Japanese 合唱 (singing chorus) vocabulary
16th June 2015 · 2 min read
Some vocabulary that might help anyone joining a choir/chorus in Japan!
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| 合唱 | chorus of singers |
| 声が高い・低い | high/low voice (pitch) |
| 声が大きい・小さい | loud/quiet voice |
| 強弱 | dynamics (loudness/quietness) of sound. The general idea of not singing everything at the same volume, but adjusting it to fit the mood and style of the song. |
| 合わせる | to match/harmonise your voice with the rest of the group |
| 盛り上がる | raising voice and tension (e.g. leading up to chorus or climax of song) |
| 主線 | the leading part of the song (can change over time, e.g. from male part to female part) |
| 声が出せない・出ない | (koe ga dasenai / denai) voice won’t come out (tired/ill) |
| 歌詞 | lyrics (pronounced かし) |
| 楽譜 | sheet music (score) |
| 小節 | musical bar |
| 伴奏 | musical accompaniment (guitar, piano etc.) |
| アルト, |
alto, soprano |
| 女声, 男声 | female, male voice/part |
| ハーモニー, 和声 | harmony. note 和声 is わせい (和製 is わせい) |
| ビブラート | vibrato (generally discouraged in a choir setting) |
| キー | key (of music) |
| 吸う、吐く | to breathe in and breathe out (often heard as 吸って、吐いて when breathing together) |
| 発声練習 | vocal exercises (e.g. scales or singing tongue-twisters) |
| ファルセット, 裏声 | falsetto |
| 抜く | to sing a (high) note in falsetto. A hint of falsetto is 抜き気味 |
| 地声 | natural voice |
| 胸声 | chest voice |
| 頭声 | head voice |
| 声域(が広い) | voice range (is wide) |
| 伸ばす | to hold a note |
| ビリビリ | state of your throat when forcing out a poor-sounding high note |
| 絞れる | to have your throat constrict (when voicing a high note) |
| サビ | chorus, hook, high point of a song. Also used to refer to the closing high note(s) of a song. |
| 録音する | sound recording (more simply 録る) |
| 腹式呼吸 | abdominal breathing (from lower chest rather than from the throat) |
| （○○曲を）とっている | to have learned a melody of a song (more or less) |