The lecturer walked over to the piano at the side of the platform and sat down.
At that moment the big lecture room was utterly silent.
Everyone had their ears pricked, wanting to see whether they could pick it out themselves.
Xu Ye’s face was grave, and he let out a slightly helpless sigh.
The lecturer struck a reference pitch on the keys first, and then played a triad.
When she had finished, she turned her eyes on Xu Ye.
And just as Xu Ye was about to speak, Li Junfeng beside him suddenly put up his hand and said, enjoying every second of it, “Teacher Liu, he isn’t a student here. He’s sitting in on the class.”
That one sentence turned everyone’s attention back onto Xu Ye.
The fact that Chen Qingqing had a boyfriend was already known to a good many of her classmates — but most of them were seeing Xu Ye for the first time, and now, seeing him sitting beside her, a lot of them worked out that this was the legendary boyfriend.
More than a hundred people in the big lecture room, and every pair of eyes on Xu Ye.
If Xu Ye’s skin hadn’t been so thick he would probably have been panicking by now. Chen Qingqing, beside him, had her head down and her face scarlet, having had no idea anything like this could happen.
Of all the lessons, this was the one where the teacher called on people.
And of all the people, the one called on was Xu Ye.
At the piano, Teacher Liu frowned too, and asked with some displeasure, “Not a student here? Young man, do you take my classroom for somewhere to carry on a romance?”
Hearing that, Li Junfeng only enjoyed himself more.
Chen Qingqing badly wanted to stand up and explain, but she had no idea what to say.
And in the middle of that awkwardness:
Xu Ye said suddenly, “D, F sharp, B.”
“???”
The answer, coming out of nowhere, threw the room back into confusion.
Several people immediately turned to look at Teacher Liu.
And Teacher Liu, hearing him name those three notes, was left staring.
Sight-singing and ear training had been running since last semester, and Liu Lingjun, who had been teaching them for six months, knew exactly what her students were capable of.
She had only just finished covering triads. There were probably no more than five people in the entire room who could pick out the notes of one at this point. She had called on Xu Ye simply because he was paying attention and because his face was unfamiliar — she had guessed he might not be a student on this course, but she had assumed he was sitting in from another department. It hadn’t occurred to her that he might be from another school altogether.
So what was going on now?
How does someone from another school pick out the notes of the triad I just played?
Liu Lingjun asked at once, “Do you study music as well?”
“No.”
Xu Ye said it perfectly frankly. “I’m a finance student. I’m just fairly interested in music.”
“You’ve had no formal training?”
“Does watching tutorials on Bilibili count?”
Liu Lingjun was half-believing. She said quickly, “Try another one, then. The rest of you be quiet.”
Her saying that made it obvious that Xu Ye’s first answer had been correct.
The students in the room looked at one another, every one of them astonished.
They were the ones studying this, after all, and before applying to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music every one of them had had at least some training in it — and even among them, the number who could pick out the notes of a chord was very small indeed.
Xu Ye was a finance student, and he could actually do it. They found it genuinely shocking.
Liu Lingjun played another triad, and this time she didn’t look at the keys. Her eyes stayed on Xu Ye throughout, because she wanted to see whether somebody beside him was feeding him the answer or whether he really could hear it.
The result was that she had barely finished before he answered, “C sharp, E, G sharp.”
“Again.”
Liu Lingjun played another at random.
Xu Ye gave the answer instantly again. “G, B, D.”
Having heard two answers in a row, Liu Lingjun’s eyes went wide, and just as she was about to speak, Xu Ye said with a smile, “Teacher, I could try a ninth chord.”
At that the room erupted.
They all knew that a triad is three notes and a seventh chord is four, and that a ninth chord is five.
The difficulty of a triad is that three fingers press three keys at once, and out of the single sound that comes off them you have to hear which three notes those keys were.
A ninth chord adds two more notes on top of that. The difficulty doesn’t merely double.
Liu Lingjun clapped her hands and said loudly, “All of you, quiet!”
Once the room had settled, she asked, “Are you sure you want a ninth chord?”
“Let’s try it.”
Liu Lingjun found herself turning serious. She had, after all, only just finished teaching triads, and Xu Ye had already surprised her once. She very much wanted to know whether he really could pick out the notes of a ninth.
She set both hands on the keys and played a fairly pleasant-sounding ninth chord.
And the students in the room were entirely lost.
How could anyone possibly hear that?
Liu Lingjun saw that Xu Ye hadn’t answered instantly, and was about to ask whether he wanted her to play it again.
“E, G sharp, B, D sharp, F sharp.”
Xu Ye asked, smiling, “That should be right, shouldn’t it?”
At that Liu Lingjun was certain nobody was feeding him answers, because she knew that none of the first-years she was teaching could pick out the notes of a ninth chord at this stage.
The astonishment on her face was past concealing. She said, with something like excitement, “One more. Listen carefully.”
This time Liu Lingjun played a ninth chord that grated badly — it sounded like noise.
Xu Ye’s brow furrowed. He thought for a dozen seconds or so, then answered, “F, A, C, E flat, G.”
“You really aren’t a music student?”
Liu Lingjun asked it a second time, and the students in the room, seeing her react like that, knew that every one of his answers had been right.
Xu Ye laughed. “Really not. I just watched some tutorials online when I was learning the guitar, and after a while at it I found I seemed to have perfect pitch.”
“You have perfect pitch?”
Before Xu Ye could answer, Liu Lingjun had answered her own question. “Yes, yes, of course. If it weren’t perfect pitch, how could you possibly hear them?”
The room stirred again.
Perfect pitch.
Absolutely the gift this crowd of music students most wanted to have — and unfortunately, even in a conservatory, very, very few people have it.
Hearing the discussion in the room getting louder, Liu Lingjun rapped on the desk again and said loudly, “Quiet. All of you, quiet.”
“Look at this. Look at this. Here’s a finance student with ability like that in this area, and then look at yourselves. I tell you to go away and listen more and practice more, and what do you do? Every one of you, the moment you have any free time, all you know how to do is play. And every time I ask a question, every one of you would like nothing better than to hide.”
“Right. This lesson is nearly over. When you go back today, every one of you is to revise what we covered properly. Next lesson I’ll be calling people up for dictation.”
“That young man — stop standing there, sit down. You may come and audit my classes in future, but you’ll observe classroom discipline.”
Brrring~
(End of Chapter 210)