137. Piano Lesson

Boys can cry, and girls can have their strong sides as well.

Just like a prince's dance can be soft and graceful, while a princess's dance can be brave and resolute.

Li An was about to elaborate further on Wang Xiaohu's answer when an exasperated shout came from the next room:

"Are your fingers webbed?! Spread them out!"

Li An sighed, exchanged an approving look with Wang Xiaohu, and then returned to the interrupted lesson.

"Come on, Xiaobei."

"Let's try this piece again."

Let's take it a step at a time.

-

A pleasant hour passed quickly in the blink of an eye.

In the span of a single lesson, Xiaobei learned two pieces. Aside from the first one she had already played—the Minuet in G major—she also learned the second piece in the textbook, the Minuet in minor.

Wang Xiaohu had quietly tagged along and listened to the entire lesson from the side.

Only when the class ended did he finally voice the question that had troubled him for the better part of the hour: "Teacher, does a key signature with two flats mean minor too?"

Throughout the second half of the lesson, he had kept hearing Li An refer to the second piece as being in minor.

Yet the score clearly showed two flats.

Wang Xiaohu knew the teacher couldn't possibly be wrong, but he simply didn't understand the reason behind it.

Li An inwardly sighed. This question had been explained to him N times, yet it never seemed to stick in his head.

"Xiaobei, explain it to him again."

Xiaobei looked at Wang Xiaohu and explained it word for word: "Every major key has a relative minor key. The relative minor of B-flat major is minor, which is why the key signature on the score is also written with two flats."

Hearing Xiaobei put it that way, Wang Xiaohu suddenly remembered.

This knowledge should have been thoroughly mastered during the music theory class.

Sigh.

Right at that moment, the classroom door was knocked upon. Li An turned his head and said, "Come in."

Liu Fengrui pushed the door open and strode in. Seeing his buddies were all there, he cheerfully greeted Xiaohu and Xiaobei, and finally offered Li An a greeting of, "Happy Teachers' Day, Teacher."

"I thank you, come, come, come over here."

Li An gathered the three of them into a single row, asked them a few basic music theory questions, and then chatted with them about their difficulties in learning the subject.

Through this brief exchange, the feedback he received could essentially be summed up in two words: tedious.

It was pretty much what he had expected.

Wang Xiaohu: "Music theory is boring."

Liu Fengrui: "I don't know what it's even for."

Yu Xiaobei: "It feels a bit like math."

Music theory is a critically important subject within the curriculum of musical literacy, as well as one of the mandatory tested subjects in music and art examinations.

The set of learning materials he was currently compiling needed to cater to the art examinations for high school entrance exams.

Because there were no previous years' actual exam papers to use as a reference yet,

he still couldn't accurately gauge the appropriate difficulty level to set for this literacy study material.

Most domestic music theory textbooks were largely similar, clogged with too many one-sentence concepts that were hardly suitable for primary and middle school students.

Even though various music examination assistance organizations across different regions had published specialized literacy textbooks tailored for youth grading exams, they still hadn't broken free from the rigid, academic mold.

How to make musical literacy less tedious and help children understand the significance of learning these concepts—

perhaps that was a direction worth pondering.

After seeing Xiaobei off, Li An returned to the classroom to teach Liu Fengrui, and during the break, Xu Li came and picked up Wang Xiaohu.

For the new semester, Li An had set a new teaching plan for Liu Fengrui, which similarly revolved around Czerny's studies.

Given that Liu Fengrui's foundation was fairly decent, Li An had him start from the middle section of Op. 599. The learning objective was for him to gain a more accurate understanding of key-touching techniques and to skillfully apply various expression marks in the score.

Throughout the lesson, Liu Fengrui also sensed the difference from his previous classes; the teacher's demands on him had noticeably increased.

As for the pieces he studied today, if he were to practice them by himself at home, he estimated he could churn out five or six of them within an hour.

Yet, by the time the class was ending, he had only managed to learn three.

"Xia刘, don't rush, and don't think these things are simple. If you solid-as-a-rock practice the first half of this book, I guarantee you'll make tremendous progress by the end of the year."

Xiaoliu's eyes lit up: "Really? Once I finish this book, can I play the full version of Blue Bird?"

"Well, about that."

Li An couldn't deceive him; children took promises seriously.

If you made an empty promise just to motivate him, and once he finished practicing he realized he still couldn't play it... wouldn't that make the teacher a liar?

"You still won't be able to play it. Don't even think about it until you've preliminarily solved the octave issue."

Xiaoliu pursed his lips, but then, thinking of something else, he grew excited again. He stood up, fished a piece of sheet music out of his bag, and asked, "Then what about this? What about this, Teacher? Can I play this when the time comes?"

"Warriors?"

Li An glanced at the title of the piece on the score and looked sideways at him: "Can you even sing it?"

As he spoke, he took the score and flipped through it. Before he could even finish turning the pages, Xiaoliu had already started singing.

A young boy whose voice was breaking did not sound good at all when singing. Enduring the noise assault, Li An finished looking through the music and placed the score onto his own music stand: "You sang quite well, but hold on for a moment, class isn't over yet."

