Genius of a Performing Arts High

A while after closing my eyes after finishing the song, I turned my head across. There, in front of the black piano, was Chloe with her glistering eyes and joined hands. Her expression somehow made me happy as well as I asked.

“How was it?”

“Good! A lot, un... a lot better!”

Better. That was the most fitting expression. Really, even from my perspective, it was a lot better, and was at a level that couldn’t even be compared to the time of admission. What fitting phrase could there be, ‘world changing everyday’ or, ‘today is always a better day than yesterday’? In any case, it felt like I was flying atop the clouds.

“Wah...”

It had been around 15 days since I had entered the school... and the intense practice had met some results and had reached a turning point. A turning point, where the skills would increase tremendously.

I opened my mouth in excitement.

“Ah ah ah ah ah–”

A light scale and the pitch rose higher and higher.

E4, F4, G4

And soon, it reached A4 as the clear sound echoed in the practice room. The ringing feeling hitting the head felt thrilling. Going up and down the scale on a whim, I suddenly started a song with a hum.

“Oh, lady, oh lady~ oh lady~~”

“Huhuhh what is that!”

Remembering and singing the trending songs from 20 years ago which I could hardly even remember, and singing French songs after getting recommendations from Chloe and practising the prac songs that I had to sing – after testing this and that, I could tell that I was indeed able to make the high notes.

From F4 to A4, jumping up two levels. It was hard to believe that it was the result after one week.

[Are you a genius, Yunjae?]

It was enough to have Chloe surprised.

“No... I’m not a genius.”

I became embarrassed and scratched my hair. Me, a genius? If teacher Kwak Jungsoo from before my time travel had heard it, then he would’ve been rolling on the floor laughing. Me who had been the worst student in Future Arts High being a genius...

“Hmm...”

In fact, I could somewhat guess the reasons behind this sudden development. I reflected seriously.

‘First, my experience.’

When giving lessons, there was something really tough about it. It was that we couldn’t look through the students’ bodies – how good would it be if there was a pair of x-ray glasses lying around?

If we could look through their bodies while they were singing and say, ‘Try raising the velum up by 0.5cm from there and increase the diameter inside the neck by 1cm’, how good would that be? In reality, we heard the sound and,

‘Ah, this sound is usually because there’s a problem at this spot but it could be because of other problems as well...’

That was the only thing we could do.

Looking at the hands like pianos and other instruments, and exactly telling them where the problems were would be extremely convenient. However, in vocal training, we usually had to proceed carefully like blind men touching an elephant.

But I, an experienced vocal trainer and student, could tell what the problems were since it was within my body. I would make slight alterations on the body, record that and check, and by comparing that to my information and instincts, I could directly point out what the problem was.

Doing those and discovering what the problematic muscles were before training them was the cause of this fast result.

“But, phrasing? was still? not enough!”

Listening to Chloe raise a finger and say that, I gave a nod in reply. A problem with phrasing – so I breathed in wherever I wanted in other words.

“Yeah, the breath training is still far-off.”

This was due to a lack of breath management and capacity. There was no cure except time and diligent practice.

Let’s not become overconfident just because of high notes and practise more.

Reflecting on my actions, I and Chloe shared some feedback before leaving the practice room. These days, I had gotten used to the setting sun. I dazedly stared at that red sky while having some small talk with Chloe.

“Chloe, your Improvement Concert is on next week, right?”

“Yes! One week before yours Yunjae!”

If it was one week before mine, that was during the high-achievers’ section. Her’s was on the first week right. I nodded and gave her some words of blessing.

“I’ll write good things on your evaluation sheet.”

“Huhuhuh, just give me whatever.”

Hoh, look at this composure.

Glancing up at her face, I saw a face full of confidence. It was an expression without a sliver of doubt towards her own performance.

Why don’t you just write ‘Piano Top Student’ on your forehead, huh.

Finding her crossing her arms and looking down at me irritating, I slightly shoved her shoulder.

“Alright. I’ll write all sorts of negatives then.”

“Ah, ah!”

*

After going through the high notes once, it felt like the world had changed. I could sing songs that I couldn’t before and the concerted music song that I had to secretly sing with a falsetto could be done without a problem.

I would quickly run out and gasp for breath but still.

It was when I was running around like a colt broken free of its leash, that a problem had occurred during the Chapel.

“Miss! Wasn’t our tenor part weird?”

I could see Kim Dongsik raising his hand with a frown. Watching that I went, ‘oh no’ and stared at teacher Hong Yoojin with jittery eyes.

The teacher in charge of the Chapel, Hong Yoojin was deep in contemplation.

“Mhmm...”

Chapel.

Being a mission school, there was a mass every Wednesday. It was similar to normal worship but sometimes, the 1st class would practise singing as a choir by themselves and the 2nd class would, and so on. Today was the day for the tenth class students to gather for a choir and...

In any case, this was a problem.

I lowered my eyes and pretended like I wasn’t a part of it when the surroundings became noisier.

“Was it weird just then?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it was.”

“It definitely was. It felt really annoying to listen to.”

The teacher slapped her palm with a stick.

