Chapter 1: As if Singing 4
Soon, a lady of around 30 years stood at the front. A clean white shirt with a beige-coloured skirt, and more importantly, those short nails entered the eyes.
An instrument teacher is it? Piano or a violin?
“h.e.l.lo everyone. I’m the homeroom teacher of Freshmen 10th cla.s.s for one year, Kang Heewon.”
She smiled while introducing herself. Kang Heewon… not someone I remember.
While I was in deep consideration of who Kang Heewon was, the usual things teachers said started to come out.
Things like, nice to meet you, let’s be close and you will need to move rooms for every subject so we won’t be seeing much… But there will be morning roll calls so don’t be late for those! And the likes…
After immediately losing interest, I gazed around.
In one corner, Jun Shihyuk and Song Mirae’s Future Middle School group were laughing away and Lee Suh-ah was sitting at the front quietly looking forward.
And there was Chloe sitting next to me. When I glanced at her, perhaps her hair had gotten into her uniform, I could see Chloe straightening out her blonde hair.
Chloe… I forgot the last name.
Hmm… and she was French. Was she half, I didn’t know.
… Although I pretended to know a lot, I don’t really know much. Well, I didn’t remember her because we were close; she just stood out a lot so I automatically remembered her.
I mean, she’s a foreigner. It couldn’t be helped that she who was the only one within the Koreans was carved into the brain. A long straight, bright blonde hair, and wide eyes with green eyeb.a.l.l.s. A doll-like foreign girl straight out of a painting.
Maybe other kids found it strange as well, they were looking straight at her. Chloe herself seemed to be aware of this and looked restless.
‘Hmm…’
Looking at that appearance while tapping on the table, I tried talking to her.
[Hi]
[h.e.l.lo]
Bonjour – she says and faces the front again, acting indifferent.
“…”
Yeah. How can I make friends with students with this age?
After half giving up and leaning back onto the seat, the boring story of the teacher was nearing its end.
“… Since today’s the first day there won’t be any special cla.s.ses and will end early. Sounds good?”
“Yes!”
Kang Heewon continued after sneering evilly.
“But it’s disheartening to return to the dorms like this right? So, shall we do a light test?”
“No!”
Ignoring the students who became one, teacher Kang Heewon used the computer and brought out a music score on the little screen. What score all of a sudden? I looked dully but it didn’t seem familiar, or more like, it didn’t even look like a song.
The teacher saw us being puzzled and clapped with a smile.
“Good! Now can the students on the front row come up please?”
“…”
The students stood up with bewilderment at the sudden situation, while the teacher continued her waving gesture. Looking at the students who slowly crept up, a memory popped up in my head.
‘Ah, this is that.’
After a.s.sessing the situation, I could see what kind of test she was referring to. The teacher smiled and opened her mouth.
“SRMD. Let’s see how well you’ve been practising~”
There were loud boos from the surrounding students in response.
While there was a quiet sn.i.g.g.e.r from me.
‘SRMD.’
Short for Sight-reading and Music dictation.
Sight-reading meant reading the score and singing the note, while music dictation meant hearing a note and writing it on the stave. It was basically a foundational pitch training. How to read a score as well as hearing the notes was the basics of music and a subject area that students would tirelessly study.
‘Oh yeah, weren’t cla.s.ses decided by the SRMD test results?’
Higher scores would result in top cla.s.ses while the lower ones would go to bottom cla.s.ses, was how it went I think. Differentiated teaching or something like that.
The five students at the front stared straight at the score oblivious to this fact or not.
“Okay. After 3, 2, 1, you may start. Look at me.”
After saying that, the teacher got rid of the score on the screen and along with the sighs, the countdown started. At the end of the countdown, the students opened their mouths at once.
“Do mi so, do ti la so…”
The first round was made easy, having a constant rhythm without sudden tone changes. The students sang the pitches with ease.
From among those voices, there was one standing out. An elegant, n.o.ble voice with its soft ringing echoed throughout despite being a simple reading.
Lee Suh-ah.
The voice itself was different. As expected of being the seed of a world-cla.s.s soprano, even the appearance of the downcast eyes reflected her leisure. I concentrated my all into feeling her voice. It was nice, really nice. If she was like this, how would Kim Wuju be? I could feel my throat drying up.
“It’s easy, right? Let’s go to the next stage. If you get it wrong, just stop. I’m listening to you all.”
The test that suddenly got harder from the second round produced dropouts on the third, and by the eighth round, only Lee Suh-ah was left standing.
Kang Heewon who saw that speaks in awe.
“Eighth round! You must’ve worked really hard. We’re starting 3, 2, 1.”
Looking at the screen, I found a ridiculous-looking score.
Notes and rests, flats, sharps, double sharps… The score filled with all sorts of music symbols was at a stage that could be called sauteed bean sprouts.
Is there a need to go that far?
While I was staring dumbfounded, Lee Suh-ah finally crumbled at the unrelenting syncopation.
“Ti, reso, fa, mi, re, domisoti – do, re, Ah…”
Lee Suh-ah who noticed her mistake lowers her head.
“Half a beat too fast yes? That was still well done. Next row please.”
“Yes…”
The sight-reading test continued without a problem, and reached my front row at a blink.
Looking at things, it seemed that students from the composition department were good. They must’ve learned harmonics already after all, and could see more from the score than others.
SRMD.
Sight-reading and music dictation had an effect on those that were born with perfect pitches, but the most important thing was to know the rules of music and to get used to it.
Notes that look random at a glance all have a set reason for being there after all.
If you take that into account and practise, this SRMD becomes a lot easier to handle. A perfect pitch was something you could acquire after birth with practice.
So in conclusion, sight-reading and music dictation was about who was more practised with them. And me who had been an opera singer for 20 years…
Had a cheat that made me feel almost sorry for being here.
