Chapter 7.10 - Lightly 10 (2/2)
Ave Maria.
A beautiful song of Holy Mary composed by Schubert, the king of lieder. Personally, I thought Han Dasom would suit this song better but… it wasn’t bad for Lee Suh-ah either.
If Han Dasom was like soft fairy floss, then Lee Suh-ah was like smooth silk. It was strange but songs would actually depict the personalities of the singer. Han Dasom with her softness and warmth hidden behind her introversion, while Lee Suh-ah showed off the pride she had in her voice.
Their respective qualities were not worse than the other and were both important personal features of musicians.
“Ave Maria…”
I was listening to her singing with a nod and felt the song coming to an end.
“How was it?”
Seeing Lee Suh-ah asking nonchalantly, I touched my chin. Well, although I did enjoy listening to it, that didn’t mean I could be lazy in giving feedback. After deep contemplation, I opened my mouth.
“Good. It was good but…”
I quickly remembered her songs from before the time travel. Since Ave Maria was such a famous song, I clearly remembered the future Lee Suh-ah singing it with countless memories to back it up.
After comparing the future Lee Suh-ah and the current one, I clicked my fingers.
“You, sort of sing with a casual heart right?”
“What?”
I could see Lee Suh-ah immediately forming a frown and felt that my words might have been a bit misunderstandable.
“I mean… This song’s really easy for you right?”
“In what way?”
“Technique-wise.”
Facing a puzzled expression at me, Lee Suh-ah gave a nod.
“If I had to say it, then yes it is easy because it is within my vocal range. Although my expression skills are still lacking…”
“Un, right. It’s too easy to tell that. It feels like you’re singing it with too much ease.”
“…What do you mean by that”
This was difficult to explain. Scratching my head, I thought.
Mhmm… there were sometimes students like this – students that made high notes easily from birth or were full of talents and could understand any songs in a flash. For them, singing was very easy and fun because high notes could come out naturally with breath.
That’s why, they would unknowingly sing ‘casually’. Wearing a serious expression, I met my eyes with Lee Suh-ah’s.
“When you’re singing, try harder to sing properly. Open your chest up like this, and raise your chest voice up with all your energy. You need to put all your energy in, to have a proper song come out.”
Lee Suh-ah who had been in thought made a frown.
“The teacher told me to sing relaxed though.”
…It’s true that teachers could have such opinions. They must be people that wanted to be on the safe side without taking risks.
However, Lee Suh-ah from the future sang using the method I had mentioned. I could be certain of this myself. I had listened to her songs hundreds of times so there was no way I could get that wrong.
Plus, the method used by the future Lee Suh-ah was probably the one closest to the answer because whatever the case, Lee Suh-ah was the world’s best soprano. With my eyes still on her, I opened my mouth.
“Hmm… of course, the throat has to be relaxed, but nothing else. Opera singers must never sing comfortably. The breath had to be broken as thinly as possible with as much room inside as possible.”
“Un…”
She made a face like she could understand something.
“Think of a swan. Although they appear elegant above-water, they’re swinging their legs hella crazy underwater. Like that, shouldn’t you be using everything your body has to offer to have a better song come out?”
…After talking up to there, I stopped and glanced at her.
Actually, this was something that could touch Lee Suh-ah’s pride. It was similar to saying that she was lacking practice to her face, despite her being one of the most hardworking students
I carefully watched her gazing down at the ground in fear that she would explode at any time but fortunately, she nodded without saying much.
“Okay. Since your words were never wrong, I’ll try it once.”
“Good.”
Like that, she sang the song two more times and quickly fixed the problems. Indeed, although I forgot for a bit because I was teasing her so much, she really was that Lee Suh-ah.
“Ohh…”
Looking at her singing similarly to her future self, I confirmed once again that she was a genius. After singing, she touched her throat a bit before heaving out a sigh.
“You always sing like this? Isn’t it tiring?”
“Well yeah… of course it is. But there’s no other way if I want to sing a good song.”
“Seriously…”
She heaved out a sigh before suddenly tilting her head.
“By the way… isn’t it because of this that you can’t focus on the emotions?”
“Huh?”
I stared at her with confusion and she continued while tapping the table.
“You know, you said you sing like this every time, but how would you ever focus on your emotions like this? Even I have no time to think about anything else.”
Hearing that, I thought for a bit before dropping my chin.
That was… very possible. Those were things I was doing habitually, but maybe I had been caring too much about them thus far.
“So now, give up on everything and try it.”
Her eyes flickered.
“So that you can focus solely on your emotions.”
*
…And soon, Lee Suh-ah opened her mouth with a dumbfounded expression.
“This works…?”
“Hey it’s just like what you said! It feels so relaxing to just not do anything! It’s like I’m not even swinging my feet when swimming; like I’m playing around… wow…!”
Uncontrollable smiles appeared on my lips. It just felt so refreshing.
A success after success.
After listening to Lee Suh-ah’s words, I had succeeded immediately, three times in a row!
I couldn’t hold back my happiness from showing up on my expression and the thumping heartbeats reached my head before ringing it. The quivering of my body continued nonstop and my body started aching all around while the practice room appeared at least two times brighter like the whole world was sparkling.
Now I could somewhat tell what embedding emotions was about. Literally, it wasn’t about ‘casually’ putting in the emotions and I had to fully get immersed in it. It might even require more concentration than when I was singing…
Feeling something that I had never felt during my entire life as an opera singer, I felt satisfied from deep within. Is this how it felt when people with bad eyesight got new glasses?
Lee Suh-ah glared at me who was in a bright mood.
“This gifted bastard.”
Hearing that, I made an embarrassed expression. From her perspective, that wasn’t a strange response because, in her eyes, I might appear like a freshman student that could embed emotions like an old opera veteran… one of the so-called ‘gifted people’.
…But in fact, it was something I could not do during the twenty years of singing until Lee Suh-ah had pointed it out.
In embarrassment, I quickly changed the topic.
“…Hey, that’s not something you can say right? In any case, I did figure out the method to embed emotions but… I need to swing my feet here as well to make the song shine right? I need to be able to multitask…”
Hearing my complaints, she scoffed before standing up.
“It’s ten to 11. Let’s go.”
“Ah… you’re right.”
That was quick.
With a regretful heart, I packed up my stuff when Lee Suh-ah who had been watching me opened her mouth.
“…It’s easy to learn how to multitask.”
“What?”
Seeing me eager for an answer, she smiled faintly.
“Practice. Until it gets stuck in your body. Until your body can do it by itself without you thinking about it, practise. Then, you’ll be able to achieve both techniques and emotions.”
“…”
I blinked my eyes and smiled.
Right, the answer to everything was in practice. Complicated songs and difficult songs would one day be parts of your repertoire after continuous effort… that was what singing was about.
“Yeah. Let’s just practise and it would one day work out.”
“Yeah.”
Suddenly, lee Suh-ah clapped and smiled. It was a smile but with only one corner of her lips raised, in a cheeky manner.
“Ah! It might be impossible for you even if you do practise. Sorry in advance if that happens.”
“…What if I do pull it off?”
“If you do, you need to thank me for helping you. What do you mean ‘what if’?”
…It felt like all my gratefulness had been shattered.
“Annoying.”