Genius of a Performing Arts High

Chapter 5: Softly 5

“You’re going overseas?”
“…Yeah.”

When I stared blankly at teacher Kwak Jungsoo, he quickly added in a rush.

“Kuhum. There’s this leader of an opera group I’m close with in Italy and they’re saying they’re in an urgent need of a tenor. I think I need to be away for a few months at least…”
“Ah…”

Slowly looking at the teacher, I gave a nod. It wasn’t that much of a shock, as if I had known something like this would happen somewhere deep inside. He had visibly turned dispirited after teacher Ku Mingi’s lesson and I also thought that considering the teacher’s personality he wouldn’t continue teaching me…

I had somewhat expected it but it was still quite saddening.

Seeing me close my mouth, teacher Kwak Jungsoo rushed to continue with more words.

“Uh… so. Practise hard and teacher Ku Mingi has decided to take your lessons for the time being. It’s a good thing. Teacher Ku Mingi is a good teacher so… learn well.”

Watching the teacher make excuses, I scratched my hair.

“Sir.”
“…”
“You can’t cancel it now right?”
“…Right. I’ve reserved the flight and stuff already after all.”

Ehew seriously, he’s so fainthearted.

It seemed to be too late to grab onto him with tears, and that’s probably not what the teacher wanted either. Deciding to just send him off with a smile, I forced out a bright tone and opened my lips.

“Try your best with the performances. You’ll get me souvenirs right?”

Teacher Kwak Jungsoo made a dumbfounded expression in response.

“This guy is telling his teacher to buy him souvenirs? What, should I get you some chocolate that you love so much?”
“There are the ones with coffee inside right? I heard those were delicious.”
“…”

I could suddenly remember clearly the things that I had received as a present a long time ago. The aroma of coffee surrounded by chocolate… seeing me indulged in my memories, teacher Kwak Jungsoo shook his head and murmured that he had raised a disciple for nothing.

…It’s really nice though.

“Whatever, let’s go with the lesson.”

Closing up the situation, teacher Kwak Jungsoo opened his mouth.

“It’s been around a week since you started learning the new vocalisation method. Is the training going well?”

Vocalisation.

After pondering seriously on it for a bit, I replied.

“The thing is… when I focused on vocalising, the rest would collapse like what had happened in the lesson last week.”
“Well, that can’t be helped as vocalisation doesn’t change overnight.”

Standing up from the seat, teacher Kwak Jungsoo slowly carried his feet.

“Before we start talking about the vocalisation, let’s compare the two methods first. Only then can we decide which direction we should point our practices towards.”

Compare?

When I tilted my head, the teacher raised one hand and started explaining.

“First is my vocalisation. To sum my vocalisation up into one word, it would be ‘fixed’. Lowering the larynx to the very bottom and never moving from that position is my objective. With this, you can earn a deep ringing sound.”

Teacher Kwak Jungsoo stood in front of me while explaining and after a light warm-up, he suddenly screamed.

“Ah—!”

Boom, the sound slammed at me.

The head rang and as if I was spooked by something, my feet carried themselves back. It felt like I had received a ball of air to the face and couldn’t regain myself. A ringing that overwhelming resonated once in the practice room before echoing away.

Seeing me blink, the teacher grinned a bit.

“Lowering the larynx, and therefore the vocal cords down like this has this kind of advantage. The sound that leaves the vocal cords can rely on a longer space as the resonating chamber, and the resulting sound comes out as a deep loud voice.”

Drinking some water, the teacher wet his throat.

“To put it in simpler terms, it’s similar to making a sound inside a cave. The ringing is, therefore, richer but, it inevitably emphasises on the darker feeling. And… it’s a vocalisation which people like you without the body to support shouldn’t be able to do. I shouldn’t have neglected it just because I was amazed by it…”
“That’s”

Lowering my head, I examined his mood and he had a dark expression as expected. But like… who in the world could ever guess that their disciple travelled back in time and forcibly copied them?

Feeling guilty, I lowered my gaze down, and teacher Kwak Jungsoo who had turned silent resumed his explanation.

“…On the other hand, teacher Ku Mingi is freer. Lower the larynx is the same but he is not too stingy on the location of it. He moves it whenever required so it creates a lighter, and higher sound. There are other minute differences on breath, and use of space but… the key is this.”

I could see him folding his fingers.

“Going fixed or flexible.”

Fixed and flexible.
Dark and bright.
Heavy and light.

Seeing me in deep contemplation, the teacher opened his mouth.

“Well… let’s stop there for the differences. Your body is still not ready so you must use teacher Ku Mingi’s vocalisation method. Then, let’s think of a practice method.”

Sparkling my eyes, I focused on his explanations.

“First, it is necessary to make a flexible vocalisation. Right now, it’s become too much of a habit on you and you’re sticking to a rigid vocalisation like me. No matter how much you’re conscious of it the body is moving on its own as if that was how you had practised for over a decade…”
“Haha, no way.”

After glancing at me who was in denial, he continued his words.

“Whatever. The solution is simple. First off, scale. Repeat climbing up and down from the lowest possible note you can make to the highest note, with proper vocalisation.”

Scaling… isn’t that way too basic? When I stared at him curiously, the teacher showed his teeth and smiled.

