國外聲樂老師點評《數字人生》Vocal Coach Reaction to "Life of Numbers"  

Rozette老師您好，這裡要先跟您說聲不好意思，作為土生土長的香港人，加上我本身是粵劇編劇及演員，廣東話的九聲真是非常重要，除了九聲還有韻母，不是不能從中找尋轉音的方法，就像您聽過Hacken Lee唱的“月半小夜曲”，當中也包含了不同字的轉音，但全都源於正確的九聲及韻母，每個字都包含“字首、字腹、字尾”，舉例說您說的“Rainbow”，可以是“Raaaaaaa~in~bow”，也可以是Raiiiiii~in~bow”，也可以是“Rain~bo~ow”，如此類推，但廣東話中有很多字是不能延伸的，如廣東話的“一”字，是入聲字，粵音拼音是“jat1”，用英文拼念作“Yut”，必需是高音並短促收尾音，否則就會成了另一個字，“一”字是九聲中的第七聲，九聲中只有一至六聲是可延伸，七至九聲收尾音必需短促。還有是這個“一”字屬於九聲中最高音的，所以不能放到低的音調，否則又會成了另一個字甚至不存在世上的字。 引用林子祥這首“數字人生”中一句，唱詞是“13942”，音是“fa mi re do si”，如果只唱成“1~942”，即“1”字要唱“fa mi”兩個音，就有機會變成了一個不存在的字。又或是旋律不變，只更改唱詞的數字，假設把“13942”調動成“93421”，那麼“9”字就會唱成不雅的粗口字，“4”字就會唱成廣東話中的“死”字，“2”字又變了另一些字而不再是“2”字，“1”字亦會唱成了廣東話中的“日”字。還好這首是數字歌，歌詞沒甚意思，但如果換成有意思的廣東話歌詞，就可能會被弄到不倫不類，詞不成詞，句不成句，甚至唱出了一堆“粗口”來。 例如“數字人生”這四個字如果要唱出來，可以是“do la so re”，或“so mi do la”，基本旋律要符合“中高 中 低 高”這起伏，否則就完全不是“數字人生”這四個字，例如改成“ la so mi do”，那“數”唱成了“騷”或“鬚”或另外同聲韻的字，“字”會唱成“支”或“知”或另外同聲韻的字，“人”會唱成“孕”或“刃”或另外同聲韻的字，“生”則唱成不存在世上的字。這樣“數字人生”就變成“騷支孕X”。 如果踫著一些旋律令字唱成了粗口，那就真真不堪入耳了。 如Jay說到的“塑料粵語歌曲”(約在9分鐘03秒左右有插播了一少段)，這類歌曲除了詞不成詞/句不成句之外，更經常出現不雅的“粗口”字發音，但歌者自己不知(因為他不懂廣東話的九聲)而樂在其中，不懂廣東話的聽眾甚至會大讚寫得好唱得好，但事實是極度極度尷尬甚至嘔心。 廣東話填詞真的是很難很難，這也是沒辦法，但作為母語，我們也必須堅守這語言，希望盡量不讓它變質甚至消失。 再次向Rozette老師說聲不好意思🙏🏻，我的話說得太多，但也希望您能明白和諒解！🤗

不得了，這集笑爆咀😂😂😂😂 個配樂揀得好好，老師好cute❤ 好想教老師唱：鵝滿是快烙滴好耳痛，鵝悶天天一戲個窗！

As a Cantonese native speaker myself, what Jay said in the video was absolutely correct, the single word could have different meanings in different tones. For example, “Si”, if you pronounce it in slightly different tone, it could be 詩、史、試、時、市、事, every single character with a very distinctive meaning. So if you change the tone of the character to match the key/melody of the song, it would sound very off and weird. Another example is that the English word “she” or “he”, no matter how you bend it, the word itself is still distinctive (at least I can’t think of any other word on top of my head). On the other hand, if you do the same to a Cantonese word, it would change the meaning of the word depending on the tone or how are you bending it. Tltr: Jay is right🤣

