The Music of an Arts High School Genius Must Be Special - Chapter 186



Only Krnovel

Episode 186. Making the string instruments dance (2)

I didn’t run away.

If I say it like this, it sounds like I’m a warrior about to fight a decisive battle that will determine the fate of the world, but I didn’t run away because I thought it would be too hard to run down the hallway.

I returned to the office with the intention of hearing the reason.

“Oh, here you come.”

“……hi?”

My seniors greeted me with an awkward attitude, as if they didn’t expect me to return so quickly.

First, I calmed them down and sat them down on the chair facing each other.

One man and one woman.

I was swept up in the atmosphere and my first impression was that they looked gloomy, but as I got used to them, I thought that their faces were gentle, as if the harmfulness had been removed.

“My name is Kwon Do-hyun, a freshman who just entered the second semester. I’m majoring in piano.”

“Oh, oh, I heard.”

“Yes, bye.”

Even though it was our first meeting, I somehow didn’t feel awkward with my seniors. On the contrary, I felt embarrassed by their attitude towards me, which was difficult.

“Where have we seen you before?”

“We know you… …. You don’t know us.”

“I see you often on YouTube, so you seem like my friend.”

I just laughed awkwardly at the timid voice.

When will the hunters come after me as if they are going to capture me…?

“I guess the seniors are also majoring in string instruments?”

I remembered the instrument they were holding earlier, and when I asked through the awkward air, my seniors shook their shoulders for a moment.

“This isn’t ours. Seojun and Changyong were just watching while they played the instruments.”

“Ours is over there.”

In the corner that the female senior pointed to, there was a hi-hat with only one cymbal hanging from it, a snare drum, and a bass guitar.

She often walked over to pick up the guitar and held it in her arms.

“We are the rhythm and bass parts.”

“Oh, senior, your guitar is unusual in that it only has 4 strings? Like a violin.”

“hey!”

I just poked him and he suddenly shouted in return.

Even he himself didn’t know that his voice would be this loud, so he quickly covered his mouth and blushed.

“… … The bass originally had 4 strings. It’s different from a regular guitar.”

“I’m kidding. I know how to play bass guitar too.”

“Oh, well, I guess you knew. But why did you tease me?!”

I avoided eye contact.

Still, I thought the mood had lightened thanks to that, so I made a statement.

The seniors who were glaring at me as if they were going to eat me were second year students, and they were Kim Tae-min on drums and Lee Ga-young on bass.

“I understand the drums, but do you need a bassist too? Don’t you usually use a double bass?”

There was one question about the combination.

The snare drum is something that is learned in percussion majors and is actually used in orchestras, but the bass guitar is not an instrument that a classical music major would use.

Moreover, in the rhythm section of jazz, the double bass, commonly called contrabass, is often more popular than the bass guitar.

“Yeah, I majored in double bass.”

“But why do you play the guitar?”

“If you’re in a club, you have to come and go often, so how can you carry a double bass around… … It’s bigger than me. I should just buy a bass.”

“aha.”

“It’s okay because the bass guitar was originally made to be smaller than the double bass.”

I just noticed that senior Lee Ga-young is also on the small side.

The double bass is usually around 1.8m in size. It definitely seemed like it would be difficult to carry around.

‘Then what would have happened if Gyuri-sunbae had majored in double bass?’

An image of a porter suddenly came to mind and I burst out laughing.

“… … You’re not making fun of me for being short right now, are you?”

“No, I didn’t even know that my senior was small because I knew that he was smaller than me.”

“?”

“If you’re shorter than that, isn’t it difficult to play the double bass? I think the cello would be difficult too. How did you end up choosing your major?”

When I asked her out of pure curiosity, she let out a dark, dark laugh.

“The bass, the low-pitched instrument, it’s cool when it moves around… … . Without me, the music feels empty, so how can I play… … .”

“Yes, yes. You should be grateful.”

“It seems like I’m controlling others from behind, and… … Isn’t it cool? That’s why I don’t mind if you ask me to just play the root note. In fact, I like it.”

“I’m the same as Gayoung. I always find it funny when I see melody instruments that think they’re good at it, and that’s why I majored in percussion.”

