manynovel Page 182
Page 182
"No, no, no, Kuno-senpai is very good. In a way, the brass band needed someone like her who dared to take the lead at the beginning."
“I like her very much too.” Nagasawa Miyako nodded in agreement.
Goto Yu stared blankly at the flowers blooming in the tea, with a glistening white sugar coating sprinkled on the pastries beside her. "Chrysanthemums?" she murmured.
"It's jasmine."
Kuno's mother said with a smile, then sighed and said, "I thought Tachibana was already very good at playing the trumpet, after all, she has been praised since she was a child. I didn't expect that there would be someone in the school who is better than her."
"There's a saying, 'There are always people better than you, and there's always something beyond your understanding.' All we can do now is to adjust our mindset and face the All-Round Tournament with a positive attitude." Yukawa Sakurako took a sip of tea.
Pu-erh tea is sweet and refreshing, and you can also taste the fragrance of jasmine.
"It's a good thing I didn't go to Tokyo back then; I heard that it's full of geniuses."
Kuno's mother said with a hint of relief,
"I doubt even Lihua could handle it."
Goto Yu silently swallowed the cake along with her tea, then clasped her hands together and said:
"It's delicious, thank you for the treat."
Kuno's mother poured her another glass.
Nagasawa Miya sat upright on the sofa, looking at Yukawa Sakura beside her. The tea and dessert in front of her were completely untouched.
"The minister isn't eating?"
Hmm...
Sakurako's fingers slipped into the handle of the teacup, and she looked up, gazing in the direction of Tachibana Kuno's room, and said...
"hope everything is fine."
Kuno Tachibana's room looks "messy," but not in the sense of things being randomly placed; rather, it's a messy chaos with a sense of order.
There were an outrageous number of small toys and various exquisite trinkets; most of the bed was covered with plush toys, and there was also a brown plush bear on the floor that was about the same size as Kitahara Hakuba.
Kitahara Hakuba looked at Kuno Tatsuka, who was sitting directly on the teddy bear. She was wearing a thin light green nightgown, with the pant legs covering her ankles completely.
“I’m relieved that you don’t look so bad.”
Kitahara Hakuba smiled at her, the delicate fragrance of a young girl's boudoir lingering around his nose.
Kuno Tachibana tucked the teddy bear's "arm" into her arms, rested her little face on its shoulder, and said:
"What kind of person does Kitahara-sensei hope I will become? I can't cry loudly in front of you right now."
Even when she was feeling down, she still had her own bottom line.
She didn't know if Kitahara Hakuba could be considered a "friend," but subconsciously she didn't want to burst into tears in front of him.
The girl curled up slightly, the hem of her pajamas lifting with her movements, revealing her slender waist to Kitahara Hakuba.
He looked at the desk, then simply sat down next to Kuno Tachibana and said:
"Kuno, do you think I'm biased towards anyone? Do you want me to give you an explanation?"
Kuno Tachibana rubbed his cheek against the teddy bear, its "fur" constantly wriggling on his skin, creating a ticklish sensation.
She stammered, "No, she didn't say anything."
"It was my own suggestion to re-select. I'm not as good as Nagase-senpai, so it's reasonable for Kitahara-sensei to reject me."
Kitahara Hakuba glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, his expression clearly conveying "I'm very unwilling."
He placed the notebook on his lap and began to speak:
“Nagasawa said that Tachibana helped the brass band achieve good results at the competition. As a teacher, I shouldn’t be so biased towards a girl who just joined the club. I should take better care of Tachibana.”
The whispers that brushed past his ear made Kuno Tachibana bite his lower lip tightly.
Suddenly I felt so wronged. In the past few months, Mr. Kitahara should have liked me more, but in the end he chose another girl.
She couldn't discern the difference between herself and Nagase Tsukiyo. Ever since the selection ended, she kept having wild thoughts: Did Kitahara-sensei choose her because she was pretty? Or because her family was rich? Did she think the competition judges preferred girls like Nagase Tsukiyo?
Or perhaps it's because Nagase Tsukiyo is in his last year, and all the solos this time were done by third-year students, so that the third-year students wouldn't have any regrets?
More and more "excuses" filled his mind, making Kuno Tachika's mood increasingly depressed.
She hoped it was all fake, but couldn't think of any excuse to refute it, which made her seem particularly powerless.
Seeing that she didn't speak, Kitahara Hakuba showed her the results of his hard work yesterday, which had taken several hours.
"Kuno, look over here," he said softly.
All Kuno Tachibana could hear was the sound of the laptop running, and he had a strand of hair in his mouth.
"No... just say it like that."
Seeing her distraught appearance, Kitahara Hakuba couldn't help but raise his hand and pat her head, saying:
"I care about you a lot, so I want to explain things to you carefully. If you have the answer in your heart, then I can leave now."
