ECG -Chapter 18 Music Theory and Harmony

That night after returning home, Lin Hao gave his father 5,000 yuan.

When Lin Qingsheng found out that the money was earned by his son singing at a bar, his heart was filled with mixed emotions. He felt that it was all because he, as a father, was incapable, causing his son to go out and make money by singing.

At the same time, he secretly wondered. He had never heard his son sing an entire song before. Although his son occasionally howled a couple of lines and his voice was quite loud, he did think it sounded pretty good. But how could he possibly earn money by singing?

Could it be that people’s standards of appreciation these days had become the same as his?

When Lin Hao learned what his father was thinking, he burst out laughing and quickly comforted him. He said this wasn’t ancient times, and he wasn’t some weak little girl dragging her blind father around while he played the erhu to beg for money. Times had changed, and singing at a bar was nothing shameful.

He also reassured his father that in the future he would earn even more money and would never let him work so hard again.

As for how he could suddenly sing, and whether he sang well or not, he made up a bunch of explanations without hesitation. He said how he had watched TV and practiced hard, how he went into the woods to train his voice, and so on. He kept talking until he completely confused his father, then finally stopped.

That night, Lin Qingsheng sat by Lin Hao’s bed for a long time while his son was already asleep. He felt very comforted. His son had grown up, become sensible, and knew how to care about others.

The days that followed passed quickly.

During the day, Lin Hao supervised Wu Xiaozhou practicing guitar at his home, and at night he went to Tiejin Bar to sing.

After that night, it became rare to see people from the underworld at the bar, and Zhou Dongbing also stopped coming very often.

One day, Lin Hao arrived early and overheard several servers chatting. Only then did he understand that the previous day had been the death anniversary of someone named Ding Jianguo, which was why so many people from the underworld had shown up that night. Most of those people had once followed Ding Jianguo.

Bars usually only gradually started getting customers after 8:30 at night, but Tiejin was strange. Every day, half an hour earlier, the place would already be full. Many people came just to wait for those two songs before the band performance.

But Lin Hao was strange too. He only sang two songs every day. He refused to sing more, and most of the songs he sang were current popular songs.

This was also because he was being cautious. He didn’t want to bring out the classic songs from his previous life too early, so most of the time he sang songs from this world.

Even so, Lin Hao’s voice was still extremely captivating.

There were mainly three reasons:

First, his voice was incredibly versatile.

Whether it was deep, clear, high-pitched, emotional, hoarse… he could perfectly match any song, making people unconsciously become immersed in it.

Second, every once in a while he would sing one of his own original songs. Although there were only a few of them and he kept singing the same ones repeatedly, those songs were ones these customers had never heard before. Each one could be considered a classic.

Third…

He was handsome!

Yes, handsome!

Although Lin Hao’s build was slightly thin, his neat short hair, clean face, and those big monolid eyes gave him a fresh and clean appearance with a hint of toughness.

When everything around him was dim, and he stood under the spotlight on stage, quietly holding his guitar, he seemed just like the little neighbor boy from someone’s memories.

Many girls, and even some married women, loved coming to Tiejin every day just to sit for a while and listen to him sing two songs.

That day, the college entrance exam results were released.

Lin Hao scored 342 points, and Wu Xiaozhou scored 305. Both of them passed the undergraduate admission line for the Fine Arts Department of the Provincial Art Academy.

Lin Hao checked online and found that the fine arts undergraduate line was higher than the other arts categories. This year, the undergraduate line for the music department of the Provincial Art Academy was 280 points.

It seemed that if he wanted to transfer departments, his cultural scores would not be a problem.

So he became even stricter in supervising Wu Xiaozhou, making Wu Xiaozhou suffer miserably.

After Wu Xiaozhou went to Tiejin a few times, he didn’t want to go anymore because he felt that Zhou Dongbing’s gaze toward him was always a little strange.

He even suspected that this big brother from the underworld had some kind of preference for men, so he simply didn’t dare go again.

That morning, Lin Hao once again brought over a thick book titled Music Theory and Harmony and tossed it to him, saying:

“Finish this within one year!”

“Fuck!” Wu Xiaozhou picked up the book and flipped through a few pages before his eyes went wide. Unconvinced, he said, “You know all this?”

Lin Hao nodded, as if he couldn’t be bothered to answer such an obvious question.

“Fine, I’ll test you!”

