A song from Chengdu revived a closed-down pub.

At this point, Batu played a short rhythm.

After listening to it a few times, the chubby boy started tapping his hands on his knees.

One is a traditional plucked instrument, and the other is a rock musician who is used to drums. Their methods are completely different, but when the rhythm matches, it doesn't sound out of place at all.

Jiang Yi also noticed the connection: "Actually, the core of many rock songs is rhythm and power, just expressed in different ways."

Upon hearing this, Chen Fang, sitting opposite him, showed a hint of helplessness on his face: "That makes sense, but putting it all together is not so easy."

Su Fan looked at him: "Have you tried this before?"

Chen Fang nodded: "We've tried more than once. Zhao Ye and I like rock music, while Agula and the others make traditional music. We've thought about combining the two before, but when electric guitars and drums come in, they easily drown out the morin khuur and tobshuur. If we suppress the sound of rock instruments, it's like adding a weak accompaniment to the folk songs. In the end, the traditionalists felt that we ruined the original flavor, while the rock musicians felt that it wasn't exciting enough. We had both sides, but neither side really stood out."

Agula also said with a wry smile, "Traditional music has its own habits. How to sing a melody, when to take a breath, and where the sound should land all have their original logic. Forcing it into fixed drumbeats will easily cause it to lose the flavor of grassland music."

Su Fan asked, "Have you ever considered that the problem might not be that traditional music and rock can't be combined, but rather that when you collaborated before, all the instruments were vying to speak?"

Several people looked at him simultaneously.

Even the people from Han Tang Entertainment were looking at him.

Su Fan continued, "When the sound of the morin khuur comes out, it first brings people a picture and emotion. Khoomei is responsible for space and thickness. Tobshuur can establish the most basic rhythm and also preserve the original skeleton of grassland music. As for the electric guitar and drum kit, they should not rush in at the beginning to prove that this is a rock song. What they should really do is to push up the power that has been accumulated when the emotion needs it."

Chen Fang gradually sat up straight: "You mean, rock instruments can't compete with traditional instruments for the main melody?"

"It's not that it's completely impossible, but rather that we need to know when to fight and when to yield." Su Fan pointed to the morin khuur in Agula's hand and said, "Traditional melodies are the roots. If the roots aren't firmly established, adding heavy drumbeats and distortion will only make it sound lively. Rock should be the skeleton that amplifies emotions, not a layer of paint applied to the outside of traditional music. The true soul should remain in the music of the grasslands."

Jiang Yi's eyes lit up: "Let traditional melodies open up the world first, and then let rock music release its power."

Su Fan nodded and said, "That's roughly the idea."

Agula glanced down at the morin khuur in his hand, then looked at Chen Fang and Zhao Ye.

They had tried to integrate before.

However, in every collaboration, I habitually stand in my own musical style and hope that the other party will cooperate with me.

No one has ever broken down the function of each sound like Su Fan, and then rearranged their positions in the whole piece.

Chen Fang pondered for a moment, then couldn't help but ask, "If we follow your idea, how exactly should it be written?"

Su Fan stood up and brushed the bits of grass off his pants: "What's the point of just talking? You and your instruments are here, why don't you just try it out and see?"

Upon hearing this, the people around immediately became interested.

Su Fan looked at Agula and began to give instructions: "Start with the morin khuur, slow down the melody a bit. Batu, wait until the second melody before you enter. Don't fill it out completely, just keep the most basic rhythm. Don't let Chaolu's throat singing come in too early. After the morin khuur opens up the space, use the bass to support it from below. Zhao Ye, just use the bass drum at the beginning, the rhythm like a heartbeat, or like the approaching hooves of a horse in the distance. As for Chen Fang, use a clean tone to follow the melody at first, and add distortion after the long song really starts, to push up the emotions that have been building up all at once..."

The musicians exchanged glances.

A moment later, Agula was the first to put the morin khuur back on his lap, his face showing more anticipation: "Then let's try it as you said."

The deep sound of a zither rose again by the campfire.

This time, Batu didn't rush to follow the melody, but instead used Tobshuur to establish a simple and stable rhythm.