‘Sitting around with students doing SRMD at this age…’
I was laughing at my life when my turn approached.
Walking up, I stood at the front as Chloe followed from behind and stood next to me. Kang Heewon who saw that blonde foreigner had an expression saying ‘oh no’, and spoke.
“Ah, Chloe. Is your Korean okay? Do you understand what we are doing?”
“I’m… good, at listening. Singing score, I can do.”
Finding Chloe and her p.r.o.nunciation worrisome, the teacher checked a few more times before going back to the computer.
‘Hmm… Chloe wasn’t good at talking Korean it seems.’
Is she only good at listening? That was possible considering that she had come from France, a country on the other side of the globe. Chloe who stood by herself in the middle of a foreign land looked pitiful. Wasn’t she just a little girl at the age of 17? It was easy to tell that she was nervous from a glance.
The tightly sealed lips, a hand swirling the hair and a constant cough. She looked too anxious so I gave her a whisper.
[Relax. What we’re doing now isn’t included in our grades]
[Thank you.]
Chloe who replied nonchalantly suddenly went ‘eh?’ and turned her head with a jump.
[Just then, in French…]
“3, 2, 1.”
To the countdowns of teacher Kang Heewon, Chloe rushed to face the screen.
The giveaway first stage was easily broken through as well as the second and the third.
Easy.
Me standing here doing this was too easy to the point it was embarra.s.sing.
‘I think I can go through the eighth stage too.’
The level of the eighth stage was one you would never face in real life working as an opera singer… but the basics are the same, aren’t they? There are notes on the stave and I just have to read it.
Music symbols were nothing more than a language. No matter how complexly written a Korean phrase was, it wouldn’t be impossible for a Korean to read it.
Fourth and the fifth stage.
Chloe who was the only one left had dropped out and only I had reached the sixth level.
I could feel the cla.s.s’s eyes gathering on me and that made me feel like a clown once again.
‘Should I just fail randomly and drop out…’
I closed my eyes and changed my thoughts.
No.
If I did it carelessly and entered a low-level cla.s.s, I would be stressed for a whole semester for sure. And if I played around with kids on a lower level it would make me feel more miserable.
So I decided to do it properly.
“3, 2, 1”
Raising my head, the score that was getting more and more complex could be seen.
However, it was still within a simple range.
Pulling a note, changing a note suddenly and taking care of repeated notes was something I had done hundreds and thousands and millions of times as an opera singer.
If I got something wrong here, that would be the most shameful thing…
“Ah?”
In the middle of softly reading out the score, I suddenly stopped.
I could feel teacher Kang Heewon who had been nodding away at my sight-reading turning towards me, as well as the eyes of thirty or so students gathering on me.
The bewildered expressions were gathered on me.
“Hmm? This is not a hard part though?”
The teacher asked with a questioning tone. That was with reason because it really wasn’t hard – a lot simpler beat and note compared to the ones before. There were no special music symbol and just an eighth note on the stave, nowhere to get it wrong.
‘Except for the height of the note that is’.
F4
In other words, a 2 Octave F.
So…
“Um… this part’s too high and I can’t sing it.”
It felt more shameful now that I sounded it out, and my face reddened.
s.h.i.t. This is really embarra.s.sing.
Kang Heewon who saw through the situation from my red face smiled lightly and patted me.
“Ahaha… so Yunjae? Yunjae must not be an opera major. Sorry. Why is there a high note in there? There must’ve been a problem, we usually don’t make it that high…”
The teacher’s consideration digs deeper into my bones. I was wondering if I should say I was an opera major here until a playful voice reverberated from the back of the cla.s.s.
“Miss. He’s an opera major. I saw him at the interview!”
A burst of light laughter filled the cla.s.s.
“Is… is that so? Let’s go over to the next row.”
Putting the hurrying teacher to the back I turned my body and looked towards where the voice had come from and saw Jun Shihyuk’s group laughing at me.
It didn’t sound like Jun Shihyuk’s voice though.
Looking around at all the members sitting around Jun Shihyuk, my eyes met those of a slightly fat boy. I could see him retreating his head with a start. Glancing at the nameplate, I could see the name, Kim Dongsik.
Kim Dongsik… Considering that I had no recollection, it seemed that he was someone unrelated to me as an opera. After looking at him for a bit, I snorted and returned to my seat.
Sigh. What am I doing fighting with kids? It was also a fact that I couldn’t sing a 2 Octave F as a baritone.
Looking forward, I looked over the sight-reading when I heard a voice from the side.
[The sixth stage is also really good. What’s so funny that they’re laughing?]
“…”
Looking over to the side, Chloe was frowning as if she was the one being wronged. That cute expression made me want to pull a prank.
‘Let’s pretend to not know French.’
When I looked forward pretending to not know anything, Chloe carefully spoke up.
[Um… You know how to speak French right?]
[…]
[Didn’t he speak to me before?]
[…]
[What’s going on…]
The sulking Chloe almost made me burst into laughter, but I was barely able to hold it in.
When I was about to open my mouth after looking at Chloe who kept glancing at me, the next row was beginning so I closed my mouth. There couldn’t be any background noise.
The sight-reading test that continued finally ended at the last row.
Song Mirae failed at the fifth stage, Jun Shihyuk at seventh, and that DongSik guy at the fourth. In the end, the first place went to Lee Suh-ah.
“Well then, shall we go over to music dictation?”
Kang Heewon who gathered everyone’s attention back gave out empty staves and continued.
“The rules are simple. You hear the sound and write it down onto the staves. There would be no-one cheating here, right? You would get 0 if you do, but also if you enter a cla.s.s not suited for you, it’s going to be harder to study.”
“Yes.”
The loud voices quieted down one by one.
And the test began.