Please, come home and practice the piano

Chapter 886 146. Fusion and Funk, group portrait under the night

As night falls, the city's pulse begins to beat quietly.

On the way back to the bookstore, Xu Li was still in a state of excitement.

What could be more relaxing than taking a break from your busy schedule to listen to a performance like this?

If so, it's best to listen to it again.

"So what style of music does fusion belong to?" She had been thinking about this question for a long time.

"It's a kind of fusion jazz, I guess." As a pianist with a pure classical music background, Ang Lee couldn't give a professional answer. "It's literally fusion."

Xu Li: "What's the difference between it and funk? I can't hear the difference."

Ouch? Li An was a little surprised. He didn't realize that Mr. Xu was such a pop music lover.

"I really can't explain it in detail," Ang Lee thought for a moment, "When analyzing the differences in musical styles, we can't avoid talking about rhythm, melody, and harmony."

"The first is the rhythm. Rhythm is the soul of funk. Compared with fusion, it is absolutely pure. This is why the rhythm of funk music is very brainwashing. Its rhythm is indeed very brainwashing."

Xu Li: “Yes, yes, yes. You can remember the rhythm after listening to it once.”

Ang Lee: "The second is melody. Fusion is a complex and experimental music, and its melody often contains elements of multiple music genres, while funk's melody is mostly smooth and medium-tempo, with the emphasis on bass."

Xu Li: "Bass."

Ang Lee: “Yes, the key point is harmony at the end. You should have understood what harmony means a long time ago, right?
Xu Li: "I almost understand it now, thanks to another class last night."

Ang Lee smiled and said that last night, while arranging Canon for the children, he taught them about harmony through practice in a way that the children could understand.

"The funk style actually ignores the direction of harmony. To put it bluntly, its harmony is single, and there is often a chord repeated, which is absolutely fatal if it is placed in other main-tone music."

Xu Li: "Obscure by its rhythmic feeling?"

Ang Lee: "The interpretation is spot on, while the harmony of fusion is much more complicated. Simply put, if you find a fusion melody unforgettable, at least half of the credit should be attributed to its harmony."

Xu Li: "I see. I have learned some more professional knowledge."

Li An: "The topic of harmony is too vast. If you are interested, you can learn more about it. If you can understand half of harmony, you can beat 80% of the theoretical teachers on the market."

Xu Li: “No.”

Ang Lee: "The modern Western classical music system is the cornerstone of all music, and harmony is the cornerstone of the Western classical music system."

Xu Li: "Harmony must be difficult."

Ang Lee: "It depends on the individual. For those who are interested and like to delve into it, harmony is not difficult or easy."

"Because the simplest harmonic progression can also create a sincere and moving melody, and complex harmonic progressions may not necessarily lead to great works. These people study harmony not for exams, but because they like it."

"If it's just for the exam, the dullness of harmony is comparable to reading extracurricular classical Chinese texts in middle school. It's hard to read, let alone understand."

Xu Li smiled: "I see, it seems that you didn't like Chinese very much when you were in middle school."

Li An: "Hahaha, don't say that."

Xu Li: "Let me summarize and you can correct me."

Li An: "It's just communication. I'm only half-baked in this area."

Xu Li paused: "Fusion and funk are actually branches of jazz. The main difference between them lies in the focus. Fusion tends to integrate various musical elements in a diversified way to achieve the purpose of experimental music, while funk is based on the original jazz framework and uses clear rhythm and bass characteristics to show a unique fixed style."

Li An: "You were the Chinese class representative in middle school, right?"

Xu Li: "Not really, I'm the PE class representative."

Li An: "Oh my goodness, who did Wang Xiaohu inherit his genes from? Um, sorry."

Xu Li: "You're right. He did inherit this from me."

After a pause, he said, "That's why you came out and said that Ji Yang and the others are still far behind."

Ang Lee: "Based on their performance today, I can give them 90 points. The solos that Ji Yang played were very difficult, which must have taken a lot of practice."

"But that's the problem. What I mean by far away is that they are still too far away from doing fusion. They must have their own stuff to play. The fusion-style works they played today are all works by well-known bands. If you are also a pop music lover, you can definitely compare the gap between their original works and these works. There is no comparison at all."

Xu Li: "It's a bit harsh, but it's true. But I think their sonnet is really good."

Ang Lee: "Yes, Ji Yang's melody was very good, I didn't expect it, but the overall integration is still too hard."

"Everything about the stage must be rigorous, whether it is a big stage or a small stage. There is nothing wrong with their design of the repertoire, but if they can't come up with balanced original works, the audience will feel weightless. If we pursue this feeling of weightlessness, the result will be irresponsible to the audience."

