tones when singing a chinese song? if tones are so important in chinese as to even distinguish shades of meaning, how can a chinese sing a song? in music every syllable has its own note/tone, so when we sing a song, we must disregard the appropriate tone and apply the musical note to that chinese character... for example we must say "zai"(in...at...) with a falling pitch, but what if the note in the song necessitates us to pronounce "zai" with rising pitch????...
Simple answer:

Sinosplice

Tones In Chinese Songs


  I’ve been asked a number of times: if Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, what happens when you sing in Mandarin? Well, the answer is the melody takes over and the tones are ignored. Pretty simple.


A graphic representation of tones spoken vs. sung in Mandarin [also from Sinosplice]:


  


Sometimes, though I think, if you listen closely a lot of people are included to sing the tone even though they don't need to.