Please, come home and practice the piano

Chapter 1271, Question 491: A fair ear is also a respectful ear.
Based on his observations over the past two days, Ang Lee predicted that four plates of dumplings should be enough for four people.

But he miscalculated.

With Mr. X's appetite slightly diminished, four plates of dumplings were still not enough.

He was already full from his plate, but the two children looked like they were just starting out.

"I'll order another plate for you."

"it is good."

"it is good."

Li An thought to himself, "Goodness, those who know him would think he went to school this morning, but those who don't would think he went to work."

I scanned the QR code and ordered another plate of shrimp dumplings.

Xiao Che: "Teacher, how many people are needed for the choir this time?"

Ang Lee: What do you think?

Car: "Fifty people?"

Ang Lee: "Pretty much, the combined number of the first and second teams should not exceed sixty people."

Tang Xiaoxing: Uh...

Boss X: "What's wrong?"

Tang Xiaoxing: "Seventeen students in the class have already signed up."

Boss X: "How many classes are there?"

Tang Xiaoxing: "There are a total of twenty-seven classes in seventh and eighth grade."

Boss X: "Anyone below the ninth grade can apply to participate in the selection."

Car: "Mm."

Ang Lee: "The purpose of forming this team is to participate in the competition. Time is limited, and if we want to win a ranking, we can only select the best candidates. You two should be very clear about this."

The second child nodded.

Ang Lee: "Even if you don't participate in the competition, you can only be selected based on merit, right? There are only so many spots, shouldn't it be that whoever sings the best gets in?"

The second child nodded.

Ang Lee: "So you two don't need to worry about how many people will sign up. Just use an on-site scoring system and select the top sixty."

The second child nodded again.

Li An laughed as he spoke, "Did Guan Yutong sign up?"

Car: "Mm."

Ang Lee: "Don't you find it a bit troublesome?"

Car: "It's okay."

Boss X: "And who is this student?"

Tang Xiaoxing: "A lovely friend who is great at drawing."

Ang Lee answered more directly: "Che Lin's good friend."

So that's where the trouble lies. Boss X realized, and thought to himself, "This is getting a bit tricky."

Xiao Che: "Don't worry, teacher, I know what to do."

The conversation was interrupted when the waiter brought over the fifth plate of dumplings.

After lunch, the two children went home for a nap, and Boss X said he wanted to go back to the hotel to get his computer.

"Want to write a novel this afternoon?" Li An handed Boss X a cigarette.

Boss X took it: "Anyway, it's none of my business. You guys tune the instrument, and I'll update a chapter."

Ang Lee: "Okay, there's a table in the kitchen that you should be able to use."

Boss X laughed: "I saw it yesterday."

Ang Lee: "Then let's go, it'll only take twenty minutes by car to get back."

As they spoke, the two of them smoked and left the dumpling restaurant.

On the way back from picking up the computer, Boss X brought up the matter of selecting choir members again.

"Does it fit?"

Mr. X initially thought it was nothing, but after hearing his two children say that at the dinner table, he felt it wasn't quite appropriate.

After all, they are two children.

Ang Lee: "If we consider this selection as a competition, then the two of them are acting as judges, and judges with decision-making power."

Upon hearing this, Boss X stopped asking questions; he understood Ang Lee's intention.

Shortly after returning to 2201, Old Master Lu arrived at the door with his men.

The two, who hadn't seen each other for a long time, greeted each other warmly upon meeting. Then, Ang Lee introduced Lao Lu and Boss X.

After some pleasantries, Lao Lu got straight to the point.

The old man still doesn't know what kind of instrument it is. "Let me see what kind of instrument it is."

Ever since he hung up on Ang Lee yesterday, he'd been wondering what kind of instrument it was, which was why Ang Lee had kept him in suspense over the phone.

"Uncle Lu, please take a look."

When everyone entered the living room, Old Lu smiled to himself, "So it's B211. This instrument doesn't need my appraisal." "A fine instrument, a fine instrument."

Although the instrument was still covered by a cover, Old Lu's decades of skill were not to be underestimated.

But then Lao Lu's expression hardened, and his gaze fell on the two exposed legs of the zither.

“No, the legs are wrong!” Old Lu had a sudden thought. The elephant legs reminded him of another very rare B211 series.

Li An laughed, "It still has to be Uncle Lu."

Old Lu was anxious: "Quickly, take off the piano cover."

As he spoke, Lao Lu stepped forward to help, and with a "whoosh," the violin cover was removed.

The entire instrument was exposed to the sunlight, and the matte black lacquer shimmered in the midday sun with a beauty different from that at dusk.

After observing it for about a minute, Old Man Lu raised his hand and gently touched the edge of the piano lid.

"That's exactly what it is."

Raising the castanets, Old Lu peered out and was surprised to find that the tuning pegs inside the instrument seemed unusually new.

That shouldn't be the case. Based on the production year of this batch of violins, this violin must have passed through at least one hand before it reached Ang Lee.