“I see. Wow, that’s cool.”

The sight of them giggling and laughing as if they were sympathizing with each other was somehow creepy.

You think it’s cool that you’re controlling the music from behind the scenes? That’s a really perverted reason.

That was the only feeling I had.

‘By the way, there are two rhythm sessions.’

If we include the string instruments that were combined in Jeju Island, the composition would be two violins, one viola, one cello, one drum, and one bass.

Overall, there was something boring about the composition, as if the keyboard instrument was the one that was desperately needed.

When I, a pianist, step in, the sound will definitely come alive, and I’m starting to get a rough idea of ​​what kind of music we should do in the future.

“So, Dohyun, you’re doing it with us, right… … ?”

While all sorts of things were going through my head, Senior Lee Ga-young sent me a cautious look.

“Even if it’s us… … Since we’re a club, aren’t we supposed to do it all together?”

“No matter how unpopular our club is, there aren’t only six people.”

“is it so?”

“Yeah, there’s another team that’s mostly made up of third-year students, and it’s mostly brass.”

It was said that the composition was mainly composed of brass instruments.

I thought that since it was a club, all the members would perform together, but it seems like the groups are divided.

“Then why don’t you hang out with those seniors? Are you not on good terms with them?”

“We are on good terms, but you guys are so close that I have no room to get involved… … .”

“The third-year seniors there are friends who have been together since their first year. That’s why.”

“This year, you have to prepare for the college entrance exams, so it’s too late to say let’s have a big performance.”

I was listening to the story of how he was worried that I might just run away, but I didn’t think much of it.

I wouldn’t have joined here in the first place if it weren’t for my four string instrument friends.

It didn’t matter whether there were two or three groups preparing for their own performances, I just thought that they had to match the synergy with the groups they were in.

“Do-hyun, don’t you feel bad for us? We only have string instruments and drums. Our seniors have saxophones, and we’ve known each other for a long time so we play well together… … .”

“Come with us, please… …! We really need the piano.”

I calmed down the seniors who were rushing towards me with their eyes like deer’s and their eyebrows furrowed.

It was a strange feeling, as I kept feeling familiar with something.

***

“i look forward to.”

Standing in front of the blackboard, I bowed my head.

I have just introduced myself and greeted all the club members.

The members who were sitting on chairs without desks, including teacher Lee Bo-ram who was standing next to me, gave me a round of applause.

“If you have any questions, ask your teacher or seniors, and you guys take good care of Dohyun too! You should know how precious a pianist is, okay?”

As the classroom became noisy with people talking about me, a senior student in the back suddenly stood up and shouted.

“Hey, hey! Kwon Do-hyun! Don’t you remember me?”

“……Do you know me?”

It was the first time I saw a male student.

Since I didn’t know any of my third-year seniors in the first place, it was difficult to guess roughly.

“Is there anyone in our school who doesn’t know you? But you really don’t remember me?”

“There’s no one who doesn’t know him.”

“Dohyun, can I just ignore this kid? I like you?”

Despite the advice of his friends, the senior ignored them and grabbed a drum stick.

“At the beginning of the first semester, that. Think about it carefully.”

When I saw that sight, an idea suddenly came to mind.

It must have been a day not far from the first semester class exam.

It was the senior who played the drums when we were practicing tempo with the drums and timpani.

“Oh, you’re the senior who was flirting with my friend Seo Ye-ri back then, right? I remember.”

“what?”

My first impression wasn’t very good, so I tried to put some heart into my innocent words, and in an instant, the room was filled with soft laughter.

The senior’s friends laughed and pointed at him teasingly, and he blushed.

“Jaeyoon, you touched Yeri, the girl who just started school? Really?”

The drum senior frowned as if he was in trouble because even teacher Lee Bo-ram joined in.

“Oh, teacher, I just wanted to talk to you to become closer… … .”

He awkwardly received the teacher’s strange gaze and slowly walked towards the blackboard.

“But, teacher, there are new members, so don’t we have to do something like an initiation ceremony?”

“Didn’t we just say hello?”