“Wait!” Lin Hao’s eyes turned as he suddenly said, “You can ask me any three questions. If I answer all of them correctly, you have to properly study this book!”

“What if you get one wrong?” Wu Xiaozhou asked with a mischievous smile.

He didn’t believe it. This book was so thick—how could anyone possibly know everything in it? Was he some kind of immortal?

“If I get even one wrong, from now on I’ll listen to whatever you say!”

“A gentleman’s word!” Wu Xiaozhou raised his hand.

“Pa!” Lin Hao also raised his hand and slapped it against his. “A team of horses couldn’t chase it down!”

(Meaning: A promise must be kept.)

Wu Xiaozhou quickly opened the book. Looking at the densely packed notes inside, his head started spinning.

In the end, he simply flipped to a random page. Seeing there were lots of Chinese characters, he began reading:

“What is a mode?”

Without even thinking, Lin Hao answered:

“In music, many notes that are connected according to certain relationships, generally no more than seven notes, form a system. This system has one note as its center, which is called the tonic. This system is called a mode.”

“Damn, that’s impressive!” Wu Xiaozhou was staring at the book and couldn’t help praising him.

“What is syncopation?”

Hearing this question, Lin Hao couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

“Can you ask something harder?”

Wu Xiaozhou looked shocked.

“This isn’t hard?”

“Hard my ass! Flip further back. The further back you go, the harder it gets!” Lin Hao cursed angrily.

“Could it be that you can’t answer it?” Wu Xiaozhou looked at him with contempt, grinning mischievously.

“Questions like this? Even elementary school kids who’ve taken music classes know it!” Lin Hao said helplessly.

“Forget it! I’ve taken music classes too!” Wu Xiaozhou didn’t believe him.

“You went to music class just to sleep!”

Wu Xiaozhou was convinced that this question had stumped him, so he urged:

“Quick, tell me! What is syncopation?”

“Syncopation, called syncope in English, is a type of rhythm that changes the position of strong and weak beats within a measure.”

“The patterns that form it include several types:

(1) A note on a weak beat continues into the strong beat position;

(2) …”

Wu Xiaozhou stared at him in shock.

“Haozi, when did you learn all this? Why do I feel like there’s something strange about you?”

Lin Hao’s heart tightened. He knew that although this guy was sometimes careless and thick-headed, he was actually quite observant.

“Stop talking nonsense. While you were out there getting into fights every day, your brother was at home studying this stuff every day!” Lin Hao quickly explained.

“Bullshit!” Wu Xiaozhou didn’t believe him. “So many times I peeked through your window, and you were reading martial arts novels!”

“That was called taking a break from a tense study atmosphere. What the hell do you know! Are you taking the test or not? If you’re not, I’ll count it as you losing!”

“Don’t! Are you trying to cheat?” Wu Xiaozhou hurriedly flipped through the book.

Finally, he found another page near the back that was mostly Chinese characters. At least he could understand it.

He asked:

“What are the seven medieval modes?”

After asking, Wu Xiaozhou looked at Lin Hao with a sinister expression.

Heh, there’s no way you can memorize this stuff too!

“The seven medieval modes are several modes that appeared in medieval Europe. Because this period was the era when the Roman Church ruled Europe, people later called these modes the ‘Church Modes’, also known as the ‘Medieval Modes’.”

“Their common feature is that their scales are made up of seven notes, all of which are natural notes, without any accidentals. It’s as if you are only playing the white keys on a piano. Therefore, people also call these modes the ‘Natural Mode System.’”

“They are: the Aeolian mode, Ionian mode, Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, Lydian mode, Mixolydian mode, and Locrian mode!”

Wu Xiaozhou’s mouth fell open as he stared at him.

Inside, he was screaming:

Haozi, is that really you? Are you really you? Could it be that an alien has taken over your body?

“Is that right?” Lin Hao asked.

Wu Xiaozhou continued maintaining his dumbfounded expression.

“If it’s right, hurry up and practice your instrument! Study at night!” Lin Hao suddenly shouted. “Otherwise, I’ll use family discipline on you!”

Wu Xiaozhou shuddered in fear and weakly asked:

“I want to know… what exactly is this family discipline?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet!”

After saying that, Lin Hao turned around and logged into his game.

Wu Xiaozhou let out a long sigh toward the sky.

You beast!

He really felt like he was about to cry but had no tears left.