"They could have divided the performance into two halves, with the first half playing famous works and the second half focusing on original works, but they chose to intersperse them. This was their mistake. I don't know whether they did it intentionally or unintentionally. At least I didn't see the positive effect of interspersing the performances on stage."

Xu Li nodded. Perhaps this was due to different professional perspectives. She agreed with Li Ang's statement, but at the same time she still felt that Ji Yang and the other young people did a great job today.

At least she was already looking forward to the next one.

Li An: "Sister Xu, did I forget to turn on the turn signal just now?"

Xu Li: "Your problem is not that you forgot to use the turn signal. In this situation, you could have directly changed to the first lane without driving a straight line in the second lane before changing. There were no cars behind you."

Lee Ang: "What if I get photographed?"

Xu Li: "I think the biggest problem with your driving right now is that you're too cautious. Your driving skills are fine. Step on the gas."

Lee An: "Already 75."

Xu Li: "Give me more."

Lee An: “Ninety.”

Xu Li: “Do you feel anything?”

Li An: “Not really.”

Xu Li: "Just keep this speed and change lanes to the left."

Li An: "There's a car behind."

Xu Li: "Change."

Li An turned the steering wheel slightly, and he immediately felt a new experience. The car passed by in an instant. Looking at the rearview mirror, the car behind him was still quite far away from him. "I feel it a little bit."

Xu Li: "Prepare to overtake."

Li An: “Huh.”

After the third test, Li An completed overtaking in a real scene for the first time.

smoothly.

"It's very simple."

"It's simple. Don't overtake the big car in front of you."

"clear."
-
While people were discussing music and driving in the car over there, a celebratory banquet had already started in the Fulin Restaurant over here.

Several young musicians were drinking and chatting happily, feeling happy and proud of their performance today.

Ji Yang wanted to speak several times, but couldn't find a suitable opportunity.

The performance ended successfully and she no longer had any psychological burden. A month ago, she decided to quit the band after this performance.

There are two reasons. First, she cannot perform the duties of a keyboard player well. Second, rehearsing the band takes up too much of her time, or she prefers classical music to pop music.

Through this band experience, she realized her own inadequacies. Her teacher was right. She still played too little and her musical skills were far from perfect.

For today's performance, if the full score is 61, Ji Yang can give herself points. The extra point is for the melody she wrote in the forty-line poem. Even now when she recalls it, she still likes it very much.

When she saw some kids working in groups to create in the summer camp, she really wanted to join in. After trying it this time, she found that she was a little addicted. Next time when inspiration comes, she will try to write a complete work, just for fun.

"cheers!"

Junior Brother Bess brought up the idea of ​​drinking again, "Those who can't drink should drink beverages."

Ji Yang has already drunk a bottle of beer today. The most she has ever drunk at one time is two bottles, and she would never drink more than one bottle at normal master-disciple gatherings. However, considering today's occasion and the "farewell" soon, she decided to drink another bottle tonight.

"Cheers!" Everyone raised their glasses.
-
In the parking lot of Fulin Restaurant, Mr. and Mrs. Ji were munching on roujiamo bought on the roadside while watching their daughter’s afternoon performance.

In a small noodle restaurant 200 meters east of the parking lot, Lao Tang was eating noodles while video chatting with his mother.

Xiaobei is also still making video calls. He is recharging himself by video chatting with teacher Zhang Miao as he will be performing officially tomorrow.

Not only Xiao Bei is facing the performance, but also Xiao Ma and Xiao Liu. One of them is playing a duet with classmates at his classmate's house, while the other is studying what ending move would make the last chord look cool.

Of course, Xiao Ma and Xiao Liu were not the only ones playing the piano. In the study, Xiao Che silently recited to himself, "When others play fast, you should go slower," while repeating the same measure on the piano keyboard with his right hand.

If she didn't quite understand why the teacher asked her to slow down at that time, now that she slowed down, she understood.

After slowing down, she discovered a different feeling in Beethoven's Allegro phrases, so she picked out these two bars and practiced them for a long time.

The more she practiced, the more she could feel the teacher's intentions.

She kept practicing like this and forgot about time until she heard bursts of meowing from outside the study door. She knew the teacher was back.

He stopped and ran out of the study, looking very excited.

Li An knew why Xiao Che was so excited, "I sent you a WeChat message, go check it out."

"Yaeh!"

After waiting for an afternoon and a night, Xiaoche finally got the performance video of the senior sister.

Xiaoche climbed onto the sofa holding the tablet, and Bawan also came over.

"Senior sister is so handsome!"

