Song#6 Mei Mun Hang Fook Di Mei Loi (美满幸福的未来) - Composing and Arranging Stage

Considering the fact that this is the next post, this has to be part 2. Wilkommen!

1. Idea Stage
2. Composing and Arranging Stage
3. Recording & Mastering Stage
4. Final Product & MV

This is da introduction blog desu~

Arranging

Drawing inspiration from existing classic hits of the same genre, I worked out a rather simple structure of a generic pop song such as:

1. Intro
2. Verse 1
3. Verse  2
4. Chorus
5. Verse 1
6. Verse 2
7. Chorus
8. Bridge
9. Final Chorus
10. Outro

Composing

The selection of instruments this round started with listing down what instruments typical power ballads use - which was rather similar overall, like strings, piano, bass and drums, clean and/or overdrive guitars.

For this song, I thus selected all the above, but added my signature favorite instrument - the vibraphones/vibes, as a device to spice up the mix and mirror the vocals to some extent. The guitar was decided to be recorded using my Custom Acoustic cutneck acoustic guitar with help from my neighbour again, LCG.

Initially, I wanted to help out with the background vocals, but since I suck at reading Cantonese. So, I asked Clement to handle all the singing, while I plan for vocal thickening mixing later on.

This round, I modified an older composition which I shared to Clement as an draft idea at the start of the year, which you can hear below:





Both versions were rather plain, and don't match up to the quality of chord progressions of power ballads today. Fun fact -  those Random 6s were composed 4 years ago!

Therefore, I needed to spice things up creating a proper bridge, a pre-chorus leadup and a key change (F major> C major) in the chorus that is as smooth as butter. Here's the overall chord progression of the new song:

Verse 1
F Bb C7 F-Em7
Dm Gm7 C7 F-C7
(repeat)

Verse 2
C7 F C7 F-Edim
Dm7 Bb Gm C7 D7

Chorus 1
G C D7   G-D
Em7 Dbm7 D G-D
G C D7 G-D
Em7 CM7 D D7 G-C

Chorus 2
G C D7 G-D
Em7 Dbm7 D G-D
G C D7 G-D
Em7 CM7 D D7 G-D

Bridge
G CM7 Em G-D
Em C D7 G-D
Em7 CM7 D G-D

I learned a lot about closely-related keys here where F major - C major - G major are the closest. Basically it refers to moving between keys with the least amount of key signatures like F and G, with C major being the 'home' key. That was what I did to the Verse section progressing to the Chorus section.

The intro to the song was revised from the original Random 6 - to mirror/suit the chorus motif and mood feel. The original would have suited other piano only song, but this is after all a power ballad. I also repeated the intro as the outro, albeit a simpler form.

For the melody/vocals, I opted for a typical swing beat in order to have some flow to the lyrics. Plain singing to the beat suits slower songs, but tends to get boring after a while. After all, swing beats created the jazz style and Broadway hits like Fly Me to the Moon.

For the accompanying instruments like the strings, I tried copying runs for the bridge part, and ordinary three part voicing for the chords section. Then, I added an arppegiator electric piano as a bonus instrument for the verse 2 section. Piano accompaniment was varied in styles throughout to create musical flow, especially the emotional bridge section.

Lyrics

Clement and I went through several discussions regarding the overall theme of the lyrics. All of them included something to do with romantic encounters of couples, but we had to present some coherent plot to the overall lyrics. Some ideas included:

1. Boy meets girl and fall in love
2. A couple already in love and drifts apart
3. A long distance relationship
4. Boy sacrificing all just to be with the girl
5. Guy sending mementos of their relationship to remind his partner, a career successful woman traveling abroad

In the end, we included most of the above into the song. Considering the difficulty of writing beautiful lyrics that not just convey the meaning but sound nice in Cantonese, Clement decided to repeat the verses after the chorus to save effort :P ( it is apparently harder to write than in English - thanks Clement!)

On another note, LCC and Clement brainstormed the title (which had to start with the letter 'M') as the title of this post :  Mei Mun Hang Fook Di Mei Loi (美满幸福的未来)  which means a Happy Future, apparently ;)

Here is the lyrics (Traditional Chinese just like in Hong Kong) in totality:

Verse 1
當天廣場前 遇 見你 
你已經 深 深 吸 引 我 目光
即使當時人群 極 多
我 眼中 只得你
相戀多時感 到 幸福
我感激 你 給 我 甜 蜜 回憶
結識再多人 但 始終
在 我心 只得你

Verse 2
你傷心 我陪伴你 
別再哭 抹去 眼淚
我會給 你快 樂的 記憶
我帶你 遠走 高飛

Chorus 1 & 2
在 這 刻     
我 但願  時間 停頓
和你 在這 擁吻
不想跟你再分 離 
祈求 一起
和你 一世 我願意
還 記 得   
你面前 曾經 承諾
對你 不離 不棄
即使一起面對 難題 
任何 困苦
而 我  …… 
一生都 愛護 你


Bridge
啊……
我要跟你在一起
你 的確 十分完美
我 怎麼 會放棄
啊……
要一世 都歡喜
我跟你 幸福生活
會感覺到圓滿
要 幸福生活
會感覺到圓滿

Chorus 3   
我 但願  時間 停頓
和你 在這 擁吻
不想跟你再分 離 
祈求 一起
和你 一世 我願意
還 記 得   
你面前 曾經 承諾
對你 不離 不棄
即使一起面對 難題 
任何 困苦
而 我  …… 
一生都 會愛 你


I'll put up the English and Simplified Chinese translation in the MV later on, so stay tuned to the final section of this song!

Stay tuned for Part III of  IV for this song!