Respawn Entertainment: Days of Glory

Chapter 983 The Big Three's Little Classroom

Guo Sichu managed to get Qian Mingming's wishes on her side with minimal effort. As for the contract, Liang Kuan would handle that.

Although Qian Mingming's voice is a rare commodity, with Guo Sichu's involvement and Bian Lang, a musician with no history of failures, backing her, Liu Chuang's company would agree to the deal unless they were completely foolish.

After all, which entertainment company wouldn't want the friendship of the Rolling Stones? Just look at Kou Yong and his friends. Although The Landlord's Cat couldn't perform at the Rolling Stones Festival, they were always present at Blueberry Music Festival.

The landlord's cat is now showing signs of rising to the top in the folk music scene, even with Bian Lang not providing it with much support. This reflects something extremely alarming: Bian Lang's creative ability and ability to discover new talent are exceptionally strong.

Moreover, with the two very special success stories of Jinma and Liangzi, Qian Mingming's case doesn't really stand out.

Liu Chuang and Bian Lang had become acquainted, and seeing Bian Lang find the song, he asked curiously, "Bian Lang, can I take a look?"

"Go away, even if I gave you this song, you couldn't sing it!"

"Even if you can't sing, you should still show me..."

"Take it..." Bian Lang didn't say much, and handed Liu Chuang a screenshot of the lyrics and music.

Liu Chuang took it and knew Bian Lang wasn't lying after reading just the first line: "The stronger the wind, the more my heart sways..." He didn't even need to read the song to know it wasn't suitable for a male singer's original performance.

However, he still glanced at the sheet music and, straining his voice, sang a line of the chorus: "Blow, blow, my pride and indulgence... No, no, I can't sing... Qian Mingming, hurry up..."

Qian Mingming was at a loss for what to do. Before signing the contract, both Guo Sichu and Bian Lang were like gods in her mind. She felt that she would never have any interaction with these two people in her life.

Now, another pop diva is discussing contracts with her, and Bian Lang has given her a song without hesitation. But if she doesn't end up signing with Magic Stone Records, then this song...

"It's okay, the song is yours now. If your company doesn't release you, we'll wait until your contract ends and you come back before releasing it. We can wait..."

Hearing Guo Sichu's words, Liu Chuang felt a mix of emotions: "I really want to pay out of my own pocket to transfer the contract!"

But Liu Chuang was just thinking about it. After all, for someone of his stature, unless they completely broke with the company, switching companies during the contract period was practically impossible. Someone like Xia Yuxi was truly an exception among exceptions.

Since Guo Sichu had used words to elevate Qian Mingming to this point, she could only grit her teeth and say, "Teacher Bian, your QR code is... I'll scan it..."

After adding each other on WeChat, Bian Lang immediately sent the screenshot to Qian Mingming.

The girl wasn't usually in a hurry, but she couldn't resist the curiosity of the musicians at the scene. Hua Yan, who had come to join in the fun, dragged her along to prepare for a try. Since they were closest to the Coconut Tree Stage, they took her directly there.

The key point is that after she saw the name "Wild Child", she basically gave up all her sovereignty.

Just then, Jinma and his team were up there doing sound mixing. When they heard that Bian Lang had a new song coming out, they immediately gave up their seats.

Bian Lang also sent a message to Olaf backstage: "Let this girl sing freely, in the way that is most comfortable for her."

"Blow, blow, I'm barefoot and not afraid... Blow, blow, it doesn't matter, disturb me... Look, I'm smiling bravely, look, I'm waving bravely, ah... ha..."

Without Bian Lang giving any guidance, Qian Mingming had already captured about 7% of Su Yunying's style. Bian Lang initially thought of giving her some advice, but after thinking about it, he decided to hold back.

Just like the final outcome of "The Big Band," Bian Lang wasn't quite sure if doing so was the right thing to do.

Adding to the issues with Su Yunying's vocal technique from the original Earth version, Bian Lang decided to hold off for now. He genuinely liked the style, but he hoped the period of popularity would last longer.