Li An: "Take your time to look at it. There are more handsome ones. Is that all you want for dinner?"

Xiaoche was a little too distracted from the teacher: "Yeah."

Li An smiled, this girl.

Let's get something to eat, he hasn't had dinner tonight.

"I'll cook some noodles, do you want to eat?" he asked.

Xiaoche then paused, "Teacher, didn't you have dinner?"

Li An: “Not in time.”

Xiaoche: "Teacher, I want to eat, but I can only eat a little."

Li An suddenly became excited: "Okay."

Xiaoche was not actually hungry at all, but she wanted to have dinner with her teacher.

Soon two bowls of egg noodles were served, Li Ang's was a big bowl and Xiaoche's was a small bowl.

It was a rare occasion that the teacher and student were having dinner while each holding their mobile phones and tablets. Xiaoche wore headphones to watch his senior sister's performance, while Li Ang and Chen Xuan had a video call.

During the evening rehearsal, Ang Lee received a call from a stranger in Chengdu.

The caller was the staff member of the Chinese Folk Music Research Institute whom his master's wife had helped him contact. The other party was very polite, but he was rehearsing, so he sent the other party's phone number directly to Chen Xuan.

I have to say that he was the person hired by the master's wife. He was really professional and dedicated. He solved a problem for Chen Xuan right away and later sent a bunch of internal information to Chen Xuan.

"Does it work for you?"

"It's useful, very useful. The professor is still studying the timbre of the two instruments."

"That's good. Master's wife told you to just ask her if you have any questions. We are all family, so don't be polite."

"Master's wife just sent me a message. Oh, I am so touched."

Li An put down his chopsticks and wiped the sweat off his face, just then a message popped up.

Yangyangyangyang: Teacher, are you done with your work?
Isn't this the right time? "Mr. Xiaomi, please continue to be busy. I have something to do."

Chen Xuan: "Good night, don't wait for me, I have to go out with my partner in a while."

Li An: "Good night, keep going, muah."

Chen Xuan rolled her eyes, as if to say that the car was still nearby.

Ang Lee directly moved the camera to the back, and on the screen, he saw a little car holding chopsticks in his hand without moving, with earphones on his ears, staring down at the tablet on the table, and his little head moving from time to time.

Chen Xuan smiled: "Let her eat quickly and watch after she finishes eating."

Li An: "Forget it, she wasn't hungry anyway, she just wanted to sit with me for a while."

Chen Xuan: "Did you see the comment I made to Ji Yang? What does Lao Tang mean?"

Li An: "Old Tang has come to Chengdu. He just arrived today. He decided to join the Fourth Steel Company."

Chen Xuan: "He's really here!?"

Li An smiled bitterly: "Who would have thought that he would really do this? But it doesn't matter. He would just be bloating if he stayed there. Now that he is here, I don't have any concerns about the teaching staff."

Chen Xuan: "Has he made up his mind? Then where will he live?"

Li An: "He wants to rent a house by himself. I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. You should hurry up."

Chen Xuan: “Meh.”

Double standard?

Li Ang was about to continue the video when the other party hung up.

Row.

Ba Wanyi: Are you done with your work? Are you done over there?

Yangyangyangyang: Well, I’m in my dad’s car now. I’ll go home tonight. Teacher, you can call me later.

Ba Wanyi: Just call me when you get home.

Li An put down his phone and was about to put away Xiaoche's bowl, but Xiaoche took off his headphones and said, "Teacher, I'm still eating."

As he said this, he picked up the bowl and drank it all in one gulp, including the soup and noodles.

Li An: “～”

The teacher and the student looked at each other, one was speechless, the other was laughing.

"belch!"

"Teacher, can we not drink milk today?"

"Okay, put the bowl down."

Before Li An finished speaking, Xiaoche ran to the kitchen with two bowls in his hand.
-
Xue Li fell on the bed as soon as she entered a rental house three kilometers away from Rongyuan.

Then a pair of gentle hands ran through her short hair.

“Did the performance go well?”

"smoothly."

“I can’t tell.”

"Hey."

Xue Li said that everything was going smoothly, and it was indeed going smoothly.

But she really couldn't laugh. Ji Yang's decision to withdraw made her really sad.

But she could understand that Ji Yang had his own persistence, just like she had her own persistence, so she could only wish Ji Yang all the best and that they could still be good friends in the future.

Retracting her thoughts, Xue Li returned her gaze to the face in front of her. Her gaze first became gentle, but then a bit reproachful: "Why didn't you eat dinner tonight?"

The response she got was:
"Want to wait for you."

(End of this chapter)