Xiaoliu stopped and rubbed his nose: "Thank you for the compliment, Teacher."

"You're welcome. You can actually play this piece right now."

"Don't get excited just yet. Once you finish ten pieces from Op. 599, I'll teach you how to play Warriors."

Li An checked his watch; there were still five minutes left until the end of class: "Come on, play that piece from earlier one more time, and then we'll call it a class."

Xiaoliu nodded and sat back down. He brought his hands together, tilted his head slightly, and immediately put on a grand demeanor.

"Stop."

Li An frowned. He discovered that after taking a break for a while, Liu Fengrui had developed a bad habit when playing the piano.

He was far too fond of putting on airs.

The system backend didn't show that the kid had practiced the piano during this period either.

He had only practiced for an hour in ten days—where on earth did this bad habit come from?

-

"Can we have a normal facial expression and posture?"

Xiaoliu readjusted his posture and began to play.

Before he had even played five measures, he was interrupted by Li An again.

"Why is your neck stretched out so far, are you a hen?"

Li An walked over to the piano and asked with concern: "Have you been watching any piano-playing videos lately?"

Liu Fengrui felt deeply wronged.

After a round of explanations, Li An understood.

Stage syndrome.

"What, you got on stage once and now you're getting full of yourself?"

Liu Fengrui said embarrassedly, "When I looked at the recording, I thought I looked so cool playing the piano like that."

At this, Li An didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Getting on stage is one thing, but when you're practicing down here, don't add so many unnecessary little movements. It would be one thing if your body naturally moved along with the music, but yours is purely adding extra drama for yourself."

"You really mustn't do that. Make sure to correct it going forward."

"All right, that's it for today, class dismissed."

After packing up his things, Liu Fengrui asked Li An for his sheet music: "Teacher, my Warriors score."

Li An: "I'm requisitioning the score for now."

Liu Fengrui: (????he????╬)

[Liu Fengrui's Teacher-Student Index dropped to 69 points.]

Li An shook his head repeatedly. The kid was arguing with him over a single piece of sheet music.

"Fifteen pieces from Op. 599. Only after you finish practicing those will I teach you."

Xiaoliu was shocked: "Wasn't it ten pieces?"

Li An: "Twenty pieces."

Xiaoliu, cowed, didn't forget to fight for himself: "Fifteen pieces, fifteen pieces. Teacher, we've got a deal. Once I finish practicing fifteen pieces, you have to teach me."

Li An chuckled: "When has your teacher ever lied to you? Put your hand over your heart and think about it."

That was true. Xiaoliu chuckled.

[Liu Fengrui's Teacher-Student Index rose to 70 points.]

Li An: ~

-

After sending Xiaoliu off, Li An returned to the office to take a sip of water, and then followed up on the student growth records for the three of them.

"Panpan, take a look at this."

After carefully reading through it, Wang Panpan asked, "Senior brother, aren't they going to continue playing grading pieces?"

Li An nodded and then briefed Wang Panpan on the subsequent learning approach for the three children.

"When you communicate with the parents again, just talk to them following this train of thought."

"Got it."

Wang Panpan nodded.

-

At noon, he and Chen Xin simply grabbed a casual bite to eat in the piano room. After finishing their meal, both of them felt a touch of afternoon drowsiness.

"We must go to sleep early tonight, okay?" Chen Xin said with a yawn.

Li An nodded in agreement and said, "Trust me."

If Li An hadn't said those words, Chen Xin might have believed him; but having said them, she trusted him even less.

"I used to think you were the ascetic type."

Li An drew in a sharp breath: "Aren't I? Who was it that left that huge patch on the sheets last night—"

Before Li An could finish, Chen Xin immediately interrupted him and called a halt.

"Fine, you can sleep by yourself tonight."

"Don't, don't, please don't, Teacher Chen, I was wrong."

"Where were you wrong."

"I shouldn't have spoken the truth."

"Li An!"

-

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Che Lin arrived promptly at the entrance of Classroom No. 4.

For her very first official lesson with Teacher Li, she felt both expectant and nervous.

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Come in."

Che Lin cautiously turned the door handle and saw Li An sitting at the piano.

Standing rigidly right at the doorway, she called out, "Hello, Teacher."

Li An stood up and waved her over, saying, "Come on in. From now on, just come straight in when you arrive for class."

"Have you been practicing the piano at home during this time since the start of the semester?"

Because there were only four slots in the system's piano classroom, and Che Lin's Teacher-Student Index had only just crossed 60 after Liu Fengrui's, Li An temporarily had no way to view Che Lin's practice status at home through the backend.

Che Lin nodded, sat down at the piano, and opened the score of Czerny Op. 849.

"Teacher, I reviewed what Teacher Tian taught me in the previous lesson."

Li An looked over; it was still the sixth piece.

"Come on, play it for me to hear."

With that, he stepped back to the side.

Che Lin extended her hands and felt that her whole body was positioned a bit too far forward. Without any panic, she stood up and moved the piano bench backward by about ten centimeters, then sat back down properly.