Looking at the strings and hammers, Old Man Lu became more and more surprised, wondering if Li An had refurbished a violin.

Thinking of this, he quickly took out his tools and began to examine it, "Where did this instrument come from?"

Ang Lee: "From Yenching."

moment.

Old Lu put away his tools, turned around, and looked at Li An with an indescribable smile: "Okay."

Ang Lee: "Uncle Lu, shall we begin here?"

Old Lu sighed and nodded, taking off his glasses and rubbing his temples: "You've given me another difficult problem."

Li Anle: "In the entire city of Chengdu, besides you, who else can tune this zither?"

This flattery really hit the nail on the head for Old Man Lu. But it wasn't just him bragging; he was the only one in the entire city who dared to say he could bring out the best in this piano.

"Show me the previous maintenance records."

"Everything is prepared for you."

Ang Lee handed the maintenance record of the instrument to Lao Lu, who carefully read through it.

It was almost exactly as he had expected.

This is a relatively new but old violin; its previous owner had kept it in very good condition.

Old Lu: "The key."

Ang Lee handed it over: "Then you go ahead with your work, I won't get in your way."

Old Lu: "The usual rules."

Ang Lee: The usual rules.

After saying that, Ang Lee and Boss X left the living room.

The apprentice, who had been listening for a long time, was already itching to try it out. When his teacher beckoned, the apprentice quickly moved closer.

I just glanced at the number with the probe.

Old Man Lu: "Watch closely."

Young apprentice: "Watch closely."

Old Lu: "Put on gloves, loosen the string."

The young apprentice carefully took out the tools after putting on gloves, and asked in a low voice, "Teacher, is this instrument really new?"

Old Lu nodded: "This is the best-maintained instrument I've ever seen. Look at its tuning pegs. At first, I thought they were refurbished, but if you look closely, can you see a layer of mist on them?"

The young apprentice nodded.

Old Lu: "If it's a refurbished piano, it can only have a completely glossy finish. This kind of craftsmanship can't be done anywhere else except in the Hamburg factory."

The young apprentice had learned his lesson, but he still had one question: "Teacher, how much is a zither like this worth now?"

Old Man Lu: "It's hard to assess. Its collectible value far exceeds its practical value; basically no one would buy such a piano for everyday use." Young Apprentice: "Then, Teacher Li?"

Old Lu didn't reply: "Let's get to work."

Old Lu's rule is to not inquire too much about the client's situation, but to determine the condition of the instrument before proceeding, and to refuse if he cannot.
-
As Lao Lu and his apprentice began working, Xiao Che and his companion got up and headed to school.

Continuing their conversation from before their afternoon nap, the two began discussing the selection process for the choir.

Judging from the current situation, it is expected that more than half of the students in Class 8 will sign up.

But we can only recruit sixty people in total.

Tang Xiaoxing felt embarrassed for Xiao Che, especially after learning that Xiao Guan sang off-key.

Xiao Guan is Xiao Che's good friend and has helped Xiao Che a lot.

The class concert featured posters for toy cars, and the Children's Day performance featured stage backgrounds.

Tang Xiaoxing knew all of these things.

So the more Tang Xiaoxing thought about it, the more difficult it seemed.

According to the selection criteria, Xiao Guan does not meet the requirements at all.

However, as the first head of the arts and literature department of Shipo Junior High School, Xiao Che also had the power to decide whether Xiao Guan would join the group.

Hey.

After the morning music class, Ms. Wu kept the two girls behind and told them directly that they would be participating in this selection and judging process.

She immediately felt excited about taking on the challenge of working on campus.

But who knew this challenge would come so quickly and be so difficult!

She thought they only needed to choose who sang the best.

Hey.

Little Car: "Little Star, what do you think?"

Tang Xiaoxing exclaimed, "Ah!" She had been lost in thought and hadn't heard what Xiao Che said. "Linlin, say it again."

Xiao Che: "I was saying that if a group has 30 members, how should we arrange the male-female ratio? This is also related to the song selection issue."

Tang Xiaoxing: "That's true, but the specific allocation will have to wait until the selection process is over and then be determined based on the actual situation. Usually, such school choirs need more girls."

Xiao Che hummed in response, "Then we can only wait until after the selection is over. I want to decide on the songs in advance."

After hesitating for a moment, Tang Xiaoxing finally asked the question that had been on her mind: "What about Xiao Guan?"

Xiao Che: "She's preparing her repertoire."

Tang Xiaoxing wasn't sure if she hadn't expressed herself clearly earlier, so this time she was more direct: "What if Xiao Guan can't fix his off-key singing problem before the selection?"

Xiao Che: "The four of us practiced together before. Zhang and Aqian quickly solved the pitch problem. They have a good sense of pitch and can clearly distinguish the pitch difference between a minor second from their hearing. They just hadn't been exposed to it before."

Tang Xiaoxing nodded.

