Chapter 42 (1/2)
Chapter 42 Choose Anything as You Like, I'm Fine with It!
The remarks ”now is your turn” instantly shifted all the eyes onto Fang Qiu.
They were all looking forward to it.
Looking forward to Fang Qiu's performance.
They wanted to see which one could laugh last in this fierce contest.
”Go get him!”
Zhu Benzheng, Sun Hao, and Zhou Xiaotian heartened Fang Qiu in an undertone.
Fang Qiu nodded and walked to the middle of the sports ground.
”Which musical instrument will you choose? If it is not here, I'll ask them to fetch it!”
Li Qingshi pointed at the row of exhibited musical instruments at the Chinese Folk Arts Association.
There were a Chinese flute, a guitar, a bamboo flute, a Chinese zither, a pipa and even an erhu, a violin, a cello, and so on.
Those musical instruments were all belongings of members of the Chinese Folk Arts Association. It was easy to tell how abundant art talents were in the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine!
Fang Qiu pointed a finger at those musical instruments and stared at Li Qingshi with a smile.
”What do you mean?
Li Qingshi was bewildered.
”You choose anything as you like, I'm fine with it.”
Said Fang Qiu in an extremely arrogant voice.
Gasp!
Everyone on the scene was rooted to the spot in astonishment.
”Are you kidding me?”
”There are at least a dozen musical instruments here—from domestic ones to foreign ones, from traditional ones to modern ones—but you dare let him choose anything as he likes?”
”And you are fine to play any of them?”
”How outrageous your brag is!”
”But this is a contest. Aren't you supposed to pick the one you can do best?”
”Learning one musical instrument for several years doesn't mean you have mastered it. Even if you can only spend one year to master each of those musical instruments, it will take you more than a dozen years to get the hang of all of them!”
”But Fang Qiu, how old are you?”
”You're seventeen!”
”You can't have been learning musical instruments since you were in the womb, can you?”
Zhu Benzheng, Sun Hao, and Zhou Xiaotian were stupified by Fang Qiu's words as well. They swallowed with difficulty.
”Good heavens!”
Although they had known Fang Qiu was brilliant and guessed that he had more brilliant talents to display, but it never occurred to them that he could be so brilliant!
”Pick any musical instrument as you like?”
”How domineering!”
Jiang Miaoyu's gorgeous eyes also widened, looking at Fang Qiu in disbelief.
”He can play... all these?”
Li Qingshi was dazed by this remark of Fang Qiu. Eventually, he let out a hollow laugh and said, ”You are joking, aren't you?”
”Not joking.”
Fang Qiu nodded positively.
”Erhu!”
Li Qingshi blurted out.
He did not care whether Fang Qiu was telling the truth or just bragging!
”Now that you dared to throw out the words, I'll choose the most difficult one for you. Let me see how you get out of this one!”
And he did not believe a word of Fang Qiu, so he chose erhu, the one that fewest people would learn.
”Other musical instruments are relatively popular, while erhu is not in vogue.”
”Even if he has learned it, so what? It's extremely hard to be proficient in erhu playing.”
”Generally, string instruments are the most difficult kind to learn, at least much harder than wind instruments.”
”And string instruments are divided into two categories—with frets and without.
”For string instruments with frets, its intonation is already guaranteed. One fret represents the musical interval of a half-tone, and two frets constitute a whole tone, making the learning process and daily playing relatively easy in light of intonation.”
”However, for string instruments without frets, its intonation solely depends on the acute hearing of the player and the great coordination of his left fingers.”
”If a man is a tone-deaf who is unable to sing the melodies that he hears in the same tune, it's impossible for him to learn any of the string instruments without frets.”
”A guitar is the kind that has frets. Fang Qiu already proved that he can play it at the Start-of-Term Ceremony. However, erhu, violin, and cello are all without frets.”
”As to why I didn't pick a violin or cello, it's because of a common view in the vocal music circle—the less the strings a musical instrument has, the harder its learning process is.”
”Thus, erhu is said to be a less popular but very difficult instrument.”
”Fang Qiu, I don't believe you can play it!”
”Fine!”
Fang Qiu nodded, and then, strode towards the Chinese Folk Arts Association.
Seeing Fang Qiu coming over, members of the Chinese Folk Arts Association instinctively shunned sideways.
”The aura of this man is too fierce!”
When the crowd heard that Fang Qiu was going to play erhu, they all blamed Li Qingshi inwardly for being so brazen to pick such an obscure musical instrument.
And they were under the impression that erhu was prone to be played by the old, especially the blind.
Well, it was not them to blame for thinking like that, because Ah Bing, a blind erhu master, was just too famous.
His erhu play of The Moon Over a Fountain perfectly displayed the sad and beautiful feelings.
Erhu's sound was peerlessly full of sorrow and bitterness, which was not suitable for a young man to play.
It was far too incongruous with the image and temperament of Fang Qiu.
But Fang Qiu still walked to the middle of the sports ground holding an erhu and a stool as everyone was staring at him.
After lowering the microphone to let it face right at the erhu, Fang Qiu settled himself on the stool and briefly tested its tones, then screwed up the upper pegs.
He did a test again before nodding in satisfaction.
Li Qingshi was watching Fang Qiu from a short distance. Although he did not know how to play erhu, he had some elementary knowledge about it.
Fang Qiu's posture and tuning movements gave him a bad feeling.
”Does he really know how to play erhu?”
But he was not too worried.
”Even if he knows how to play, no way can his playing parallel to his Chinese flute skills, can it?”
Fang Qiu looked around and boomed, ”I now present you Battle Steeds Galloping Ahead.”
”Battle Steeds Galloping Ahead?”
At this, all the people were a bit befuddled.
”Aren't songs of erhu supposed to be very pathetic and touching? Why does this one sound fierce and vehement?”
But before they could think it through, Fang Qiu already began his playing.
A piece of intense melody instantly roused the crowd.
Everyone was watching Fang Qiu playing in utter shock.
”Holy cow!”
”Does this music really come from erhu?”
”So fierce?”
The audience did feel like ten thousand steeds were galloping past them.
They even heard the horses neigh and whinny.
”Could erhu possibly be played like this?”
”Gosh! What's happening?”
”Why do I hear clatters of horses' hooves?”