As a native Hongkonger fluent in Cantonese and with a background in linguistics and music, I can understand the viewpoints expressed by both Teacher Jay and Teacher Rozette. *** Like Jay mentioned, Cantonese is distinct from English and Mandarin due to its unique phonetics and wide range of tone patterns. As native Cantonese speakers, we can easily recognize when non-locals genuinely try to learn but struggle with even the slightest 0.001% mispronunciation of a vowel or tone. (Interestingly, there is a growing number of mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, Malaysians, and even South Koreans learning and speaking Cantonese due to their love for Hong Kong movies, singers, or TVB broadcasts.) *** I also agree with Rozette's observation that certain Cantonese words have extended sounds, resulting in a smoother and less abrupt delivery. However, this poses a challenge for songwriters and lyricists creating Cantonese songs. *** Balancing the use of sound-extendable characters to fit the melody structure while conveying meaningful themes aligned with the overall message, story, and emotions of the song is incredibly difficult. *** Cantonese songs primarily emphasize the comprehensive picture, emotions, narrative, and lyrical meaning over musical rhythm. For example, the song "數字人生" aims to depict the stock market and the thrilling moments experienced when witnessing dramatic drops or increases in stock prices. Intentionally the songwriter densely packs numerical lyrics, while the original singer, Mr. Sam Lam, delivers the words sharply. *** If the CZ Media team is interested in non-choppy Cantonese songs, I highly recommend listening to Terrence Lam, the pianist and songwriter of "是但求其愛" in your previous video. His songs convey complex and deep emotions, without adhering to the usual clear pronunciation of Cantonese singers (which is why some Hong Kong song listeners don't appreciate Terrence and humorously refer to him as a monk due to his intentionally unclear pronunciation, haha) (This version of Terrence's 某種老朋友 is beautifully performed! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5L23Xvtblu8.html).

这一期太有趣了。真的是说到我心坎了……粤语发音比国语复杂多了，有自己的音调，所以粤语歌作曲必须要和歌词的音调协调。粤语歌作曲比其他语言都难多了！这一期内容非常具有学术意义。 这个频道的真的非常深度，作为音乐爱好者很开心看到你们的探讨，特别是文化交流的部分。will keep following you, thanks

As a Cantonese speaking Hongkonger, I have to say he is right.

As a Hongkonger, coach he is absolutely right 😂😂😂😂

Language teacher here. Think of Cantonese as being a scale, like the major scale. When you play/sing the major scale (DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, SI, DO), no matter where you start, it sounds "the same". Cantonese is the same thing. The only difference is that the major scale has 8 tones (or 7, since there are 2 DOs), while Cantonese has 6 tones/notes. Every single one of us have our own starting note, but in the end we are each singing our own Cantonese scale with some of us maybe starting our lowest tone on, say, a B flat, while another person may start theirs on A sharp, and no, I am not speaking in metaphor; this is literally the case. This is the Cantonese scale. Each word corresponds to one of these notes within the scale: 1 - High, 2 - low mid rising, 3 - mid, 4 - low mid falling, 5 - low rising, 6 low-mid For example, let's take the word mom 媽 (maa1) (1 = high). If you use SOL to sing it, it fits, but if you sing it with RE, it would sound like 罵(maa6) (6 = Low-Mid) instead, which means to yell at. Or the number four (sei3, mid). It fits with FA, but if you sing it with SOL and put a rift/bend in there, it might sound like 死 (death, sei2 - low mid rising). This type of meaning changing doesn't happen in English. So, if you put too much rifts/bends in there, it could turn it into non-sense. It's not impossible, but yes, it is much more limited. Then on to the difficulty of this song! If you are just doing la la la la then of course it's not difficult, but imagine you are singing this with English tongue twisters, having to enunciate all the sounds correctly, needing to constantly hit some really high notes accurately with your chest voice, not taking many breaths, yet your voice maintains this brightness and resonance! I can understand why it doesn't sound "good" to everyone though. 😁

Coach, he's not messing with you he's right seriously!

用（人）字做個比喻 第一聲 讀音（因）英文=because 第二聲 讀音（忍）英文= Tolerate 第三聲 讀音（印）英文= print 第四聲 讀音（人）英文= people 第五聲 讀音（引）英文= lead 第六聲 讀音（刃）英文= blade 第七聲 讀音（壹）英文= one 第八聲 讀音（沒有相應同音聲調字） 第九聲 讀音 （日）英文= day 又打個比喻，將（壹/1）第七聲在唱歌時轉作第四聲（人），除了發聲會好奇怪，意思亦會變得無法解釋😂😂😂

我以前在一个电视节目(忘了是哪个节目了)解释过这首歌的数字的其中一个意义是代表股市的指数， 数字那一段快速的唱法不单是炫技，还表现了人们看着股市指数上上下下时的澎湃心情。我个人觉得林子祥很好地表演了这首歌的精髓。