Xiao Che: "She can't even distinguish between a fourth interval."

Tang Xiaoxing sighed inwardly, "This is going to be very difficult."

Xiao Che: "Her sense of rhythm is actually very good, but she doesn't have an innate ability to distinguish pitch."

Tang Xiaoxing: "So what do we do?"

When it comes to singing, not having the ability to distinguish pitch is a disaster.

The term "tone-deaf" is just a general statement.

To truly understand this issue, the key lies in the ears.

Explaining this issue requires a considerable amount of time.

Let's put the children in the role of NPCs in a sound-based game scenario for now.

-

The first to appear was the little car. She walked to the piano and played two notes.

These two notes are located at the far left and far right of the piano keys, respectively.

Then Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Chen Shuai appeared, and they had to answer which of the two notes was high and which was low.

Unsurprisingly, all three could distinguish the deep voice on the far left and the sharp voice on the far right.

So everyone said the first note was low.

But this doesn't mean everyone's ears are suited for learning music.

Because these two notes have already deviated from the range of normal music studies in terms of vibration frequency, there is no need to listen to which is higher or lower from a musical point of view; it is just a matter of life experience.

Just like when a five-year-old receives a phone call from a stranger, they can usually tell whether it's an uncle or an aunt from the other person's voice.

The uncle's voice is deep—corresponding to the bass register on the far left of the piano.

The aunt's voice is high-pitched—corresponding to the high register on the far right of the piano.

These two registers are only approximate ranges.

However, in the context of studying music, even a half-note lower is considered a wrong note.

So she had the car play two notes again, this time choosing two adjacent keys.

In the middle register, do plus #do, the relationship between these two notes is like that of the index and ring fingers on a hand.

For the vast majority of people, there is a clear difference between the two sounds when heard.

However, this time the argument is not based on which is higher or lower in sound, but on the fact that these two sounds are definitely not the same, so they are different.

Here comes the point.

After listening and comparing twice more, Zhang and Aqian made a judgment based on an instinctive feeling and gave the answer for the second pitch.

Guan couldn't understand why the second note was different. She tried her best but could only confirm one thing: the two notes were not the same.

Then the following situation will occur: the car will have the two of them try singing these two notes.

Because Zhang and Aqian can subconsciously distinguish between high and low pitches, they only need to sing out their subconscious feelings to achieve a relatively good pitch.

But Guan, at this stage, she can't tell who's high and who's low at all, so how can she sing?
Just like a gun can only fire if it has bullets.

Xiao Guan's current problem is that her gun is out of bullets.

Can those bullets be made?

It is possible, but it is definitely not something that can be manufactured in a short period of time.

Especially when it comes to singing off-key, it can be said to be the most difficult problem in music learning, belonging to the category of intractable diseases.

Can someone who is tone-deaf learn music?
Absolutely.

For example, when playing the piano, if the sheet music says "do", and you press the "do" key, the sound that comes out will not be "re".

So Marco had to use his own experience to illustrate this point. After several years of piano study, he developed a set of pitch perception standards through physical memorization, which ultimately enabled him to successfully obtain the bullet.

Marco was lucky.

Many students who study instrumental music at music academies still sing off-key even after graduation. Who can they complain to?

Therefore, it is also said that being tone-deaf is a difficult and complicated disease.

To quote a teacher who wishes to remain anonymous, even if someone quickly solves their pitch problems through learning, there are essentially two possibilities—

First, the ear itself possesses a discrimination ability that has not yet been developed.

Second, survivor bias.

Therefore, one should be cautious when enrolling in crash courses.
-
Now, let's return to Xiao Guan's question. The fact that Xiao Guan sings off-key is a reality that cannot be changed in the short term.

So what to do?
When asked about Tang Xiaoxing's question, Xiao Che replied softly, "As long as she does her best, that's enough."

Tang Xiaoxing thought to himself, "Doesn't that mean Xiao Guan has lost his eligibility to participate?"

Xiao Che smiled as she spoke, but she was actually a little conflicted when answering the old question.

But when she said, "Don't worry, teacher, I know what to do," she made her final decision.

Out of respect for music and the stage, if Xiao Guan does not meet the selection criteria, he will not be able to pass the assessment.

Otherwise, how would the student who was replaced by Xiao Guan feel?

For a moment, both children fell silent.

Xiao Che's thoughts drifted back to the scene of Xiao Xiao's competition, an experience she had once had.

Although the matter is in the past.

"Linlin, you're right."
-
Time flew by and it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.

In front of the piano in the living room.

Old Lu played two sets of chords in succession, and Li An shook his head again upon hearing the sound.

The young apprentice had long since become a bystander, and the tuning device in his hand seemed to have long since malfunctioned, offering absolutely no help.

Even Boss X was a bit at a loss this time. Still not satisfied? He sounded like he had no problems at all.

moment.

"The root note on the left is still low."

After saying that, Ang Lee once again showed an innocent smile.

no way.

He had to be true to his own ears.