English lyrics for Japanese songs, by Reggy!: Archive

Hi! I really really love your English translyrics and I was wondering whether you could do Waltz of Anomalies ;w;

dude, thank you so much for bringing this song to my attention!!

i am most definitely doing lyrics for this soon, I’ll put em up here when they’re done~

Jul 29, 2012

So I got this question on dA

And I ended up typing out this essay, so I thought it was worth posting here and getting it out of the comments section.

Your lyrics are amazing! If you don’t mind me asking, I was wondering how you get everything to rhyme and flow so well? (Trying to get better at writing lyrics myself) I understand if you don’t want to tell me and there will be no hard feelings. Either way the lyrics rock!

Thank you so much!

Dude, I wish I had some magic advice to give, other than the old “practice, and then practice some more” spiel, but that’s really where you struggle it out. And every undertaking is a struggle, really; you’ve got to wrestle with the timing and the rhymes and the meaning and try to get it all to BEHAVE in an ORDERLY MANNER.

Probably more than literal meaning, it’s the mood of a song that sets the pace for everything else in my lyrics. How does the song want its audience to feel, what idea should they take away from it after its played out its three-and-a-half minutes of life. And then I try to construct the words and pretty phrases around that central theme and tone.

As for the actual technicalities of lyrics, knowing poetry and literary conventions and some linguistics helps a ton. Poems are essentially boiling down an idea or a mood to their barest of words, and setting those words in a constrained formula (i.e. sonnet, or using iambic pentameter). I think a bunch of people have said that lyrics are poems set to music, and I completely agree.

Words are your arsenal, so knowing them intimately is a really good idea. Consonance and assonance and alliteration are all really good tools, as are varying rhyme schemes and internal rhymes and stuff. They’ll give you more ways to shape the flow of words. Know why a phrase or a repetition of words sounds good, and you’ll be able to scout out new phrases and words that’ll sound beautiful together. Understand how a word is constructed, and you’ll be able to link them to other words using those literary conventions effectively.

And practice all of these, go have fun with it, push your limits! Do slow songs, fast songs, happy and sad songs. Write your own lyrics to existing songs, make up lyrics to instrumental tracks. Work and work with lyrics until you’ve explored every turn of every phrase, and you’re satisfied. Also, don’t be afraid to walk away from them for a while, because sometimes sticking with it just to get it done excludes you from the freedom of ideas you can have when you aren’t straining for it to breaking point.

So, this is my advice manifesto, and I hope it helps you! :)

Jul 23, 20125 notes

#also just knowing a lot of words is good too #wow i forgot to add that oOPS #i forgot how i tag text posts on this blog uhh #oh i remember now asdfjk #reggy talks

I do! Just keep in mind my request turnaround is a hella long time orz So if you dont hear from me in a while, never fear- I havent forgotten! It’s just taking me obscenely long.

Direct requests here, please~

Jul 7, 2012

#kittylovesthedoctor

Leave In Summer, Yet You're In My Fluffoughts

the alpaca motif kinda fell through oops?

original song here

lyrics below the cut

Jul 3, 20124 notes

#vocaloid #english lyrics #hatsune miku #leave in summer yet youre in my fluffoughts #ARPK 2 #two-rai yo