While watching, I wish I could explain to Miss Rozette in person! Jay was right that Cantonese has NINE TONES (!) and if the word doesn't fit into the note, it would sound really silly. For example, for 'ma', if it is 'so' (in so-fa names), it could mean 'mother', if it is in 'me', it could mean 'blaming', if it is in 'do', it could mean 'linen (the material)'. There are nursery rhymes (or even hymns) with 'words not fitting the sounds', and they just sound funny and being teased sometimes. As an English teacher in England with Cantonese being my mother tongue, speaking also Mandarin and French, plus some basic German, Spanish and Japanese, I believe I have got the knowledge to explain about what is so unique about Cantonese. Back to this particular song, however, I think that Jay tried really hard to explain, but did miss one IMPORTANT POINT: It was the VIBE of the song! In Chinese songs, lyrics are so important as we previously discussed (or are in ongoing discussions), the lyrics of this song, 'Life of Numbers', was actually about how Hongkongers were controlled and manipulated by the the numerous numbers in their everyday life, even pushed and stressed by all these various numbers everywhere. In view of that, the song was presenting how 'rush' the people's lives were. This song was produced in an era when Hong Kong's economy was high flying, and the pressure in life was getting higher and higher. #The 'numbers' in this song did indicate things like 'codes of stocks in the stock market' and 'number of the horses in horseracing', etc.

數字人生唱的不只是想展現歡樂的氣氛，隨著歌曲的推進及語氣的變化，從原先的感嘆到後來的永不放棄奮鬥的精神，是本片最後的純粹娛樂是不一樣歌曲的定位。

As a Cantonese native speaker, I really want to jump into the screen and explain to you guys how amazing George Lam is

如果讓老師聽出粵語的聲調人聲與普通話的層次面分別，希望能建議可以讓老師聽取多點、一些廣東歌改編自英文歌： 林子祥(我愛你)改自_(Uptown Girl) 林子祥(千憶個夜晚)改自_(Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone) 林憶蓮(依然)改自_Mariah Carey(I Still Believe) 陳曉東(愛一天多一天)改自_Westlife(Open Your Heart)等等...... 或者改編自日文歌： 張學友(壯志驕陽)改自_Kan(愛は勝つ)。 張國榮(有誰共鳴)改自_谷村新司(儚きは)。 羅文(好歌獻給你)改自_西城秀樹(Blue Sky Blue)。 國語歌-周華健(花心)改自_夏川りみ(花)。 其實，太多我們耳熟能詳的歌曲都能容易對比就聽得出粵語普通話的聲音語氣或歌曲味道分別之處。 ❤

用 詩、史、試、時、市、事、昔、錫、蝕可能會解釋到九聲😂 Btw Jay was already great and tried the best to explain it😂 As Hongkonger, thx for explaining and promoting Cantonese and Canton pop.

小時候聽林子祥是享受，現在聽是感慨歲月如梭，聽合唱只有唏噓即使老了還無人媲美，這差距⋯⋯

睇到我好激動🤣好想衝去幫Jay一齊去解釋

This discussion is music to my ears. Jay’s explanation is spot on. I’m loving the heated and thoughtful conversation about a Cantonese song on a linguistic as well as musical level. You have set yourself apart from many other channels with this. 广东歌词确实特别难填，香港的填词人对推动粤语音乐和文化真是功不可没。I want both of you to be my besties 🤭😍 Very thought provoking video!! 👍🏼

Hong Kong native who also studied a bit linguistics in university here. I will have to say Jay is so right in this one. Cantonese is just restrictive in terms of lyrics writing. You really have to match the tone of the word to the relative pitch or it will lose intelligibility - it can either be a totally different word, or a non-existent nonsense sound that aren’t related to any existing words. So Cantonese lyricists, especially the good ones, are hailed as Masters because they really have to know their shit well, and most of them do well in Mandarin lyrics too because they are so well-trained. I would say it’s not entirely impossible to do riffs in Cantonese, but there are just so much constraints. If u can go up and down like roller coaster when u sing in Cantonese, u will inevitably get another word in many of the notes u glide through, though people will probably still understand what is being sung as the first note is in correct tone, it will somehow sound a bit stupid when the notes land at words that carry funny meanings. Take the word four “四” that Jay used in the video as an example. When Jay tried to shift its tone, he actually borderline hit the tone for the word “死” which means die, as “four”and “die” share the exact same sound, just varied by tone (four is in the 3rd tone and die in the 2nd). So u can imagine how funny it is when u doing riff of the word four but may have told people to die for a few times in the process lol. Well there are singers who do riffs in Cantonese songs, but they are mostly limited to the non-lyrical ad-lib parts, the riffs in lyrics part are much much less and they have to be planned out carefully beforehand.

I am a native cantonese speaker, living in Hong Kong. I totally agree with Jay. Cantonese has 9 tones, even the same word pronounced in different tone will have a different meaning. For example, Jay taught Rozette to say "人" (means human), but when Rozette pronounces it sounds like "印 YOUNG" (means print), it's different meaning. If just saying this single word, honestly, I don't understand. But if saying it in a whole sentence, I might able to guess what you're talking about.