"Hmm::"
Kuno Tachibana's chest itched, and he squeezed the teddy bear's arm tightly with his little hands, feeling the exceptionally smooth cotton filling between his fingertips.
She turned around and saw something like a spectrum on the laptop screen, with SoIi's musical score on the right.
Kitahara Hakuba moved his fingertips across the touchpad, speaking calmly:
“The musical literacy of the members in the brass section varies, so they may not be able to understand it by ear. I think it would be more intuitive for you to distinguish the difference between the two visually and to have a precise understanding of each section.”
Kuno Tachibana was stunned for a moment. Everything on the screen amazed her. She couldn't help but sit up like a duck and support herself on the floor with her hands.
Seeing that she was indeed interested, Kitahara Hakuba began to explain:
"These are two spectrum analysis charts. Let's analyze them from the waveform first. The top one is Nagase's, and the bottom one is yours."
Kuno Tachibana couldn't help but lean her head forward, her upper body lowering as her loose pajamas stretched down slightly.
Below her neck, the girl had a large blank space.
She no longer looks like a washboard; you can notice the faint bulge of her fair breasts and the delicate cherry blossoms.
"What's the difference?" Kuno Tachibana didn't notice the wardrobe malfunction at all; his attention was entirely focused on the screen.
Kitahara Hakuba turned his gaze back to the screen and said:
"Overall, Nagase's spectrum is more numerous and the colors are more vibrant, indicating that her timbre is brighter than yours."
"More overtones"
Kuno Tachibana raised his eyebrows slightly, straightened his back, and pocketed the spring scenery, as if saying unconvinced:
"It might be a problem with the recording equipment."
Seeing her trying to make amends, Kitahara Hakuba smiled and said:
"As a mentor, I will explain all the advantages and disadvantages to you."
Kuno Tachibana gazed at his handsome face; she had never observed him so closely in her own room before.
I came here specifically to talk about these things...?
It's getting weirder and weirder. Was Kitahara-sensei really this pretty before? And why did she smell so good?
"I'll listen carefully." Her face suddenly turned red, and she reached back to grab her big toe.
Kitahara Hakuba said earnestly:
"First, look at the score. The oboe is the main instrument in the SoIi melody. The hierarchy needs to be very clear. It starts calmly with the oboe in A major and ends with the other brass instruments in G major. Then, divide the musical phrases into smaller sections. You need to listen carefully."
He then pressed the play button.
It begins with Eri Kanzaki's oboe, her vibrato elegant and restrained, her crescendo clear and expressive.
First, they played Nagase Tsukiyo's song, then Kuno Tachibana's.
Kitahara Hakuba pressed the pause button and asked the girl beside him:
"how are you feeling?"
Kuno Tatsuka spat out a mouthful of saliva, and said hesitantly, "...Very good."
Kitahara Hakuba smiled gently:
"Be confident. All three of you handled the VIB and nonbiv very well. This part is so perfect that you can't find any difference."
Kuno Tachibana couldn't help but take a deep breath, spreading his hands out as wide as possible and pressing them firmly against the floor.
His saying this implies that she will encounter serious problems in the following sections.
Kitahara Hakuba pressed the play button again.
"Both sections were handled very well, with a very smooth transition in breath control. Next section."
When they reached the third section he had divided, Kitahara Hakuba suddenly took a shallow breath and said:
"Can you hear the difference here?"
3
When Kitahara Hakuba asked him such a matter-of-fact question, Kuno Tatsuka couldn't answer for a moment, and a subtle silence immediately fell between the two of them.
"Listen carefully here, Nagase is playing very softly. Do you remember what I said at the beginning? You must pay attention to the distinct layers. The role of the trumpet is to complement the woodwinds."
Kitahara Hakuba explained in a calm tone, without the slightest hint of impatience.
"Nase was always positioned underneath the oboe, and even when the oboe's note was soft, she didn't come to the front of the stage, even for the same phrase."
After Kitahara Hakuba finished speaking, he pressed the play button as if to verify his statement.
The duet between Nagase Tsukiyo and Kanzaki Eri began again, with the trumpet's tone, as Kitahara Hakuba had said, consistently complementing the woodwinds.
"In the same place here, your volume will be louder, and the crescendo here fluctuates greatly. But when the oboe is reduced, you can clearly hear the trumpet's sound coming to the front, and the volume dynamics are greater than Nagase's."
Kuno Tachibana's heart pounded violently, and he suddenly felt hot all over for some reason.
The audio of her playing the instrument played in my ears, and everything that Kitahara-sensei said was correct and could not be refuted.
When you're on stage as a performer, you don't realize it until you listen carefully to the audio and discover exactly where you went wrong.
Kitahara Hakuba was able to recognize it just by listening, which terrified Kuno Tatsuka, a musician, while he felt extremely fortunate as a member of his club.
"So, of the two, Nagase seems to be more faithful to the score, while your music seems to convey a sense of wanting to be on par with the woodwinds."