Chapter 4.7 - Sorrowfully 7 (2/2)

“Student Jo Yunjae. Where did you learn vocalisation from?”

… It was a difficult question from the get-go. Whilst reading teacher Kwak Jungsoo’s mood, I opened my mouth.

“It was self-studied.”

“Self-study. Good.”

He smiled as if he found it interesting.

“During student Jo Yunjae’s Concerted Music, and the Improvement Concert, there was something strange that I felt. It was this vocalisation.”

After starting the conversation while pointing at his neck, he stood up from his seat. Walking around step by step around the lesson room, he opened his mouth.

“Vocalisation. Vocalisation is the basic and the foundation of singing. The very definition is as such: ‘act of producing sounds’. Detailing into ‘how to move the body to make a sound’ when vocalising, is vocalisation.”

With an ah–, teacher Ku Mingi made a clear sound.

“This vocalisation. In opera, to perfect the vocalisation, we practise and train for a long time to have it fixed. Unlike expressions and fancy skills that can be added or subtracted at will, vocalisation is the bone built up one by one. In other words, it is basically very hard to change.”

Stopping there, teacher Ku Mingi turned his body and stared directly at me. His eyes shined for a bit.

“But student Jo Yunjae had built up a vocalisation by himself, and a high-standard one at that. You must’ve liked teacher Kwak Jungsoo a lot from the past, judging from your similar vocalisation method.”

Uh… I learned it from himself actually… Seeing me roll my eyes while seated, he smiled.

“Up to here is good, no, very good. It means that you have the great talent to catch good vocalisation methods. The world tends to call that a genius.”

“Ah… a genius?”

“Yes.”

I felt slightly embarrassed.

I learned it directly from him so of course, the vocalisation method was the same. Calling that a talented catching ability was embarrassing… Teacher Ku Mingi that had been staring deeply at me suddenly stiffened his face.

“The problem is that teacher Kwak Jungsoo’s vocalisation method that you had learned in that manner does not fit student Jo Yunjae’s throat.”

“Sorry?”

What did this mean?

When I opened my eyes wide, he pointed at teacher Kwak Jungsoo with a gesture.

“Now look at that body. With lungs probably 3 times bigger than normal people, a thick neck and a large head.”

If you put it like that, he sounds like a monster.

I awkwardly stared at the teacher when teacher Ku Mingi’s hand pointed back at me.

“Then look at student Jo Yunjae’s body. Can you call this the same human race… sorry, but can you call them the same kind of opera singers?”

“…Hard, I guess?”

“But what would happen if you used the same vocalisation method?”

“…”

Seeing me blink my eyes, he opened his mouth.

“You’ve tried some tricks and used methods that saved your breath, or sang softly but in the end, that is an expedient. Didn’t you feel your throat hurt a lot recently?”

“…Yes.”

“Of course it would. It’s a vocalisation method that forces the larynx down, opens the throat wide and explodes out the breath to seek a strong resonance. If the body’s not following, would it be okay or not?”

Hearing teacher Ku Mingi’s words, there were some parts I could understand.

The throat that recently started to hurt.

I thought that was because the throat was weak due to it being before my growth spurt, but was it because of the fundamental vocalisation? After one year, it would become a body that could digest this vocalisation but my body was currently not up to the standards.

Teacher Ku Mingi clicked his tongue.

“In other words, a supercar engine was attached to a shitty car… ah would you not understand that as a student?”

“No. Please continue.”

“Uhum. It’s like adding that engine. No matter how lightly you press on the accelerator, one day, it would break.”

Break?

I touched my throat with a pale expression when teacher Ku Mingi coughed a little and took down my hand.

“Well, it won’t be happening any time soon. If you did that during the growth spurt, it could lead to some problems later down the track but… you haven’t sung that much yet. Throats are quite strong albeit being quite weak you see.”

When I became a little relieved, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Now, that’s the reason why I had come today to give the lesson. No matter what, wouldn’t I be better suited in teaching a new vocalisation than teacher Kwak Jungsoo?”

I could say yes, but I was right before the teacher.

Ah, how should I reply here… when I restlessly looked at teacher Kwak Jungsoo, he heavily gave a nod.

Closing my eyes tight, I replied,

“…Yes.”

And teacher Ku Mingi made a smile.

*

From then on was teacher Ku Mingi’s lesson.

“Make a sound.”

“Ah–”

He gave a sign to stop with his hand.

“I can hear you forcing the sound. Don’t try to control everything. Naturally – before the body finishes growing, you must focus on singing naturally.”

Naturally…

What is natural?

After a deep thought, I closed my eyes and examined my body. I could feel the relaxed muscles one by one. When I gave a sign to make a sound from that situation, the muscles all started to immediately move around busily.

The larynx lowered deeply, the velum was lifted up high, and the inside of the throat formed a large gap. When I let out a breath from there, the entire body screamed and echoed the sound.

“Ah–!”

It was as if I could hear the crazy ringing of a growling motor. Dumbfounded, I touched my throat for a bit before lowering my head. Having only been learning this one vocalisation for the entirety of my 20 years, I had never even realised it, but after a proper analysis, I could tell that it was a dangerous vocalisation method.

Teacher Ku Mingi tapped my shoulder.

“Do you understand? Now, let’s try singing naturally. Relax your throat and don’t try to force anything.”

“Yes.”

It was easy to put in words, but it was a fixed vocalisation that had been put in place after blood, sweat and tears, and was unwilling to be changed. After a few failures, I decided to get rid of the very thought that I was singing from my head.

Then, my body became astonishingly relaxed. Let’s make a sound as if I was just speaking, I thought, as the uvula lightly echoed.

“Ah–”

Uh? It felt different.

Raising my head and staring at the teacher, I could see teacher Ku Mingi wave his hand up with a smile.

“Good. Keep it that way. And should we now increase the pitch a little?”

“Ah–”

“Go on!”

“Ah–”

“More!”

With a deep breath, I let it out.

The breath filling my stomach to the brim flowed out like water through the uvula while resonating the mouth, and during that, all I did was calmly letting out the breath.

The naturally escaped breath had turned into a pitch before echoing the room.

“Ah–!”

I could feel my head ringing. It was that feeling when you were resonating the head voice to the maximum – and also, it was the highest ringing that I had never felt before in my life.

Blankly, I was immersed in the remaining echoes when teacher Ku Mingi clapped before opening his mouth.

“C5”

“…Sorry?”

He gave a wide smile.

“You hit a high C just then.”