“But we’re a jazz club, so we should do it with music. Right?”

The senior glanced at me while talking to the teacher.

I leaned my hand on the desk and just silently listened to what he was going to say.

“Hey, do you want to do a duet?”

“There are no drums here.”

“Over there, there’s a hi-hat and a snare.”

He looked around and snapped his thumb and index finger.

“Hey, Taemin. Did you bring that? Do you have a brush too?”

“yes.”

“You can just use a brush. Is that okay?”

By chance, a duet between piano and drums came to fruition.

The third-year seniors booed at him, perhaps because their intention was to tease him, but there weren’t many voices that sincerely tried to stop him.

Rather, I was surrounded by gazes of expectant and curious gazes, to the point where it felt burdensome.

Teacher Lee Bo-ram, who was observing the atmosphere, approached me and asked quietly.

“Do-hyeon, if the teacher stops you here, would that be meddling? It’s okay if you don’t play hard. If you feel bad, I’ll say something harsh.”

“No, I’m fine.”

Although the intentions seemed impure, I believed in the personal growth of a person.

Even if we were a bit offended by each other during tempo practice in the first semester, that was already a thing of the past.

There’s no way he would do something as petty as getting revenge on a first-year student or something like that. I decided to believe that the drum senior had volunteered to be an assistant to test the new members.

With a light heart, I approached the upright piano in the front corner of the classroom and swept the keys.

‘I haven’t written in a long time… … .’

A piano without an owner is a poor thing.

I thought I had to hit it a lot in the future.

“Hey, long time no see?”

Soon after, the senior sitting next to me brought out the hi-hat and snare drum and grinned. Now that I look at it, it seems like he’s using the bass drum, which acts as a kick, as a chair.

“I’m looking forward to it. You play the drums well, senior.”

“… … Well, I guess I’m good at it, then.”

“Should we do it right away? Since the drums use brushes, I think it would be okay to do one that is more of a ballad.”

Drum brush.

These are drumsticks shaped like a broom, usually made of wire. Sometimes, when you hear a ‘tak-tak’ rhythm or the sound of rain in jazz music, it is because this brush was used.

It is a tool that suits lyrical and slow ballad-style music rather than fast-tempo and intense music.

“How do you know the brush?”

“If you want to join a jazz club, you need to know this much.”

“… … Do you know anything about jazz?”

“Jaeyoon, haven’t you seen Dohyun busking? Because of that, everyone is happy that I don’t have to teach them… … .”

“Oh, that’s it.”

The senior, who had stopped abruptly while waving his brush in the air, nodded with a distant look in his eyes and muttered.

“Oh, that’s right. That’s right.”

“How about Joe Hisaishi’s ‘Summer’? I played the jazz arrangement version a few times at the training camp, so I have it memorized.”

“Summer… … .”

The senior, who had been drumming with a brush while recalling memories, gradually became more focused and began to show off his dazzling technique.

It looks really cool, but drums that are usually brushed don’t need to have that much presence. The same goes for the song I’m playing now.

In short, it seemed like nothing more than showing off.

“Excuse me, but could you just keep the rhythm?”

When I asked cautiously, my senior shot back a sharp retort.

“Hey, why am I playing with you here right now?”

“Why are you doing that?”

There was a moment of silence.

“… … What, a test?”

“Then wouldn’t it be easier for people to judge my skills if you make the piano stand out?”

The third-year seniors sitting far away were laughing and raising their voices.

“That’s right, that’s right.”

“He’s so funny. Man, he’s good!”

The drum senior who had been mumbling loudly suddenly started banging on the kick drum.

“Hey, do it, do it, do it. Let’s see how well you do.”

“If my senior lays the foundation well, I just follow along.”

“Hey, you can’t just follow along, it’s a test.”

“Originally, bass was the most important thing in music. A rhythm session like yours truly brought the performance to life.”

I said this with a simple, hehehe laugh so as not to seem like I was complaining, but my senior looked at me with a strange expression and look in his eyes.

“… …What are you?”

“Please.”

“Ah, what the, s… … .”

A ‘tak tak’ sound was heard, and drum accompaniment was added.