My Mentors, Former Lyricists "Being/School ⑤"

Intensive lessons of about two hours each time

Well-worn textbooks - Reconnecting with Mr. Takashi Matsumoto

Looking back now, I have nothing but gratitude for the fact that Mr. Komatsu, who must have been quite busy at the time, was willing to set aside so much time for someone like me for every lesson. Although we had to coordinate our schedules, I was visiting him two or three times a week.
He always had a guitar with him, and I had several textbooks. The one I wore out the most was a collection of past works by lyricist Takashi Matsumoto. I searched for it and found it is still available today.

The two books on the left are still on my bookshelf as proof that I bought them myself and wore them out. Recently, I finally gathered the courage to open them occasionally, but they are tattered and covered in red pen. If I had had this much motivation when I was a student, perhaps my life would have turned out a little differently... maybe.

A passionate tutor and a dull student

Just as the title above suggests, that was the stance from which our lessons began. We would go through about three songs' worth of lyrics at a time, line by line, and questions would fly at me one after another, such as:
"What is the most important phrase?"
"If you were to rephrase this, how would you say it?"
"If you were to add another verse/chorus, how would you write it?"
Of course, at first, it was common for me to take five to ten minutes to answer just one question. However, training is a terrifying thing; once you get the knack for grasping the core theme of a song, it gradually starts to come to you instantly. This made it much easier to structure my own writing, and all that was left was to refine individual expressions or fill in the words with my own unique color. I don't always follow this method for every lyric I write, but for me, this repetition became a major foundation. In the midst of this endless work, I would check the compatibility of words and melodies with Mr. Komatsu's guitar, and he would share many of his experiences in production with me. For someone like me who certainly cannot be called a genius, I realized that without this experience, I would have run out of resources much sooner, given how shallow my skills were until then. Only by standing there, I think, did I reach the level where my own unique sense was being tested.

The strength of repetition

Just as I used to repeat math problems long ago, these days continued for a long time. I often felt guilty about taking up Mr. Komatsu's valuable time, but I also felt that he himself enjoyed that time to some extent. The time spent with a true, passionate musician was very stimulating, and I also learned a lot about his attitude toward work. It is a fond memory of my early days when I was able to take my studies seriously while continuing my sales activities. If I may say something presumptuous to the young people, what you train yourself to do while you are young will surely become your own asset and weapon that will be useful in the future. In any field, I highly recommend daily repetitive training? practice? over and over again. And if you are lucky, with a wonderful mentor...

I will write the continuation again.