A moment later, Chao Lu's throat singing slowly emerged from beneath the music.

The sound seemed to travel along the ground and spread into the distance, giving the originally empty grassland an indescribable depth.

Zhao Ye stared at Su Fan's gestures, only using the bass drum to gently press down the beat.

a bit.

Another one.

Like the sound of horses' hooves in the distance, or like the gradually accelerating heartbeat in the darkness.

When Agula played the melody a second time, Chen Fang's electric guitar finally entered.

At first, the guitar simply followed the melody of the morin khuur, its sound clean and restrained.

As the long note begins, the drumbeats suddenly intensify, and the distortion of the electric guitar erupts at the same time.

At that moment, the desolation of traditional instruments and the power of rock music, like two surging rivers, finally converged.

The morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) was not overshadowed by the electric guitar.

Khoomei has not been reduced to a decoration used to create a sense of novelty.

Every sound appears in the most appropriate place.

The people who had been talking around the campfire gradually quieted down.

Even the chat in the live stream paused briefly.

Immediately afterwards, comments began to flood in.

"Holy crap, that was so satisfying!"

"Just a moment ago, I was standing alone on the grassland looking at the night sky, but as soon as the drums started, it suddenly sounded like a thousand horses were charging towards us!"

"A morin khuur and an electric guitar can actually go so well together?"

"I got goosebumps as soon as the throat singing started!"

"These guys shouldn't break up, let's form a band!"

……

After the last note fell, none of the performers spoke immediately.

Chen Fang's chest heaved slightly, his face showing barely concealed excitement.

He didn't even care about the reactions of those around him. His fingers landed on the strings again, and he played the short melody that had gone distorted earlier.

This time, there were no other instruments accompanying it.

But in his mind, the morin khuur, throat singing, and drumbeats seemed to still be playing simultaneously.

Chen Fang suddenly raised his head, speaking faster than usual: "That's right, that's the feeling! Before, we always thought about how to make the morin khuur match rock or the electric guitar match folk songs, but we ended up holding back on both sides. Just now, it wasn't about one side matching the other, but all the sounds moving in the same direction."

Zhao Ye held the drumsticks, still in a state of excitement.

In the latter half, he used almost all his strength to suppress the urge to speed up the pace.

He tapped his knee a few times and said excitedly, "If you don't fill the drum with energy at the beginning, the power of the final beat will be completely different. I used to be afraid that the rhythm wouldn't be heavy enough, so I wanted to smash all the cymbals and snare drums in at the beginning. Now I realize that the more restrained you are at the beginning, the more ferocious the final beat will be."

After saying that, he turned to Agula and said, "Especially after the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) starts playing the melody, the drumbeats follow below, it really gives you the feeling of a herd of horses charging from afar."

Agula did not answer immediately.

He looked down at the morin khuur in his hands, his expression a mixture of excitement and indescribable complexity.

Over the years, he has thought about letting more young people hear the traditional music of the grasslands.

But every time he tried to make changes, he worried that adding modern instruments would ruin the original flavor.

After actually playing together once, he realized that tradition does not mean that one must shut oneself off.

As long as the roots remain, the morin khuur can still be the soul of the entire piece of music.

The power of rock music did not obscure it; on the contrary, it completely released the desolation and vastness that were originally hidden in the piano music.

Agu said, "The morin khuur is still the same morin khuur, and the melody hasn't changed, but when I played it towards the end just now, I felt the sound was suddenly pushed out. It wasn't just the people around the campfire who were listening; it seemed like the whole grassland could hear it."

Chao Lu couldn't help but nod.

He usually performs throat singing solo, or with the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and a few other traditional instruments.

But after the drums and electric guitar came in, the deep, resonant tone of the throat singing became the most solid foundation of the entire piece of music.

The more intense the other sounds, the more they accentuate its weight and depth.

Chao Lu said, "Our problem in the past was that everyone wanted to bring out everything they knew, wanting everyone to hear all their skills in one song. Just now, Teacher Su simply rearranged the order. The ingredients are still the same, but the flavor has completely changed."