I think it can be explained as follow: Like the sound 'Yen' mentioned in the video, pronouncing in different tones would have different meaning Yen (因) = Reason; Yen (隱) = Hide; Yen (印) = Print; Yen (人)= People; Yen (引) = lead; yan (刃) = knife So if you sing in a different tone - Words have different meaning and you can't understand what the singer is singing at all @@ and of course meaning of the song will be massively different!!

Jay why are you so adorable..I'm a fan of Jay from this episode. I don't any Mandarin native speakers can speak Cantonese as well as Jay. I think you have explained it very well...WELL DONE!

I’m from Hong Kong native Cantonese speaker and I can ensure you you can trust Jay😂

文化差異碰撞出來的討論空間，很有趣😊

我是香港人，學習了其他語言才發現，廣東話真的是一種沒有什麼包容性的語言，不像國語、英文、日文、韓文⋯⋯那樣，被允許有著不同地區的口音，例如聽到別人跟自己的口音不一樣，不會馬上判定對方的口音就是「不標準」、或判定對方應該是外國人，而是會先猜對方的出身地可能距離自己很遠。但廣東話只要有一兩個字的發音講的「不標準」（不是香港口音），我們幾乎會馬上認定對方不是土生土長的香港人，就是這麼嚴苛。😂

As a Cantonese speaker, Let me try to give an example for you. Let's say the lyrics is : " when you're happy and you know it clap your hands" You can put it into the melody of "London bridge is falling down", or " twinkle twinkle little star", or "mary had a little lamb". In English you won't feel there's something wrong. However, when you put the same lyrics into different melodies in Mandarin/ putonghua / Cantonese, every Chinese speaker will be messed up. That problem exist in every song. Somehow Chinese usually come in pairs (I.e. 2 words), you have to be comparatively right on the tone for that 2 words to make that word make sense. So, It will be even much difficult when you want to make the whole sentence right. Hope this can explain a bit.

This song is writing for describing our life keep chasing for different numbers like the stocks, money, KPI, etc. So the energetic performance in the chorus is working for showing our effort, non-stop, non-break in our life, so i think George Lam did it well to show that kind of energy and emotion. The melody of the graduation song in the end, is a metaphor that our life is going to the end after chasing for the numbers for many years. Somehow we thought we are going to rest and retire, but this world still bring us to the numbers again, so they back to the chorus. Besides, I think this song also showed the magic of Cantonese, as a native Cantonese speaker, I even need not to read the lyrics, given that I remember the melody of the chorus, I can pop-up the exact same number lyrics in my mind. Because we have a rule when writing Cantonese lyrics, and the lyrics of this song demonstrate well how we use our language in music as lyrics.

Jay you really made my day!!!! Laugh tiill can't breath now. As a Hong Kong-er, i felt your "oh no......" in your heart😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

This reminds me of those translated hymns from school. 歌詞：「我是主的羊」，但唱出嚟就變晒「我是豬的羊」 或者「疴屎豬的羊」

應該讓老師有一集專聽林子祥

老師聽過幾次廣東歌都無法理解🤣 好想看老師被香港/廣東人的聲樂老師教她一首廣東歌😂

多謝！

10000％ agree with Cantonese tone, 6tone+3cut tone(k,t,p). Actually in Cantonese lyrics, sometimes you can twist the tone a little bit, to match the melody. But if you make a wrong tone in Cantonese, will be a totally different meaning. For example, in Cantonese "9", wrong tone will be "enough", "dick", "old".

希望老师能多看看林子祥的歌……他是一位很传奇的歌手

林子祥(Lam)絕對是香港的歌神。❤

可以給老師聽一下胡夏跟林子祥的合唱，有很大的不同的感覺 亦私心推薦可以給老師聽胡夏的歌曲，是一位被低估了的歌手🥲

終於等到林子祥了❤，其實在聲生不息中有更多林子祥的現場

Yes, what Jay said was totally correct. Cantonese speaker here. It's more challenging to do riffs and runs in Cantonese, because of the specific tone of each single word. But of course, that doesn't mean impossible. You just need to choose the perfect part to do it carefully. (and pick the right notes for your runs) R&B singers like Khalil Fong and Jay Fung do it very well. But still, you can compare... when they sing english songs, they tend to have more freedom doing riffs and runs. But when they do Cantonese songs, they can't go as free and as intuitive. If you simply sing Cantonese lyrics and do runs and ornamental notes without considering the tone of the words, the whole song would sound like a Cantonese-wannabe weird foreign language....

Cantonese is special because the same letters pronounced in a different intonation mean completely different things. That's why Chinese, especially Cantonese lyricists are absolutely geniuses, since the word intonation has to match the note. As for the lengthening of a sound in a song, you can do it, but the initial intonation has to be correct.

