Chapter 13

Cheng Xiaoyu, of course, would not take such a childish and immature farce to heart. Not being swayed by external things and not being saddened by personal misfortunes were the realms of his current life. However, this did not mean he did not take the cultural performance seriously. After all, once the words were spoken, they could not be taken back, and he did not want to actually run naked in circles; it was still a bit cold in Shanghai in December.

But at the moment, he had no ideas. He was not a fool and knew that simply playing the piano would not work. He had to come up with other methods to get through it. However, without any support, things became a bit tricky. This made him miss the band's friends, practicing and performing together, eating skewers and drinking beer, staying up all night playing League of Legends, and singing love songs together under the girls' dormitory at the teachers' college.

Cheng Xiaoyu walked down the silent alley, where the leaves of the plane trees on the street had turned yellow and crunched underfoot. Not far away, an old man was selling roasted sweet potatoes from his cart. Couples, holding hands and sharing a scarf, walked sweetly and warmly through the deep autumn afternoon. The not-so-intense sunlight penetrated the high-rise buildings, dispelling Cheng Xiaoyu's lonely shadow. He looked up and saw an airplane gliding across the light blue sky, bringing travelers back to their warm homes. At this moment, Cheng Xiaoyu felt the world was so splendid, and all the ordinary things were so beautiful. He couldn't help but smile as he recalled those happy times.

Cheng Xiaoyu, with tears welling up in his eyes, patted his head and shook it hard, trying to shake off the past that entangled his heart like vines. It was better to live in the present than to dwell on the past. "I will live more brilliantly, so that those who can no longer see me won't miss me!" Cheng Xiaoyu said softly to himself.

Upon arriving at Fudan University's music department, Cheng Xiaoyu thought it best not to worry about the cultural performance for the moment and to focus on practicing the piano first. After all, 35 yuan per hour was a luxury but not a waste. He greeted Uncle Huang, the middle-aged man who guarded the practice room, and entered the room he had reserved in advance. Suppressing his杂念, Cheng Xiaoyu began his routine practice of the Canon, Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, and Clementi's piano exercises.

After completing the exercises to improve his fingers' adaptability to various techniques, Cheng Xiaoyu would play some of the piano sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart, as well as the third "Dream of Love" and the 11th "Hungarian Rhapsody" by Liszt. As for the high-difficulty showpieces, he had never touched them. For him, it was not yet the right time to tackle such pieces.

Today, Cheng Xiaoyu deliberately ended his classical piano practice early and aimlessly played some pop piano pieces to think about the cultural performance. For him, this was not just a response to the challenge from the class president, Li Liwei, but also a test of his own abilities. He wanted to see how far he could go with his music. He was a perfectionist; if he did something, he had to do it to make a big impact.

Cheng Xiaoyu knew that simple classical piano performance was not his strong suit. Even if he could play the top-ranked Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 3," how many people could appreciate it? As the music director, he knew the importance of catching the audience's attention. The more artistic something was, the more likely it was to be appreciated by a select few. Moreover, he could not compare to Su Yuxi at the moment.

If he simply played those beautiful and moving classic pop piano pieces, the impact would definitely not be enough. Without a symphony orchestra, it would not achieve the effect he wanted.

Piano performance plus singing? Cheng Xiaoyu thought about it and decided to give it a try. He did not know what his current voice was like. He tried playing Jay Chou's "Sunny Day," a song he had loved in his previous life and had once transcribed the guitar sheet music for. Now, he could play it on the piano effortlessly, thanks to his god-like ability to memorize and transcribe sheet music. Simple piano accompaniment lacked expressiveness, but he had no other options at the moment. On the second attempt, he started singing "Sunny Day."

In his previous life, Cheng Xiaoyu had not received professional vocal training and had to rely on self-exploration. He had taken many detours, from the initial primitive vocal methods to the chest-abdominal breathing technique he learned from a professional teacher later on.

To learn singing, one must first understand the three basic elements of musical sound (pitch, loudness, and timbre), what breath is, and what the breathing support point is. How to produce sound, how to breathe, and how to resonate. The human true voice has its limits (for males, the true voice limit is around G2, and for females, it is around C3, though this varies from person to person. We can also sing A2, B2, C3, D3, and even higher C6, which are considered mixed voices in professional terms, and reaching the C6 that ordinary people cannot achieve is generally falsetto).

