremely slender-as in unbelievably slender-as in “how is that possible?”.  She was nonetheless shapely with a very beautiful face and long jet black hair.  “Wow!”  If she could sing, she would be like Yuri’s replacement in SNSD.  Now if you know SNSD, you know Yuri is heavenly.  I really should not single out Yuri.  I would marry any of those girls.  They are hot! 

As for Taeyeon, God, I love Taeyeon!  She has a phenomenal voice and is ohhh sooo damn cute!  Dating her would be a dream.  The possibility of  meeting her was motivation enough for me to audition. 

Sigh…

So, eventually an SM intern called the range of numbers of which mine appeared.  I was not quite sure.  The character the intern had written as “5″ appeared as a “9″ to me.  When I inquired further, I found that the character was a “5″.  Then my application and copy was accepted from me and I put myself in numerical order against the wall.  Two girls ahead of me were obviously friends and kept each other company with nervous chatter while we were waiting to see the judges.

Then we were called to stand in a line at the other end of the room.  We stood for about 10 minutes and then were led into a medium sized rectangular space.  We were informed not to say anything to the judges, but to follow instructions. 

When we entered the room there were taped marks on the floor where we 10 SM hopefuls were to stand.  On the right side, directly opposite the marks, was a rectangular table with three judges, seated.  The judges consisted of a “trendy” guy dressed in a black jacket and jeans with a knit cap.  He was handling the video camera and a laptop.  To his right, there were two women.  They were all in their 30s.

This was a group audition so one had to reveal his ability immediately.  In 黑色幽默 that means “perform the chorus”–you can be most expressive there.  So then came my turn to fail.  Anyhow, I started a little unsure at the beginning.  Between 不 and  懂 is an entire octave.  I was not so strong on the first note, but then as the chorus progressed, I became more confident.  I believe that during my entire performance, I sang with my eyes closed.  Maybe I glanced a few times at the judges, but we were 20 feet away.  I really don’t remember. 

It was an eternity in all of 45 seconds.

Following me, there was this girl in her mid 20’s who was definitely meant to be cast in a Korean drama. She had real ability. There was a teen Korean guy and this eastern European girl in her early 20′s who basically came with a few poses for the camera.  Oh, yes.  And then there was this really pretty Korean girl who did this great “hip hop” freestyle dance.

Then we all filed out.  Looking back, one of the female judges was looking over from the table and smiled at me. 

I don’t think it meant anything particularly, but it is a good sign.

And that, meine Damen und Herren, was my SM Entertainment USA audition 2009 experience. 

===================

Anyone else who had auditioned please add your story here as well.  Please comment about your experience.

Larry Leathers, V.P. Sales and Marketing, EUROC2.com

http://www.youtube.com/euroc2
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Commerical Pop Songwriting Can Improve Your Rhetorical Voice.

NOTE: Before we address the specific peculiarities of songwriting in the Mandarin or Cantonese languages, we shall first discuss the value generally of commercial pop songwriting.  Please consider and send feedback to me.  Thanks.  I am writing a practical book about improving one’s rhetorical voice or ability to persuade through writing.

We shall now begin:

Now you may reasonably ask, “What is the significance of writing a pop song right now as a beginning language learner?

Whether or not you, the reader, believe it to be the case, the sole purpose of language is to persuade.  Specifically through songwriting, a construction of language, we here are going to persuade an audience to feel something.

“Why pop songwriting and not any other kind of writing?”  Well, the format of particularly a commercial pop song is designed to facilitate an immediate and direct access to feelings in a large number of people.

We must first learn how to reach people viscerally.  Consider that the most persuasive campaign is one that is designed to elicit an emotional response — not an intellectual response.

By the way, the art of persuasion is called rhetoric.  And there are some tips out there that are known, when used expertly, to allow an individual to influence his audience to feel something, particularly “that something” which he desires “that audience” to feel.  Actually, Marcus Tullius Cicero the great Roman orator has a lot to say about this, but unfortunately we must defer the exploration such compelling digression to another time.

Larry Leathers, V.P. Sales and Marketing, EUROC2.com

http://www.youtube.com/euroc2
http://www.naehe.com
http://www.euroc2.com

Welcome to Extreme Chinese!

My name is Larry Leathers.  I am V.P. Sales and Marketing, EUROC2.com.  We carry products and services for professional career development.  One of our product lines is dedicated toward the acquisition of the Mandarin and Cantonese languages.  It is called EUROC2.com EXTREME CHINESE (SM). 

Our EXTREME CHINESE pedagogy is about an effective, common sense, language acquisition through imitation of diverse expert media samples.  We abstract the essence from what we have learned through imitation.  This essence, so to speak, becomes our rules of usage and with these rules we are empowered to communicate; we create our own original media.  

This is how any language can be acquired.  Specifically, this is how our Mandarin usage will be acquired.

Let us start using Mandarin now!

咱們走吧！

Larry Leathers

http://www.myspace.com/euroc2extremechinese
http://www.euroc2.com
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EUROC2.com is a Naehe Company