It is just how Cantonese is. This is why Cantonese is so unique and why we are so proud of it. I am sorry you can't relate to it but I am pretty sure most of us Cantonese finds it amazing.

我想兩個主持人爭論的點都不是這首歌要表達的原意，這是一首緊湊的趣味歌，難度就是人很難快速準確跟上快節奏及歌詞，這首歌人享受征服速度的快感，就像你不能在rap中間要求轉調，不然整個味道都變了，這個歌跟rap一樣就是在追求速度極致的趣味，男主也講錯粵語為啥不能轉調，粵語在抒情歌就轉的很厲害，但有些歌曲的呈現並不是只是在凸顯唱功多厲害，有些則是追求速度一氣呵成的快感。

這期真的很有趣，喜歡老師們的互動，討論文化、語言、音樂等等問題👍🏻👍🏻 有時看得真想加入一起討論😂 粵語比國語更難填詞，粵音很多時改了或拉動少少音的話就變成另一個字及意思。 聽著聽著就想，如果黃霑還在世就好，一個懂中古音律而母語又是粵語的作曲填詞家，一定可以滿足到老師的問題😂

😂😂😂老師反應好搞笑

Undoubtedly, comparing to English/Japanese/Korea/Mandarian, using Cantonese is much more difficult to make a lyric for a song I think the "Tone system" is one of the reason why Cantonese/Chinese Music culture pay much much more attention on the lyrics of song (and also the one who make the lyric like 林夕/黃偉文), sometimes even overide the music itself. I won't disagree that there may be a chance this complicated Tone system is also restrict "music development" on Cantonese music cultrue Unfortunately it cannot be changed as like many other comments already gave some examples, 9 tones in same pronunciation are 9 different words and meanings. But I think she was right that yeah it doesn't mean we can't do riffs, actually we usually did it in canton pop, but just the "first note" on the "word/character" do need to be match with the Tone system like if the last word of the lyrics is "我(me)" and we want to do a riffs at the end of the song is fine, but the first "note" we sing out the word "我" need to be the 5th tone in system. As long as the first note is match to 5th tone, we don't care how it is after

好想Rozette橘老師用粵語講「入實驗室㩒緊急掣」「西施死時四十四，四十四時西施死」🤣 語文文化交流🥹不過要辛苦杰凱😂我們廣東話真是好難講😔 另外想補充下，聽過唱者講過那一段數字是反應我們人生，年齡，機械，計數機股市等等都與數字有關，即使音樂也是一樣！ 你們加油！我超級鍾意你們的channel

He’s not messing with you. I’m a Cantonese speaker myself, and I’ve tried teaching foreigners Cantonese and Mandarin, and I wasn’t proud of myself 😂😂. I think if you are doing riffs and runs on a single character, it would be weird. Perhaps it might work on some noun or verb compounds. And if you do riffs on Cantonese, listeners might need to see the lyrics to understand what you mean. I think the difficulty to do riffs in a tone and toneless language is different, and there are limitations to do so. I really enjoy your videos. Thank you for making so many fun videos.

好想看這個！！！終於有阿Lam

I just watched this video & I want to help Jay explain this. In Cantonese, the tones are not just going up, going down and dipping. There are flat tones. My Japanese teacher invented a system to teach Japanese people Cantonese and came up with the do re me scale for the flat tones. Saying "see" in "so" means poem, saying "see" in "fa" means to try, saying "see" in "re" means an event, saying "see" in "do" means time. Native cantonese speakers have a tough time understanding if your relative tones are not correct. That's why it's hard to find lyrics to fit a certain tune. Mandarin speakers may understand more even if the lyrics don't fit exactly, because their ears are less sensitive to tone.

This song is about the numbers in our lives, called Life of Numbers. It’s about our lives being surrounded by numbers, from our ID cards, passport numbers, licence numbers, net worths, weights, IQs, stock prices etc., a more modern relevance can be instagram followers, RU-vid views, mobile numbers etc. Numbers are essentially life. It’s supposed to be funny but also makes us reflect on the numbers in our lives and their significances. I think the end sounding like graduation can be interpreted as the graduation of life after learning to enjoy life ignoring the numbers. And yes, those are random numbers, just like the numbers assigned to us throughout our lives, relatable. The difficulty lies in them being able to memorise random numbers and sing or scream them correctly and quickly.

終於有"我們的歌"!這個節目出了很多精品合唱值得去挖。“聲生不息”也是。超期待老師聼七十多嵗的林子祥，真正寶刀未老。

Hahaha damn it's so enjoyable to see Jay teaching Rozette Cantonese as a native Cantonese speaker. Jay is absolutely right, the few cantonese songs he put in the middle of the video songs ABSOLUTELY horrible and it's a torture, and it's not just the song writing, it's the lyrics.

