Masa -- Blues City Pop: City Pop Songwriting Tutorial/Composition Tips 1 Tatsuro Yamashita

Not too bad a day today. The increase in new cases of COVID-19 has abated a bit today, the weather is pretty glorious out there, and for the first time in several weeks, I was able to track down two mini-cans of Lysol disinfectant spray. Good times!

Also, my Twitter account was followed by a musician named Masa (thank you, by the way...I'm now following you also) based in the United Kingdom (I'm hoping the situation there is slowly improving) who also has a YouTube channel called "Masa -- Blues City Pop". The first video there that was presented to me was a first in a multi-video series on how singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）weaves his magic in songwriting.

The video goes into the intros of some of those Tats hits "Sparkle", "Big Wave", "Magic Ways" and "Daydream". I've learned some interesting points so far such as the facts that "Big Wave" (originally known as "Mahou wo Oshiete") all came about due to a little story concocted through the singer's 1980s radio show for his Sugar Babe buddy Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）, how difficult it is to create groove because of the way the Japanese language is structured, and Yamashita's process in making a song.

One other reason I appreciate Masa starting this project up is that he makes the good point that it's very difficult to find English information on Yamashita's songwriting method. And this blog is no different since I'm neither a musician nor a musicologist...just a music fan, so I'm grateful that there is a musician (and maybe other musicians out there) who's willing to divulge the nitty-gritty on the legend's (magic😁) ways in composition. To be honest, guitar players, such as my anime buddy, will get the most out of the last half of the video but I've always appreciated anybody from cooks to massage therapists who take the time to explain the techniques, so even though I know more about licorice cords than musical chords, the whole of the ten minutes and change were great for me.

So, if you are a Yamashita fan as I am, why not take a gander at this one along with the other videos of him tackling some City Pop favourites?

Should be good until early summer, I guess.