Monday, March 7, 2016

Vocaloid Song: Megumi Writes "Makeinu!" Part 1

Megumi looked at the crumpled sheet of paper on her lap.

I don't wanna be your girlfriend
I don't wanna be your maid
My life is a dead end
And you just wanna get laid

They were lyrics that she had jotted down over a month ago while she was manning her mother's newsstand. It was something she thought about a lot. She was 24 now, and she didn't see much of a future for herself. Even her schoolmates who went on to college--did they really have a better future than her? Working a simple office job until they got married?

Megumi grabbed a pen and suspended it in her hand over the sheet of paper, half expecting some mystical force would take hold of her hand, and wondrous words would start flowing out as the pen moved about the paper, but there was--nothing. She tightened her grip on the recalcitrant pen.

"Idiot!" she said, snarling at the pen. Megumi tossed the sheet of paper and the pen onto her bed and grabbed her guitar. She didn't even have a melody to this yet--perhaps it would help break her writer's block if she worked on that?

She strapped on her guitar and picked up a guitar pick and started strumming an A chord. She closed her eyes and started to hum, trying to coalesce a melody out of those seemingly random notes coming out of her mouth. No, that's not it. She wanted it to be driving--bam! bam! bam! Like a relentless hammer, beating down on your hopes and dreams...

She started to alternate between the A and B chord. Yes...that was more like it.

I don't wanna be your girlfriend
I don't wanna be your maid
My life is a has reached a dead end
And you just wanna get laid
 No, it's more of an impact if you're moving along and then stopped rather than just be stopped! Megumi grabbed the pen and crossed out those offending words and replaced them. She then began writing furiously.

I'm more than just a womb
It might as well be a tomb
What's the point of education?
when you’re tuned out by a nation
Megumi smiled. She completed the first verse! But then she noticed something--she had changed the rhyme pattern from ABAB to AABB in the second part. She could fix that--but then she would have to rewrite the lyrics. No, she didn't want to change them. The lyrics said exactly what she wanted to say.

Thinking for minute, she decided to alter the chords for the second part--to set it off, showing that something different was coming. Yes, that would work. Megumi played around with some chords before settling with A / E for this part. Yes, that works nicely. The A / B chords provide some tension that resolves nicely going to the E chord. So, this is going to be in the key of E. Megumi liked the key of E as she felt it suited her voice very well.

It all started coming together for her now. She finished up a first draft of the lyrics and came up with a working melody in about an hour's time. Megumi grabbed her portable recorder. She wanted to make sure she recorded this, or else she would completely forget the song the next day.

She recorded a quick first take and played it back. Yes! That was what she was after. She quickly grabbed her phone and texted Yasuko and Satoshi.

Yasuko, Satoshi! Come over! Let's have a recording session!

Megumi's first draft of her song, Makeinu!

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