同一首歌，林子祥還是強太多了，一換林子祥，才開口唱幾個數字我的雞皮疙瘩就冒出來，用靈魂唱歌的歌手真的不一樣。

I wish to have an episode about what’s coach Rozette thought after reading the comments😂😂 Jay is damn right, he didn’t mess you up!! Btw I like Jay’s 心裡小劇場 at 11:40, The BGM in 12:53 and 絕望的 “零五一五呀！“ 23:10 This episode is so much fun, and I really want to jump in the video and help Jay😂

用一個字讀九聲作示範應該比較容明白～我是在香港讀中文系的，要學廣東話，普通話，也要學英文的語言系統，根據我的學習直接把一個字用九聲讀，然後說這九字也有其意思會比較能知道廣東話系統的複雜性 但我也明白老師會懷疑的想法，始終太不同了，有求真的想法很好，但也辛苦解釋了😂因為真的很難短時間或用簡單數句解釋到😂加上廣東話不是你的母語😂😂

I would be on Rozette's side about stressing Cantonese words (I am a Cantonese). To some degree, we could stress and go up and down for a word in a Cantonese song, it is still perfectly fine. The point in this particular Number Song, the song writer and the singer want to express life in a very busy, very quick and non-stoppable way. The extreme difficulty of this song is that the singer will easily run out of breath. But Mr. Lin, the older original singer, can sing it without any issue. And he is 77 year old now, he was 70+ in the performance as well. :) Thanks for your great and fun video!

老師，粵語都可以有轉音，但就會變成粵曲，廣東戲劇的音樂，而不是現代流行曲。 粵語是有辦法像英語一樣，但有很多限制及條件，非常高難度，不是普通作曲家填詞家能做到。 粵語因為是聲調語言，有時候反而藉說話聲調，為作曲家帶來新靈感，推演新的旋律出來。

廣東話聲調變了就成為另一個字，之前看過香港女歌手何韻詩的哥哥何秉舜分享，他是演唱會音樂總監，他說很多時會即興點歌，有時沒排練過但看到歌詞就大概知道旋律，因為廣東話9音，知道發音就知是那個音階

As a Hong Kong er , yes ma'am! Cantonese has the absolute tone that if its inaccurate, we need to guess and look at the lyrics to know the words. Look at Eason! He can still do riffs yet he complete the word first then hold it on for longer duration for room of techniques

I think the key of this song is to show that cantonese numbers are just like do re mi and they are put together to become a song and even 3yo kids would be able to sing this as long as they can say numbers in Cantonese

有爭議絕對是好事🎉🎉加油

Hi Rozette, I am from Hong Kong!!! a native speaker of Cantonese~~He is TOTALLY right!! Same word or syllables in different tones means different in our language. For example "DING" in different tone here, have totally different meaning. That's why its really struggle when non-locals learn Cantonese.

終於有80年代香港前輩歌手評論

13:32 I am a Hong Konger, he is not messing with you.

