Things I Learned from Participating in Mushoku Tomeisai 3

To everyone who participated in Mushoku Tomeisai 3 and to the staff, thank you for your hard work.
This was my first time participating, and I had a lot of fun.

(For more about Mushoku Tomeisai, see → https://site.nicovideo.jp/mushokutomeisai/ )

I am still a novice, and I am in the middle of growing while creating music.
Therefore, I would like to record what I learned and felt while producing the song I submitted this time.
It's a milestone!

It's perfectly fine to compose in C Major

I usually wrote in keys like D Major for no particular reason, but

• wanting to match the vocal's comfortable rangeand

• there is no particular reason to avoid the key of C Major

Because of that, I adopted the key of C Major this time.
Here is the song I submitted.

The vocal's comfortable range was written on the official website.

After I decided, "I'll go with this melody!" and tried inputting the vocals directly,

• the high notes sounded shrill and hard to hear

• the low notes sounded muffled and hard to hear

I encountered issues like that.Or rather, it seemed like Chifuyu Hanakuma was having trouble singing..
Therefore, I adjusted the melody's pitch up and down so that it would fit within that "comfortable range," which is how I ended up with the key of C Major.

Of course, singing at high pitches that humans cannot reach is also part of the charm of Vocaloid (I like it too).
However, since I hadn't been conscious of a "comfortable range" in my music production until now, I felt like I gained a new perspective.

You don't have to use complex chord progressions

I really do admire elaborate chord progressions.
I love Kirinji, and whenever their complex chord progressions are praised, I feel like saying, "Right?" as if it were my own work.

But I haven't mastered music theory. I have almost no cards to play freely.

For this song, I only used two types of chord progressions: one for the chorus and one for the rest of the song. I just repeated those two.
I learned that such a production method, which doesn't exceed one's own capabilities, is also a valid approach.

Of course, it is important to output what you have learned during production. However, I was in a situation where I hadn't done any input at all! I hadn't learned anything! Work is just so busy, you know...

Increasing the density of the lyrics

Before these lyrics were completed,I scrapped them five times myself.
This isn't limited to this time; I rewrite most lyrics about five times.

In other words, I proceeded with songwriting using the following steps.

1. Write the lyrics (Perfect! A masterpiece! It can't get any better than this!)

2. Leave them alone for a few days

3. Reflect on what I wanted to express with these lyrics

4. Write lyrics from scratch that convey that better

5. Return to step 1

I'm a moody person, so what I feel and think varies from day to day. I thought that this process, as a result,increases the density of the lyrics in a compound way while somehow searching for emotions that are consistent across days.

This might be the reason why it's easier for me to write lyrics when I'm feeling down and my introspection mode is set to default.
This is an amazing undertaking. It takes a lot of energy.

Anyway, thank you very much.

To everyone who commented, liked, added it to their playlist, or mentioned it on X, thank you so much.
I secretly checked in on it during the period, and it was a source of encouragement. It will continue to be a source of encouragement ( it is truly an incredible thing that my output reached hundreds of people)!!

I will do my best to aim to post one more song within 2025.

Finally, I created a simple portfolio using a service called POTOFU, so I'll leave it here. You can also access it from the bio of my X account (@dekai_sibainu).