Chapter Sixty-Three Mentorship
Inside the practice room at Mushroom Park, the instructors provide guidance to each team. Only the S-level and A-level trainee teams receive small-group guidance; the other teams are guided together in a large practice room.
An S-class team like the Eternal Six-Star team has an additional benefit: all five mentors will come to provide guidance.
After the mentors finished instructing the other teams in their respective practice rooms, they all gathered at the Eternal Six Stars.
This was the first time Meng Fanxi and his group had met their mentors in a less formal setting. The six of them stood somewhat reservedly in the practice room, their hands respectfully crossed in front of them.
The mentors were dressed casually, completely lacking the distance they had during previous recordings. The production team had prepared the angles and chairs in the practice room beforehand.
Each mentor held a pen and a booklet. Zhu Lou was the first to walk in. He was very approachable and glanced at the booklet in his hand, saying with a smile, "You guys are really bold to choose 'Swimming Fish,' which is quite a difficult song."
Tan Yi, who followed in from behind, said, "It is indeed difficult, but I would be surprised if they chose an easy one."
That's true.
Ye Ni, with a friendly smile on her face, said to them, "Don't put pressure on them. With their abilities, they're already putting enough pressure on themselves."
Zhu Lou immediately made a zipping motion with his mouth, which made everyone present smile and lighten the atmosphere considerably.
Once all the mentors had entered, Lin Ruohe led everyone in bowing and greeting them. Yun Mengtao gestured for them not to be so reserved: "This is a friendly and equal exchange, so just perform as you normally would. We will point out any areas that need improvement or enhancement. Everything is for the sake of the stage."
Without further ado, the six of them got into position and immediately got into character to perform as soon as the music started.
As the song ended, Meng Fanxi calmed his rapid breathing after the intense movements and observed the expressions of his mentors.
It doesn't seem like a good idea.
The five mentors' faces were expressionless. Even Zhu Lou, who is usually quite outgoing, pursed his lips and struck a cool rapper pose.
The six of them stood in a row, facing the seated mentors, waiting for their evaluation.
The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds; no one uttered a single word.
Yun Mengtao broke the deadlock by looking at the mentors on both sides, who seemed to be still organizing their thoughts.
She was the first to speak: "Well," she pondered for a moment, "the overall quality today wasn't very good. Compared to other teams, your team had the highest level of completion."
They could all understand Yun Mengtao's implied meaning, but even though it was a compliment, Meng Fanxi couldn't be happy.
"Compared to yourselves, I don't think you've reached your previous level. This performance didn't amaze me. Your showdown with WONE will definitely be the biggest highlight of the first round, but I was somewhat disappointed with both WONE's performance and yours."
Seeing that the six people didn't look too good and seemed very frustrated, Yun Mengtao comforted them, "Your performance was a bit detached from the song. I hope you can get more into it."
"Okay, thank you, teacher," the six replied in unison.
Ye Ni commented: "Your performance was too modern. I didn't feel any ancient Chinese emotions in it. You should try to explore the emotions in the song more deeply."
She looked at Lin Ruohe and said, "Ruohe, you have acting experience, but you were very stiff in your performance of this song."
Lin Ruohe accepted the suggestion with a wry smile. He did have acting experience, but he had never acted in a period drama before. He thought he could handle it based on his usual acting experience, but he didn't expect this result. He had been arrogant.
Tan Yi thought for a long time. After Ye Ni finished speaking, he looked at them seriously and said, "In this song, your voices did not achieve a harmonious effect."
He paused for a moment, then said, "To put it bluntly, Zhang Yang, I really like your voice, but your high notes sound abrupt here. You need to find a way to adjust them."
From Meng Fanxi's perspective, Zhang Yang's wavering expression was obvious, and his voice was low, "Okay, thank you, teacher."
Fu Hanfei commented from a dance perspective: "Overall, your movements were all very well done, which is impeccable. But as the other teachers have said, I don't know if you were trying to express coolness? sadness? or something else. The emotions conveyed by your expressions and body language are chaotic."
Meng Fanxi's mind raced. Indeed, this stage rehearsal was different from the past. They had spent a lot of time getting familiar with the song and choreography, and had no time to pay attention to the emotions in the song. However, the six of them had discussed the overall effect and thought it was acceptable. They did not expect the mentors' feedback to be so unsatisfactory.
Finally, Zhu Lou admitted, "Actually, this song is a bit far from my area of expertise, so there's not much I can do to guide you. But as an audience member, I feel that you're being limited by the existing arrangement."
Meng Fanxi was somewhat surprised by Zhu Lou's words.
Zhu Lou smiled and looked at Fu Hanfei: "If I'm wrong, Teacher Fu, you'll have to correct me."