From a linguistic point of view, the Chinese language itself is a more developed vowel language, whether it's the four tones of Mandarin or the nine tones of Cantonese is the difference between vowels, which also leads to the Chinese language (including various dialects) in the creation of music pay more attention to the lyrics, music in the early days are only service to the words (such as the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, etc.), when writing the lyrics is extremely important to rhyme. I don't know much about music history, but as far as I know most pop music nowadays originates from Western music, and Hong Kong singers of that era were considered to be more avant-garde, as they introduced a lot of Western music, and then combined it with their own lyric-writing habits. When it comes to Hong Kong singers, there are some songs that are available in both Cantonese and Chinese (Eason Chan, for example), but for those who know Cantonese, the Cantonese version is always so irreplaceable because that's the true fusion of lyrics and music. Cantonese song pursue is to create music while balancing this spirit of a poet who dances in shackles. It also shows how rare it is to find the famous lyricist Albert Leung. Another problem is that the Cantonese language has checked tones (-t,-k,-p), and the numbers 1, 6, 7, 8 and 10 are all checked tones. The checked tones are short and rapid sounds, the end of the pronunciation is the -t (like 178) with the tip of the tongue on the teeth, or the -p (like 10) with the lips closed, or the -k (like 6) with the tightening of the throat. It should be because of this language feature that the arrangement was changed to this kind of rhythm that is on the fast side with rap. The three checked tones are already three of the nine tones in Cantonese, so it's no wonder that the teacher kept saying that didn't feel the tones 🤣 Not to say that there aren't any of these endings in English, such as sheep, shit, shake (I try to find the ones that are as close as I can), but in addition to the long and short tones in English, such as the difference between shit and sheet. it's not likely that singer will do the runs on “shit”, except that most of them, whether singing sheep or sheeeeeeep, shouldn't have a difference in meaning. But you can't elongate the checked tones in Cantonese. 从语言学的角度来说，汉语本身就是韵母比较发达的语言，无论是普通话的四声又或是粤语的九声都是韵母的区别，这也导致汉语（包含各种方言）在创作音乐时更加重视作词，曲子在早期都只是服务于词的（例如唐诗宋词等），写词时更是极其注重押韵。 我不大懂音乐史，但据我所知现在大多数流行乐都是源自西方音乐，而那个年代香港歌手算是比较前卫的，他们大量引入了西方音乐，再结合自己的填词习惯进行填词。 说到香港歌手，有些歌曲虽然有粤语和中文两个版本（例如陈奕迅），但对于懂粤语的人来说，粤语版总是那么无可取代，因为那才是真正的词曲融合。港乐追求是在创作音乐的同时，又兼顾这种戴着脚镣跳舞的诗人精神。这也体现了著名词作家林夕是多么难能可贵。 还有一个问题，粤语有入声，数字里面1、7、8和10都是入声。入声就是短而且急促的声音，发音的结尾是舌尖顶在牙齿的-t（178)，或是双唇紧闭的-p（10），或是喉咙一紧的-k（6），都是很短促的声音。应该是因为这个语言特点才把编曲改成了这种偏快带rap的节奏。 这边三个入声已经是粤语九声中的三声了，也难怪老师一直说没感觉有调🤣 不是说英文没有这些结尾，像是sheep、shit、shake（我尽量找接近的），但英文中除了有长短音区别的，像是shit和sheet有区别意义。一般应该不会有人在shit转音外，大部分无论是唱sheep或sheeeeeeep应该都不会有意义上的区别。但粤语的入声是不能拉长音的。

Ms Rozette asked why they used a graduation song in the middle part. Again, it’s because of the lyrics and the meanings of this song. In the beginning it’s easy sing number songs, just like a young man chasing for his numbers ( height, IQ, money , wealth, age ….) he thinks he has put his efforts and he got all of them and he can be graduated (yeah) however…… life isn’t like that and it has not yet finished.. something is coming….. it can be even more challenging….. so you’ll found that’s it’s even fast and choppy and that makes the man can’t breathe , yea , this is life . That’s the tricky things that life is up and down , rushing for numbers in the end. That’s why people like this songs for years.

老師，相信傑，粵語真的不簡單🤣 另外，老師結尾那首歌好好聽呀！！🤩

我第一次聽數字歌的時候是香港一次做慈善電視節目，當時是捐款熱線電話＇林子祥每隔一段時間唱出來叫大家打這個捐款熱線捐錢

Jay is right!! When I was thinking how to explain, I found there were so many great examples in the comments🤣

No, he is not messing with you~🤣Really😆English and Cantonese are totally different.

希望老师可以react敢爱敢做！个人觉得林子祥和叶倩文的版本比原版 Nothing’s gonna stop us now好听

Cantonese is a very unique language. Since ancient times, lyric writing has been a literary form that pays great attention to the matching of tones and word meanings. This is a literary and artistic technique.

Rozette teacher, i get you. I am a cantonese speaker and i think you’re right. I don’t think it is impossible to add riffs and runs to canto songs. I believe it is because the history of canto pop songs is relatively short (around 70 years only), and the development of cantopop hasn’t reached the point where these problems can be overcome

that’s Really Deeply True. if you put Ma Ma high pitch is mother. low pitch will changed to grandma

等好久了❤

Perhaps there's a way to explain this easier. Here's the lyric: 3 0624700 3 0624770 5 34202 13942 43140624 For Cantonese speakers, they don't need to know the melody. They just read the numbers, of course in proper beats. Then it sounds like singing correct notes.

So interesting of her reaction, coz most of Chinese think ar Lam SLAY the stage 😊

This remind me of my music teacher, she talked about how “amen” should be 4-1, if you sing “amen” in 5-1, it will sound strange. But for Cantonese, it is not just sound strange, it will have completely different meaning or even doesn’t make sense at all. So I think it is difficult to decorate those note in cantonese unless it is tailor made for those word.

Here's the thing: I believe the term that's applicable here is "natural inflection". Cantonese is a language that has a very strong inflection on its own. Most of the Cantonese songs' melodies, especially the very popular ones, are all composed based on the natural inflections of the language. Take this Number Song, for example, if you simply read the lyrics, the tones would already suggest the Minute in G's melody. A Cantonese song would sound very awkward if we disregard its inflection while writing a melody. Even a verse with two different sets of lyrics has to be sung with modification to the notes to suite the meaning of the words.