Taking the song "Love Until Death" as an example, the difficulty lies in the continuous high notes in the chorus (C3 for "at the end of the road, we still love" and "at the dead end, we still love"), all of which are C3. The "not" in "not thoroughly" is D3. "Love Until Death" has: 8 D3, 41 C3, 25 B2, 42 A2, and 25 G2. The song has about 200 high notes out of a total of 368 words, which means that more than half of the song exceeds the male true voice limit (the highest note in "Qinghai-Tibet Plateau" is G#5). Without learning the correct singing techniques, it is impossible to sing this song, note that singing is different from shouting, singing uses the resonance of the chest and head cavities to produce sound.

Of course, singing is not just about high notes, and a good high note does not necessarily mean a good singer. However, it is undeniable that high-note showpieces are the easiest to catch the audience's attention. But a lot of techniques cannot be achieved without practice, such as the coloratura high notes (men do not have coloratura, Vitas is a falsetto tenor, similar to a coloratura soprano), Maria Carey's famous whistle tone and high-note triplets, etc. Scientific training not only expands the vocal range but also opens up more parts of the body to resonate.

In this life, Cheng Xiaoyu's voice was not bad, it was relatively coarse and hoarse, not the clear and bright type, but it had a stable and thick quality. However, the vocal range was not wide enough to reach the necessary heights. A few days of training would not be enough to prepare him to perform a song with a powerful impact. Expanding the vocal range is not something that can be done in a day or two. He had the theoretical knowledge, but singing sometimes depends on natural talent. A typical example is Maria Carey, whose high note can reach C6, and it is hard to imagine that she only received basic vocal training as a child (mainly on vocal production and resonance). Of course, this is an extremely rare case, and we cannot forget that her mother was the lead singer of the New York Opera.

The song "Sunny Day" is not too high in pitch, but to sing it well is very challenging. One must master breath control, especially in the chorus, where the song hits the transition point. If you do not transition smoothly, it can sound strained or break. He could not even control a song of relatively low difficulty, let alone other songs. Clearly, the path of playing and singing was a dead end for him, and the short twelve days of preparation time was an insurmountable obstacle.

In his previous life, Cheng Xiaoyu was also quite good at HipHop, POPPIN, and JAZZ, but his current physique would make dancing look more comical than impressive. Moreover, he would need to find specific music, and if it were a solo performance, the effect might not be better than a martial arts performance. If it were a group performance, where would he find teammates?

In summary, for Cheng Xiaoyu to make a big impact at the New Year's performance, the difficulty was not just high; he had to face not only the school's programs but also those from the other three prestigious schools. If he only needed to be selected, he believed it would be easy for him. But his standards for himself were much higher.

Feeling at a loss, Cheng Xiaoyu began to play "Croatian Rhapsody" aimlessly, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind, but he could not grasp the key points. When Wang Huasheng called, saying he was already waiting at the school's back gate, Cheng Xiaoyu still had no good ideas. He had to leave the practice room and go home. On the way, he kept muttering, "It has to be impressive, it has to be impressive!" which made Su Yuxi look at him a few times.

In the evening, Wang Ou called. The campus gossip king already knew about Cheng Xiaoyu's bet with Li Liwei. Wang Ou, without any sense of camaraderie, expressed strong concern for his new best friend, saying affectionately over the phone, "Why don't you skip practicing the piano after school and come running with me!"

Cheng Xiaoyu asked in confusion, "What, are you going to perform a 100-meter race with me?"

Wang Ou replied calmly, "No, so that your naked run can be shorter!"

Cheng Xiaoyu sneered, "Wang Dazhuang, if I don't delete all the private photos on your phone, I'll take your last name!"

Wang Ou laughed, "Cheng Xiaopang, don't worry, I'll make sure Li Liwei leaves you a pair of shorts. As a brother, I've done my best!"

Cheng Xiaoyu cursed, "Your sister, Wang Dazhuang, wash your ass and wait, I'm coming to teach you how to be a person!"

Wang Ou immediately put on a coquettish tone, "Your Majesty, your humble servant cannot do it!"

Cheng Xiaoyu gagged and hung up the phone, immediately receiving a text message from Wang Ou with a smiling face and the words "加油" (cheer up).

Page AD starts

Page AD ends