How to Sing Like RIIZE's Shotaro: Vocal Range, Signature Tone & the Technique Behind It

Singing like RIIZE's Shotaro is less about a naturally high or trained vocal position and more about mastering two specific skills: a soft, plush tone built on efficient breath support, and clean diction that carries across Korean, English, and Japanese without losing clarity. Once you understand the mechanics behind his delivery, it becomes trainable — even if your voice type is nothing like his and even if singing isn't your primary strength either.

Safety note: None of the techniques here should cause throat soreness, a pressed feeling in the larynx, or hoarseness lasting beyond 24 hours. Shotaro's projected tone is produced through breath support, not by forcing chest voice upward or squeezing the throat. If you feel strain, reduce volume and rest. Consult an ENT specialist for hoarseness lasting more than two weeks.

RIIZE's Shotaro's Vocal Profile

Shotaro's credited position in RIIZE is main dancer and lead rapper, not lead vocalist, so he does not have an officially published or independently verified vocal range in the way a group's main vocalist typically would. This is worth stating plainly rather than attaching a confident-sounding number with no reliable source. What is consistently pointed out in fan and community commentary, though, is that his singing voice carries surprising power and a distinctive tone quality for a non-vocal position — often described with the informal Korean expression "폭신폭신한" (poksin-poksinhan), meaning soft, cushioned, or "fluffy."

Rather than anchoring on an unverified range, it's more productive to look at the two qualities that actually show up consistently in his melodic lines and ad-libs:

• Plush, rounded tone color — a warm, cushioned texture rather than a bright, cutting one, audible whenever he takes a melodic line or ad-lib.
• Projected power for a non-vocal position — a fuller, more supported sound than his primary rapper/dancer role would suggest, which is the detail fans and vocal-analysis commentary return to most often.

As a Japanese member performing primarily in Korean (with English also present in RIIZE's discography), his multilingual delivery is a third notable feature of his vocal presence, even though it's more of a diction skill than a registration one.

RIIZE's Shotaro's Signature Songs — by Vocal Challenge

Approaching his parts by what they demand rather than by popularity gives you a training order. Transpose any of these to a key that fits your range.

Start at the top of the table and move down only as each technique becomes reliable. Blending a soft, plush tone into a melodic passage without losing support is the most demanding target here.

The 3 Techniques Behind RIIZE's Shotaro's Sound

Projected power despite a non-vocal position

The vocal power fans note as surprising for a main dancer and rapper comes from efficient breath support feeding the tone, not from extra throat effort layered onto a naturally quiet voice. The most common mistake when trying to project more is pushing harder from the throat instead of increasing breath flow and support underneath the sound. Costal breathing and appoggio-style support are the direct route to this kind of sustainable projection. The K-pop beginner vocal guide covers the breath fundamentals this depends on.

Plush, cushioned tone color

The "폭신폭신한" quality that fans consistently describe comes from relaxed forward resonance combined with a warm, slightly rounded vowel shape — not from a muffled or unsupported voice. This is a resonance-shaping skill, distinct from volume or pitch, and it's trained by working humming resonance and mask resonance placement together so the roundness sits on top of a clear, supported tone rather than replacing clarity with mush. The idol vocal style analysis covers how tone-color choices like this show up across different idol vocal styles.

Multilingual diction clarity

As a Japanese member delivering lines primarily in Korean, with English also present across RIIZE's catalog, keeping consonants and vowels clear and consistent across languages is a deliberate articulation skill, not something that happens automatically with fluency. The most common mistake is letting pronunciation habits from one language blur into another under performance pressure, which softens clarity exactly when a line needs to cut through a mix. Targeted diction and final-consonant drills, practiced slowly across each language separately before combining them, are the direct fix.

How to Train Toward RIIZE's Shotaro's Style

Step 1 — Find your comfortable key first

Run a range test from your lowest to highest comfortable note before attempting any RIIZE song. Shotaro's melodic lines don't have an officially published range, but almost every song works transposed to fit your own voice. Singing in a fitting key prevents the strain that comes from chasing an unverified pitch.

Step 2 — Study the tone target, not just the melody

Pick one song and listen three times: once for melody, once for where the tone feels soft and plush versus more projected, and once for breath audibility. Identify which mode a phrase uses before you sing it. This makes your practice a technical target instead of an impression.

Step 3 — Build breath support for projected power

His voice carries noticeable power for a non-vocal position, which comes from efficient breath support rather than throat effort. In Bloom Vocal, A-9 (Costal Breathing) and A-10 (Appoggio Technique) build the sustained support that lets projection come from underneath the tone instead of from tension in the throat.

Step 4 — Train resonance shaping and multilingual diction

The plush, rounded quality of his tone comes from forward resonance and vowel shaping. Work E-1 (Humming Resonance) and E-3 (Mask Resonance) to build the warm placement, then layer in G-1 (Clear Lyric Diction) and G-2 (Crisp Final Consonants) to keep pronunciation clear whether the line is in Korean, English, or Japanese.

Step 5 — Run an AI feedback loop on a single phrase

Choose one 8-bar passage, record it, and use Bloom Vocal's AI coaching to score pitch accuracy, breath support, and expression. Compare playback to the original for tone quality first, diction clarity second. The AI surfaces habits — like breath dropping under a soft phrase, or consonants blurring across a language switch — that are difficult to detect by self-listening alone.

Check Your Cover with AI

Imitating a soft, plush tone by ear has a ceiling: a rounded, cushioned voice can hide breath drops and softening diction more easily than a bright, cutting one, which makes self-correction harder rather than easier. Upload a recording of a Shotaro passage — a melodic line from "Get A Guitar" or a softer moment in "Love 119" — and Bloom Vocal's AI scores your pitch accuracy, breath support, register transitions, rhythm, and expression on a 1–5 rubric, then recommends the specific exercises to fix your weakest area first. It turns "that felt a little muffled" into "your consonant clarity dropped in the second phrase — drill G-1."

For a broader framework on how idol vocal styles map to trainable techniques, see the K-pop idol vocal style analysis. If you're working through other RIIZE members, the guides for Anton, Sungchan, and Wonbin cover neighboring vocal styles within the same group. To start from the fundamentals, the K-pop beginner vocal guide covers the prerequisite breath and registration work.

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References

• Sadolin, C. (2000). Complete Vocal Technique. Shout Publishing. [Vocal modes and the laryngeal/resonance configurations behind neutral and mixed productions used in soft, rounded-tone pop delivery.]
• Titze, I. R., & Verdolini Abbott, K. (2012). Vocology: The Science and Practice of Voice Habilitation. National Center for Voice and Speech. [Breath support and cord closure mechanics across chest and mixed register; articulatory precision and formant shaping in supported tone production.]