“詩，史，試，時，市，事”讀這幾個字給她聽吧加詞explaination 她可能就懂了需要唱對那個調了😂

這個很期待 好想知道老師知道歌詞的意思後的反應

所有留言都是對的,但林子祥最最最獨特或者被尊敬的原因是因為他永遠用真音, 從來沒用過一個"假音"

很期待啊。有沒有男兒當自強，真的漢子，有誰明白我🎉🎉🎉❤

And re: the 'lengthened and dragging melodies', it is not 'inexistent'. As a matter of fact, in the OLD, ANCIENT Chinese music, namely Pekin Opera, Cantonese Opera, Chiuchow Opera, etc., they USED TO drag and turn and lengthen the sounds of one 'character/syllable/word', but that was something very 'old-fashioned', and in pop songs, they do have two or three notes in one 'syllable', used sparingly, and very, very seldom to be more than that. As a footnote, the 'lyrics filling' for songs in Cantonesee is crazily difficult, imagine if a note which can fit 'laugh' can't fit 'smile', so the lyrics 'writers' do not only need to have a very high level of language standard (with very rich vocab power), (s)he also needs to be very clever to have that flexibility and creativity! Next time, if you want to try this, I suggest inviting Jay to read the lyrics (in the same rhythm as in the song) to Miss Rozette prior to listening to the song itself, so Miss Rozette can recognise how 'fit' the words themselves are to the melody!

敢爱敢做 should do, he is the legend, i join member for please do reaction for 敢爱敢做

Agreed 大风吹....... very funny, I would laugh if I sing this😂

其實應該做comparison林子祥原唱的歌曲和嘗試cover他的歌手版本😂 比如這首數字人生又以comoare to 林子祥，葉倩文和李克勤的版本（雖然哪個好像只有半首）

I listen to this song since i was born and never thought of the numbers in the song have meaning

Expecting for coach Rozette listen more Cantonese songs there‘re many skillful song 😄😄

Just another guy from HK coming to give some support Jay. Cantonese is a very "rigid" language that doesn't allow much flexibility in pronunciation of the characters. Every character in Cantonese has a fixed way/ tone of itself and the meaning could be completely different even with a slight change. And, in Cantonese, there cannot be "follow thorough" between characters, and that's why you always has the feeling of "intermittent" when listening to Cantonese songs. That's really the language barrier. P.S. Jay you are so good

If you wanted to understand why you have to pronounce Cantonese in the right way use the 12:58 example 人 mean human, and in 9 sound 6 tone, we have all these 8 different words in Chinese Character: 「因、忍、印、人、引、刃、一、X、日」 and all give you different meaning, if you mis-speak the sound and tone, it give you totally wrong meaning. This is why Cantonese is one of the hardest language to learn, but the lyrics could be more vivid, in the mean while, you can using less note to represent more Idea...it make Cantonese lyric hard to write but beautiful.

as a hongkongese, he’s absolutely right😁

某天团粉丝：”哎呀年纪大了，他这么做能理解啦。“ 林子祥：哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈

Omg coach! As a native canto speaker I can relate so much to jay’s explanation of canto music/composition, I wish I can share more with you hahahaha singing in canto is more difficult than singing in English technically!!!!

沒事喔 下一首敢愛敢做 他就知道我大阿LAM的實力了

廣東話嘅排他性係源自於佢九聲發音嘅獨特性，當香港人或者廣東人學廣州話嘅時候（香港人叫廣東話）就要好注重發音，因為錯咗一個音就會變成另一個字，而呢個情況喺廣東話係特別容易發生，所以大家對於發音準確性嘅警惕都好高。喺日積月累嘅情況之下就形成咗廣東話嘅排他性，最出名嘅一個例子就係一首基督教嘅詩歌「主能夠」，就係因為唱歌嘅音同廣東話音唔配合，就變成一個接近粗口嘅組合🤣🤣🤣

The melody of this song is from Minuet BWV Anh 114 in G Major written by Christian Petzold in 1725 and attributed to J. S. Bach. This song is suitable for beginners on piano. Then the composer develop this song with variation and make it very nice! For the song of the Lover's Concerto in 1965, the song is only repeat and repeat the melody of the Minuet.

这是老师第一次听胡夏,希望她会爱上他,无论声音还是颜值,反正爱上了,以后就又有胡老板了呵呵

Rozette and Jay are talking about two different things which are not necessarily in contrast. Cantonese words can be lengthened and vary when singing. It’s not uncommon. On the other hand, it’s true that the meaning may be different due to the number of tones and sounds in Cantonese.

Needs to invite Mr George Lam to the show to explain to Rozette. This is not a typical vocal song.