Su Yunying's vocal range is of medium width, neither low nor particularly high. Her octave plus one key from E3 to F4 is of fairly normal quality, not much different from other singers. However, by the standards of the CCTV Young Singers Competition, it would be considered low quality. This is because her abdominal support and chest resonance are too weak; she relies on raising her larynx to change pitch.

This type of singing, which alters pitch by using a high larynx position, essentially entrusts the breadth of one's vocal range to the ability of their larynx. However, the price of a high larynx position is damage to the vocal ligaments, and this damage is permanent. Therefore, when Su Yunying first became famous, it was actually at the time when her vocal range was at its widest; every subsequent high-note performance using a high larynx position was due to this damage and decline.

Within her vocal range, from E4 to G4, Su Yunying's vocal quality begins to drop sharply. Her articulation becomes difficult to maintain under high laryngeal position and high vocal ligament pressure, resulting in a situation where only her lips are moving while her tongue root is stiff.

Auditorily, you can sense a sudden aging of the voice, especially in the first and second lines of the chorus of "Wild Child," transitioning from the verses. A noticeable hardening of the velar consonants and overall articulation is apparent. This is actually quite detrimental, as such vocal register hardening leads to a habitual problem.

This problem occurs in all of Su Yunying's musical performances when she reaches this vocal range, which means that Su Yunying's upper limit is infinitely lowered by her personal habits and fixed sense of rhythm.

In reality, Su Yunying has a very natural voice. The fact that she could sing with a high larynx for several years without much decline only demonstrates that her vocal ligaments and cricothyroid muscle are far superior to the average person. However, even with great talent, one cannot withstand the pressure of high larynx contractions. Su Yunying's current unedited live recordings show a significant decline in singing ability compared to her earlier work.

Especially in terms of timbre comfort and abdominal support in the high register. In other words, Su Yunying herself is finding it increasingly difficult to sing high notes in the high register, which leads to her focusing too much on the notes and losing some of her basic vocal skills.

But regarding the song itself, Qian Mingming's performance has once again made these people revere Bian Lang as a god. Especially Liu Chuang, who had previously experienced Qian Mingming singing other songs, felt that the fit between Bian Lang and Qian Mingming could only be described as seamless! If his previous evaluation of Qian Mingming was that of a semi-amateur singer, then as far as this song is concerned, he felt that Qian Mingming has already created a work with her own unique style of expression.

"Bian Lang, you're so amazing, does your queen singer know about this?"

"Of course she knew, otherwise why would she have chosen me, right?"

Liu Ziyang arrived at this moment, and after listening, he said directly to Bian Lang, "The Chinese music scene really needs more voices and works like this right now, so please don't keep them to yourself..."

"Ziyang, let's talk about it after the contract is signed." As soon as Guo Sichu said this, Liu Ziyang knew what to do.

After Qian Mingming came down, Liu Chuang asked on her behalf, "Bian Lang, what do you think?"

Bian Lang said as he had planned: "Let's leave it like this for now. It's straightforward, but there are some details I think can be adjusted. Let's discuss that when we're recording the song."

Upon hearing this, Qian Mingming naturally interpreted it as: "We'll talk about it after the contract is signed."

But she was also very satisfied, at least Bian Lang promised that this song was for her, and that alone was enough to make other singers extremely envious!

So after thanking Bian Lang, she changed the subject and asked the big names in the audience for advice: "Esteemed teachers, I'm a complete newbie who doesn't know anything about music. After experiencing so many types of rock music at today's music festival, I feel very moved. But I want to ask you all, what exactly is the difference between rock and pop?"

Upon hearing the question, Bian Lang looked at Liu Ziyang with a serious expression. Bian Lang had his own standard answer in mind, but that might not be what others thought, and he was eager to hear how Liu Ziyang would respond.

Liu Ziyang, who enjoys sharing music knowledge, would never let go of something that hits his sweet spot.

After seemingly organizing his thoughts briefly, he replied, "I think the most straightforward point is that in rock music, the accompaniment volume is almost the same as the vocal volume, and sometimes even louder. However, in pop music, the vocal volume is always higher than the accompaniment volume."