“Repeat that, until your body is too tired to use my vocalisation method. If you were to force a sound after that, then the body would have to let go of my vocalisation method to survive.”
“Oh…”

I nodded my head in admiration.

There was such a method as well. Because doing it habitually was the problem, I had to force until it couldn’t. Seeing me diligently writing it down onto the notepad inside my head, teacher Kwak Jungsoo made a dry cough.

“Kuhum… why do you like it so much when you’re told to practise like crazy? It won’t be that easy, and if you do it too much, you could injure your throat so just focus on getting that feeling.”
“Yes.”
“After getting the feeling is polishing and toning up. Don’t be satisfied by your sound alone, and make sure to have others listen to it before receiving feedback.”
“Yes.”

After that, he explained a bit more about the practice methods and inspected my vocalisation method before sitting back down on the seat and opening his mouth.

“Right… this seems to be the end.”

Glancing at the clock, I realised that it was already past the lesson time. It was already over… I felt like the time had flown past despite us not doing much. Is it because this would be the last time?

Seeing me downhearted, the teacher gave a grin.

“Practise hard and I wish you could show me a changed version when I’m back.”

A changed version.

Nodding my head, I vowed.

“I’ll definitely show it to you.”
“…Let’s do a handshake.”

After gazing at his thick hand for a bit, I reached out mine and grabbed it.

“Have a safe trip.”
“Alright.”

*

The training method teacher mentioned was definitely effective.

“Ah- ah- ah- ah- ah- ah- ah-”

After a long process of practising, when I forced more sounds out, the body that had reached its limits could not force the larynx down and relaxed it. Due to that, a more natural vocalisation started to come out – feeble and yet more comfortable.

Remembering the gist of the feeling, I nodded my head.

Ah, this is how you relax huh.

The feeling of losing a habit that had stayed with me for 20 years was rather intriguing. Massaging the throat that was starting to hurt after nearing its limits, I made the final sound.

“Ah–”

When I played the audio that I had recorded, it did seem a lot lighter than the previous vocalisation – a freer voice dancing above.

Was this the reason I hit C5… in the midst of my thoughts, something popped up on the phone’s notifications.

[Song Mirae: Hi Yunjae! I’m Song Mirae, can you use katalk right now? Zzz
(Glancing emoji)
(Sparkling eyes in wait emoji)]

Song Mirae?

We hadn’t even exchanged numbers yet so how did she know mine? While tilting my head I sent a reply.

[Me: ye]

After that, I stared at the screen for a bit but although there was a mark that said she had read it, there were no further replies. Shrugging my shoulders, I took my bag and prepared to leave the practice room.

“Ah, should I have held back on the practising?”

Because I overworked my throat trying to get the feeling, I was quite exhausted. I massaged my throat thinking that it was fortunate that my throat wasn’t sore enough to affect the sound tomorrow but… since I somewhat got the feeling, I should refrain from doing this again.

Next would be polishing the vocalisation huh.

“Mhmm…”

Teacher Kwak Jungsoo told me to let others hear it right.

Only after organising my thoughts, returning to my dorms, washing up and lying down on my bed did I remember that I had received messages from Song Mirae.

“Ah.”

I flicked my phone out.

[Song Mirae: …zzz You must be still practising? If you’re busy I’ll message you later!
(Apologising emoji)]

[Song Mirae: Yunjae are you still practising?
(Tilting head emoji)]

[Song Mirae: It’s time to go back to the dorms though…]

[Me: I just sawit soz]

When I sent a reply, the sign saying that she had read it soon popped up and a message arrived.

[Song Mirae: zz You forgot huh~ That’s alright, it happens!
(Angry with the back turned emoji)]

Grinning, I read it when more and more messages flooded in from Song Mirae. As expected of kids these days, their hands were really fast. Since I was old and it had been a while since I typed, I was a lot slower.

Staring blankly at Song Mirae starting conversations, I barely sent a reply back.

[Me: I need to sleep soon.]

Tomorrow was the day with the terrible maths and science so I had to go to sleep soon. Otherwise, I would be dozing off during class.

After I gave out a yawn, Song Mirae sent a reply.

[Song Mirae: zzz Is that so. So Yunjae sleeps early huh~
Let me ask you one thing then.]

Soon, it continued.

[Song Mirae: Are you going out with Dasom? I heard such rumours at school today, and if they were false rumours, I thought Yunjae would be troubled by it]

Staring at the messages, I nodded my head.

Well, it was possible for such rumours to be there, because Han Dasom had done that during class.

I was thinking, what should I do about this… before soon finding it bothersome.

Romance – what romance in the holy learning grounds? Life was short enough to just indulge in learning singing. Gazing down at the screen with sleepy eyes, I decided to take a screenshot of the whole thing before sending it to Han Dasom.

[Me: What do u think]

After one second, the sign that she had read it popped up.

[Han Dasom: I’ll talk to Mirae about it]

Is that so?

I was writing a reply saying I understood but the constantly folding eyelids became too heavy.

Ah, in the past you could just speak and send words that way. Is there such a feature right now as well? But I couldn’t be bothered to learn it. I heard it was a characteristic of old men to dislike learning new features…

The thoughts that continued without a real link soon ended, as dark curtains covered my eyes.