Fu Hanfei shook his head, his eyes full of helplessness. "You're absolutely right, you hit the nail on the head."
"I want you to know that you are now the masters of this song. You need to control it, not be controlled by it or by the program's pre-arranged program. If you want to change it, it's not too late."
After the mentors left, the six of them sat together.
The production team had specially set up tablets for everyone, playing their performance. They watched the video in silence, each lost in thought.
Gu Huailang said, "I think we performed very well. We just need to adjust our expressions accordingly."
Meng Fanxi felt it wasn't that simple. "Among the six of us in this performance, some were serious, some were sad, and some were frowning as if they were angry. Our expressions were indeed wrong, but the deeper reason was that we didn't understand the emotions expressed in the song."
The song "Swimming Fish" expresses a sense of self-doubt towards a loved one, a constant struggle between hope and despair, much like a swimming fish that feels like it is in the water but can find no support.
They initially chose this song because of its rhythm, arrangement, and suitability for singing and dancing, but overlooked the emotions in the song and the difficulty of it as a traditional Chinese style song.
Lin Ruohe agreed, looking at Zhang Yang who was more silent than usual, "Your high notes here are indeed a bit too technically impressive. Perhaps you should express them in conjunction with the emotions of the song."
Zhang Yang ran his hand through his hair, his eyes filled with confusion: "The emotion in this song... it's a love song, I don't understand it."
Xu You propped his head up and repeated Zhang Yang's words: "I don't understand."
Ren Yuchen: "I don't understand either."
Lin Ruohe sighed, “Who can understand? Not every emotion can be experienced before you can have it. Use your imagination.”
Xu You asked, his mind racing: "Captain, is your imagination working?"
Lin Ruohe: "..." Well, he didn't really understand either.
The six people fell into a new kind of "cold war," each doing their own thing and practicing their own movements. Even when Lin Ruohe delved into the lyric book, she still couldn't quite find the so-called ancient style feeling and emotion.
He questioned himself greatly, and similarly, Zhang Yang also encountered challenges in this song.
Meng Fanxi witnessed all of these scenes; the mentors' negative comments were undermining everyone's confidence.
Even some of the better parts of the performance were marred by mistakes.
He acted in several period dramas in his previous life, but unfortunately, he only played supporting roles and had no romantic storylines.
Each person's facial expressions during the performance were their own attempt to understand and express, and although they were all downward emotions, there was no unified standard.
Zhu Lou's words suddenly echoed in Meng Fanxi's mind.
They are the true masters of this song.
If you can't fully express the meaning of the song, are you just going to bite the bullet and perform it like this?
Meng Fanxi paced back and forth in front of the mirror in the practice room, unaware of his movements. Xu You, however, felt dizzy from the spinning: "Fanxi, stop spinning, it's giving me a headache."
He seemed not to hear, but then suddenly remembered something, picked up the lyrics, and slowly walked to the sofa and sat down.
Zhang Yang casually strummed his guitar on the side, clearly not really paying attention.
Lin Ruohe watched the music video for "Swimming Fish" from a distance, frowning, seemingly lost in thought.
Ren Yuchen and Gu Huailang each lay down to rest on one side.
Meng Fanxi's thoughts gradually became clear. He slammed the lyric book on the table, drawing everyone's attention. Zhang Yang's fingers, which were resting on the strings, also stopped.
"Stop performing according to the original plan." Meng Fanxi called everyone over.
The remaining few people who were a bit sullen obediently gathered around and waited quietly for Meng Fanxi to say something next.
"Why should we insist on going in a direction that we are not good at at all? This song was originally about love, but that doesn't mean we have to express love. Just like this song was originally a solo, but now it's being changed into a group dance song, which is very different from the original song."
"You mean we should make up a story ourselves?" Lin Ruohe asked.
“No need to make it up.” Meng Fanxi picked up the lyric book. “You see, the lyrics of this song don’t actually talk about love in such a straightforward way. They just use the emotions between the lines to express the protagonist’s thoughts, so it has a lot of emotional space.”
The determination in his eyes made his teammates focus entirely on his words: "We'll sing our own songs."
He took in the surprise in the eyes of the five people. Well, at this moment, he felt a strange sense of accomplishment. Looking at the confusion in their eyes, a confidence that he could convince them arose spontaneously.
"Actually, we are all like fish swimming. Beyond the realm of love, everyone's experience can resonate with this song. Have you ever felt anxious and uneasy? Have you ever had strong self-doubt? Have you ever felt that emotion of wanting to find support in fear and loneliness?"
"That's the feeling of 'Swimming Fish'."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