Therefore, in pop music, vocals are the main focus, while in rock music, both instruments and vocals can be prominent, and sometimes the accompaniment is even more important than the vocals. In other words, vocals are the main focus in pop songs, while in rock music, both instruments and vocals can be prominent.

As one of the top music producers in China, Liu Ziyang's statement is very convincing. However, he is not satisfied with just that and goes on to explain: "The production concept of the pop music we usually listen to is to make the human voice the main focus, and the accompaniment is used to serve the human voice and enhance the emotion of the human voice."

The accompaniment and background music shouldn't be too overpowering; it shouldn't drown out the volume of the vocals. That's fine. The pop rock music we usually hear is actually quite simple: it makes the vocals sound forward and the instruments sound backward, creating the illusion that the vocals are quiet.

The production philosophy of rock music is that the arrangement and vocals compete, sometimes even overpowering the vocals, or it might be due to a particular timbre. From a mixing perspective, the instrumental volume in rock music is also much higher than in pop music.

This last point is something almost anyone can notice, but the first two points, upon closer examination, are indeed true. It's just that no one has explained these things as thoroughly as Liu Ziyang has.

Qian Mingming immediately sensed the difference between Liu Ziyang, a fellow music producer, and the others who had written songs for her before: "Teacher Ziyang, is there anything else?"

This time, Liu Ziyang didn't speak, but instead turned the conversation to Guo Sichu: "Empress Chu, what are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them!"

Guo Sichu didn't hold back, and after thinking for a moment, she spoke directly: "These are two different kinds of emotions. Rock music tends to be more simple and straightforward in its expression. For example, the vocals just need to sing the melody directly, without too many glissando turns or high-note virtuosity. If the song doesn't have any special requirements, triads and seventh chords are usually enough. For example, most rock music piano arrangements usually use triads or seventh chords. Bian Lang jokingly said that this is the real self-taught piano mastery in three months."

The chord progression might not be noticed by non-professionals, but the preceding point can indeed be applied to 90% of rock songs.

Speaking of this, Liu Ziyang added: "Rock music arrangements are usually done by the band themselves, including the lyrics and music. On the contrary, pop music arrangements, mixing, and mastering are all done by the most professional people and teams in the industry. The harmonic design makes the arrangements very full and very complex."

"And to put it bluntly, very few rock musicians have a strong theoretical foundation..."

This last sentence feels like the essence: even people of the Zerg's level on Earth rely on intuition and technical skills to write songs, rather than theory.

This is a very important distinction that directly determines what constitutes a personalized work and what constitutes an industrialized work. In general, rock music is more straightforward and more personal, while pop music usually makes it very full, rich, and industrialized, and standardized.

These kinds of technical questions seem endless when they come to Liu Ziyang's lips: "Rock music doesn't mind making a certain element stand out, while pop music emphasizes balance. Common instruments in rock music include guitar, bass, and drums. Why do I say that rock music can make a certain element stand out?"

For example, electric guitar. In rock music, electric guitar usually has long solos and continuous riffs. You can see that the Rolling Stones' works that are more than 10 minutes long in their performances abroad. If they appeared in pop music, even if the singer wanted to sing them, the fans would not want to listen.

Even electric guitars are tuned to have special timbres to leave a lasting impression. Bass usually has a "beside," or melody line. However, in pop music, the bass quietly provides the foundation.

In rock music, drums are a crucial element, and their rhythms can be incredibly diverse and expressive. In pop music, we usually hear the metronome, right? In metal, the drums can also be used with double bass drumming to create an impenetrable rhythm…”

After listening, Bian Lang immediately applauded Liu Ziyang and said, "Why don't you make a video specifically to explain the differences in a simple and easy-to-understand way, without any emotional bias?"

Unexpectedly, Liu Ziyang directly refused, saying, "There's no need. Professionals can easily figure these things out with a little thought, and those who don't care won't care at all, so why should I bother..."

(End of this chapter)