Testing the feel of the distance from her shoulders to her arms once more, she shifted her hips slightly to the left.

Once she felt comfortable with both her body and posture, she began her performance.

Setting her hand shape, breathing to find the tempo.

Dropping her fingers.

Immediately after, crisp and smooth right-hand running passages, accompanied by the solid half-note accompaniment of the left-hand soundscape, instantly filled the tiny classroom.

The entire process was smooth and accomplished in one go.

Seeing this, Li An could only marvel at children taught by others.

Although little Che Lin was now his student, he still couldn't help feeling this way.

So disciplined.

From adjusting the bench to finding the distance, to the preparatory steps before playing, Che Lin displayed standardization to the absolute limit.

It was definitely not just because it was her first lesson with him; he could tell this was a good habit the child had cultivated over a long period.

While the natural aptitude possessed by the child was certainly important, one still had to admit that Tian Yu had guided her skillfully.

After listening through once, Li An praised her: "Not bad. You played with great standard and precision."

Che Lin gave a naive, honest smile.

[Che Lin's Teacher-Student Index increased to 63.]

Were there issues? Of course there were, but he would treat it as the child's introductory performance report for her new teacher.

Li An walked over and sat down at the piano: "I've looked at your growth record. You didn't play the fourth and fifth pieces, did you?"

Che Lin nodded.

Li An: "My plan for this Op. 849 textbook is that we won't skip a single one; we'll play every single piece, and throughout the entire learning process, we will continue to interweave Hanon finger exercises. I've already discussed this with your father. Did he mention it to you?"

Che Lin shook her head: "Teacher, I'll listen to whatever you say."

So obedient.

"Good. Now I'll give you two minutes to look over the score of the fourth piece first."

-

The Op. 849 collection served as preparatory exercises for cultivating high-level piano performance techniques.

From the student growth record filled out by Tian Yu, it was clear that the former intended for Che Lin to pick and choose which pieces to play.

After playing pieces 1, 2, and 3, she had jumped straight to 6, skipping 4 and 5 entirely.

Since he didn't know what kind of subsequent curriculum Tian Yu had arranged for Che Lin, he wouldn't evaluate Tian Yu's teaching plan for the time being.

However, from his own personal perspective, the right-hand broken chord exercise in the fourth piece and the dotted rhythm triplet non-legato in the fifth piece were exceptionally important exercises.

Based on his personal judgment of Che Lin's current comprehensive level, could she pick and choose pieces within Op. 849?

Yes, she could.

Yet, he hoped Che Lin could play through this entire textbook from cover to cover.

This would be even more helpful in improving Che Lin's speed and technical playing abilities, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent Op. 299 and beyond.

Every single study in Op. 849 had a very clear technical subject, which was extremely important for children reaching a certain stage in their subsequent technical advancement.

Che Lin was undoubtedly a fine piece of raw material, and Li An's two communications with Che Lin's father had gone quite smoothly. Aside from not being overly hands-on, the father had already indicated in his words that as long as the child liked it, she could keep learning indefinitely.

Therefore, Li An had indeed developed the intention to properly nurture this child, Che Lin.

"Teacher, I've finished looking at it."

Li An pulled back his thoughts.

"Mhm, tell me about it."

Che Lin: "4/4 time, C major, Allegro. The melody of the piece is in the left hand, and the right hand is the accompaniment."

If Xiaobei were to look at this score, she would probably only be able to name the first three elements.

Li An nodded, and then guided her further: "Since the melody is in the left hand and the accompaniment is in the right hand, what issues should we pay attention to when practicing?"

Che Lin answered directly: "We need to make the volume of the left hand stand out."

Li An thought that since the child could use phrases like "make the volume of the left hand stand out" to describe it, she must have already been deeply influenced by such slightly professional terminology while taking lessons with Tian Yu previously.

"Very good. Then have you noticed this $p$ (piano) under the right hand in the first measure?"

Che Lin's gaze returned to the score, and she gave a soft, "Mhm, I noticed it."

Li An stared at the score and extended his hand to strike the keys in the bass register.

A gentle yet sparkling right-hand broken chord arose in front of the piano.

"Let's look at the right-hand rhythmic pattern. Isn't it very friendly and simple?"

"You try it too."

Che Lin reached out and joined in, adding another layer to the sound of the piano.

"Let's loop the first measure."

The two right hands—one large, one small—on the keyboard gradually synchronized, looping the first measure over and over again.

"Pay attention: the first note of every beat is a tenuto, the most prominent voice. The drop of the finger must be very solid."

"Very good."

"Again, pay attention to finger support. It needs to be released, it needs to have a singing quality."

"Right."

"Once more."

This new pair of teacher and student cycled it over and over like that, until even the volume fluctuations of their two sounds were completely identical.

"Good, let's try adding the left hand."

-

A pleasant—though somewhat hand-tiring—piano lesson came to a quiet close just like that.

As class ended, Li An asked Che Lin: "Are you tired from my class?"

Che Lin nodded, and then naively shook her head.

"Teacher, I like learning the piano with you."