1RomanceEB Chapter 10 The Beginning of Nursery Rhymes
Chapter 10 The Beginning of Nursery Rhymes
The parents and Liu Xiaoli discussed the training details together. Considering Xie Anran's physical condition, they finally decided that the daily training time would not exceed two hours.
Xie Anran naturally had no objections—at his current learning pace, two hours of training time was more than enough for him to polish a decent performance. However, the format of the performance hadn't been finalized yet; the school wanted him to either sing a children's song or play a section on the recorder. After all, Xie Anran was exceptionally handsome, and having only formally studied for a little over a month, his skill level was already impressive. Performing on stage would be the best proof of the school's teaching staff—in short, a form of indirect publicity.
This gave Xie Anran some room to maneuver. He knew that with his current musical knowledge, creating an entire original piece was simply unrealistic—that required transcribing sheet music and understanding scales, much like Jay Chou's songs, which all had a fixed base melody upon which creation was built, resulting in the so-called album style. He was only a beginner; let alone creating an album, he couldn't even replicate a melody from scratch, since he knew nothing about composing.
Fortunately, his current skill level is sufficient to reproduce some of the nursery rhymes he is familiar with.
In the room, Xie Anran lay on the bed, pondering the program's arrangements. Beside her, Qianqian sat on the edge of the bed, clutching a bottle of AD calcium milk. She sipped it while muttering softly, "Anran, you promised to help me. I want to perform on stage too." Seeing that Xie Anran didn't respond, she leaned closer, puffing out her cheeks, "Don't just lie there ignoring me, or I'll get angry!" Saying this, she tilted her head back and took a big gulp of milk, letting out a small burp at the end, then pressed on, both anxious and annoyed, "Say something!"
"I'm thinking about something," Xie Anran replied casually, her tone tinged with helplessness.
"What are you thinking about?" Sisi casually threw the empty baby bottle into the trash can next to her, turned around and lay down next to Xie Anran, her little head gently resting on his arm.
"I'm figuring out how to get you a 100% chance to perform on stage." Xie Anran sighed, her tone filled with even more helplessness.
"What is 100%?" In this era, information travels slowly, and seven-year-old Sisi still only has a vague understanding of many words. She blinked her big eyes, full of doubt.
Xie Anran was both annoyed and amused, and patiently explained, "It means I will definitely get you on stage, there won't be any mistakes, and you will definitely be able to perform."
"Oh... Anran, you're so nice!" Qianqian's eyes lit up, and she hugged Xie Anran's arm, happily rubbing her little face against his sleeve.
"Hey, why do you always hug me?" Xie Anran gently pushed her away, thinking to herself: It would be more appropriate for Liu Yifei to hug me, but you little brat, what's with you always sticking to me?
Seeing him push her away, Sisi's face immediately fell, her lips pouted, and her eyes instantly reddened, looking like she was about to cry: "Do you hate me?"
Xie Anran's lips twitched. This little brat certainly knew how to manipulate people. He reluctantly conceded, "Fine, fine, hug me if you want, but don't rub against me, it tickles!"
Sisi instantly stopped crying and smiled, nestled obediently against Xie Anran, and began humming a song to herself, the tune being "Let Us Row Our Boats." The sweet melody filled the room, and Xie Anran's mind suddenly conjured images of the sky, the lake, the park, and vast expanses of blue and green...
"Huh!" Xie Anran's eyes suddenly lit up as he remembered a song his cousin had sung before. He knew that most children's songs had a tempo of 80 to 120 beats per minute, with simple transitions, gentle melodies, and lyrics that were mostly educational and introductory. The song he remembered, "The Color Song," was specifically designed to teach children about colors. It was extremely easy, and with his current skill level, he could easily play it on the recorder. Even if he wrote the lyrics, it wouldn't sound out of place.
"XiXi!" Xie Anran suddenly sat up, her voice filled with barely concealed excitement.
"Huh?" Sisi was startled by him and looked up at him blankly.
"I want to write my own songs!" Xie Anran said with a determined look in her eyes.
"Oh..." Sisi tilted her head slightly, seemingly understanding but not quite, then put on a serious expression and nodded vigorously: "Go for it!"
"Um!"
Xie Anran immediately got up, nimbly got out of bed, rummaged through the drawer for a notebook, pen, and the recorder on the table, and sat down to compose music. He still couldn't compose music, but he could figure out the tune by playing the recorder and then write down the corresponding sheet music and lyrics—as for composing, he could leave that to the school teachers.
Sisi curiously came over and leaned over the desk to watch him. He would write a few strokes here and there, and then pick up the recorder and play a few notes. Although she couldn't understand the winding symbols on the paper, she felt that Xie Anran was exceptionally capable, especially his serious expression with his slightly furrowed brows and complete concentration. This made her subconsciously lower her movements and not dare to disturb him.
For the rest of the time, Xixi sat quietly to the side, entertaining herself. However, every now and then, she would sneak up to the desk, peek at what Xie Anran was writing, and then quietly retreat back, afraid of disturbing him.
Before they knew it, it was dinnertime, and a gentle knock came at the door. Qianqian jumped up from her chair and ran to open it. Seeing Xie Weimin outside, she immediately held her little hand out to block the doorway and whispered, "Uncle, Anran is busy!"
"Huh?" Xie Weimin was stunned for a moment, almost thinking he had misheard—what could a child of a few years old be busy with? He forced a smile and asked, "Qianqian, what is Anran busy with?"
"Write a song!" Sisi opened her big, round eyes and answered seriously, her tone full of pride.
Xie Weimin almost choked on his breath. After finally calming down, he patiently said, "Even songwriting requires eating. Let him take a break and eat before continuing."
"Oh, okay!" Sisi hesitated for a moment after hearing this, probably thinking that "you need to eat to have the energy to write songs," but in the end she nodded, turned around and quickly ran into the house to inform Xie Anran.
Xie Weimin stood at the door with a strange expression on his face. He turned around and went to the living room, found Liu Xiaoli, and told her about his conversation with Qianqian.
"Huh?" Liu Xiaoli was also stunned, her face full of confusion. After a long while, she said, "Why don't we wait for him to come out and ask him for details?"
"Hmm, but can a kid really write songs?" Although Xie Weimin didn't understand music, he was still a college student and had a basic understanding of it—music has always been unfathomable to laymen, let alone artistic creation, which is even more difficult.
"It's hard to say, maybe Anran really can do it." Liu Xiaoli smiled, saying this but actually not sure herself. But Xie Anran was just too outstanding. Who had ever seen someone who had only been in school for a month and whose singing skills were already on par with others who had studied for more than a year? She had even reached the level where she could join the choir.
She also taught herself to play the recorder. She had never seen such a talented child in her life. Even the school's music teacher praised her talent and didn't know how to describe it.
So, she still held a sliver of hope. If Xie Anran could really write her own songs and teach Qianqian how to sing them, then perhaps she could guarantee Qianqian a good performance on stage.