“Quiet! The person should’ve felt it himself if it was different. Anyone who thinks it was them? Or should we try one more time with just the tenors?”

Looking at her glancing through the tenors, it seemed that she was also aware where the problem was. Ah this is embarrassing.

Tenor.

In the tenth class, there was me, Kim Dongsik and another violin-major kid as the tenor. Our class had a shortage of bass so Jun Shihyuk went down to bass.

And so, the leftover three.

As everyone’s’ eyes gathered to us three, I felt a drizzle of cold sweat leave my body.

‘I showed off too much because it went up so easily.’

On some days while doing choruses, there were those days.

Days where you were in great condition. On these days, people would sometimes forget themselves and thrash around because of the high tension, and the so-called ‘show-off’ phenomenon would occur.

‘Sigh...’

I was about to raise my hand with a sigh when Jun Shihyuk next to me raised his hand.

“Jo Yunjae alone sang differently.”

Everyone’s eyes gathered at me.

‘Ah...’

I felt my cheeks redden. Glancing to the side, I saw Jun Shihyuk crossing his arm in a spiteful manner. When our eyes met, he raised his eyebrows a little, signalling that he had only said the truth.

Teacher Hong Yoojin’s somewhat cold gaze pierced at me.

“Was that so?”

“...Yes.”

I admitted it without hiding, as it was indeed my fault. Just as I was about to lick my lips with the thought that I shouldn’t show off anymore, teacher Hong Yoojin threw some unexpected words.

“Then try singing one more time in the same manner. That’s good, because I was about to say what you shouldn’t sing like during a chorus.”

Her glancing eyes facing me appeared vicious. What, why does this teacher seem to hate me? Did I do something wrong, I thought but she was someone I had never even seen before.

Scratching my hair, I had no other choice so turned my gaze back towards the hymn on the book.

Hymn, number 242.

My eyes quickly scanned through the score.

‘Quite high for a hymn.’

On the tenor part, the note had escaped the staves and was hanging high up there. Counting the notes up, it was an F4. F4 was a rare high note for a tenor part in a hymn, I thought as I remembered about the past.

‘F4, wasn’t that the note I couldn’t sing during the sight-reading?’

That note that I had given up on, saying I couldn’t make it, straight after admission. As if drawing a conclusion on my trail of thought, the teacher opened her lips.

“Right, then the three tenors, we’ll start from the ‘Please save us’ part. 3, 2, 1.”

Watching teacher Hong Yoojin wave her hand and start conducting, I breathed in deeply.

‘There’s no other choice.’

Since the conductor has ordered to sing the same thing again, I will show off once again – with all I can. Scanning through, I checked the musical notations.

None.

Fast, slow, strong, soft, continuous, or separate. There were no musical notations from the composer, saying ‘Please sing this song like this’. This meant that we could sing however we wanted.

‘However we want...’

The deep breath filled up the stomach. As the mouth opened, it created a large space for resonance and keeping that, I focused my attention at the conductor standing at the front.

A complete preparation.

As the teacher’s hand was lowered, I opened my mouth.

“Please save us from– the suffering.”

The tenor part.

The three voices singing that short phrase had stopped and the accompaniment had been stopped as well.

“Uh...?”

As I was giving a nod inwardly, happy about being about to properly hit an F4 note, teacher Hong Yoojin stared dumbfoundedly at me. Why’s that teacher like that, wasn’t she picking on me because she knew I was showing off?

Without caring about that, the tenth class students debated by themselves.

“Something’s not right.”

“Wasn’t the sound off?”

“The pitch and the rhythm are right...”

“Both the pitch and the rhythm are right so why’s it weird?”

Weird. Right, it should result in that feeling as the ringing itself was bad. It felt somewhat out of harmony, leaving disharmony behind – a chorus that results in an uncomfortable conclusion.

When will this end, I thought as I glanced around but none of them was able to come up with a decent answer it seemed. Teacher Hong Yoojin was just murmuring something as she looked at me, and when I glanced at Lee Suh-ah, she had her eyebrows and lips raised, seemingly not wanting to step forward.

In that instant where even the few opera majors had their mouths closed, teacher Hong Yoojin finally came to her senses. Shaking her head and regaining a normal expression, she opened her mouth.

“Kuhhm. You heard, right? Guys, both the rhythm and pitch were right but it didn’t feel like a chorus, why was that?”

Her attitude of quickly changing it to a form of a lesson was natural. Jun Shihyuk raised his hand in response to her question.

“Isn’t it because the vocalisation is different? We learned that there was a different vocalisation method for Concerted Music.”

He had his eyes facing me and made it seem like a reply directed at me. However, teacher Hong Yoojin shook her head.

“Jun Shihyuk, that’s wrong. Three of them all sang properly with Concerted Music vocalisation methods. Anyone else?”

“...”

The teacher that had been facing me with doubtful eyes asked in a sour tone.

“Jo Yunjae. Answer it. How was your’s different from other students’?”

After opening and closing my mouth due to a strange sense of embarrassment, I gave up due to the teacher’s constant urging and opened my mouth.