"Uncle Gao! The rain is quite heavy today. It's not even a drizzle anymore, it's almost a moderate rain. I thought you weren't coming!"
"How could we not come! The preliminary rounds are in five days. We have to come to training even if it rains heavily. If we win first place, we can get a prize of four or five thousand yuan. We can't not come just for that."
I'm glad that this is the absolute truth.
The prize money for the first place in this Yahe Oriental Harvest Cup Farmers Singer Grand Prix is 20,000 yuan, the prize money for the second place is 10,000 yuan, and the prize money for the third to sixth place is 5,000 yuan, 3,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan respectively.
Liang Liang donated 50,000 yuan as prize money, and the remaining 10,000 yuan will be awarded to the other finalists as encouragement.
The organizer, Oriental Industrial Co., Ltd., is responsible for the venue and the participants' accommodation and meals.
Based on the national income in 1994, a worker's annual salary was only three or four thousand yuan, so the first prize of 20,000 yuan was already a huge prize.
They are pleased to believe they have the strength to win.
With several good songs in hand and a big name like Liang Liang providing consultation and guidance in the town, he has every reason to dream of a happy life.
Liang Liang, Gao Xing, and Ha Bing moved the items from the car to the house on the east side of the gate.
The Liang family's dilapidated belongings were all stored in the west wing, while the entire east wing contained Liang Liang's guitar-making equipment and the wood used to make guitars. Only the two buildings on the east and west sides in front were empty.
They rehearsed in this room.
With everyone present, the equipment was set up and training officially began.
Today they are going to practice the songs from the TV series "The Fence, the Woman, and the Dog". Liang Liang originally wanted to change the dark lyrics of these songs, but when he thought that people were already familiar with these songs, he would lose the charm of the original songs if he changed them, and people might not accept them. So he gave up the idea of changing the lyrics and rehearsed according to the original songs.
It's summer vacation now, and as soon as the gongs and suonas start playing, the children from Liangshuiwan Village gather around like sheep being herded, pressing their faces against Liang Liang's windows to watch the excitement, unfazed by the rain, and impossible to shoo away.
In the morning, they mainly practiced two songs: "The Shadow of the Fence" and "The Joys and Sorrows of Life". In the afternoon, they prepared to rehearse "The Yellow Sand Ridge of Baiya Cliff".
"The Joys and Sorrows of Life" and "The Yellow Sand Ridge of Baiya Cliff" were sung by Gao He and Xia Dongdong, while "The Shadow of the Fence" was sung by Gao Xing.
Liang Liang had to correct the mistakes they made in their singing, and also tell them to protect their voices so they wouldn't lose their voices.
They are not professional singers and are not very good at protecting their voices. If they sing until their voices are hoarse and it takes several days to recover, it will cause problems.
These are all problems that Liang Liang needs to help them solve.
After practicing until about 10:30, Liang Liang ordered a break and then asked the three girls to cook.
His parents weren't home, so he had to find his own meals.
Girls are born to cook; if they don't do it, who will?
"The refrigerator and freezer have everything! Don't be shy, don't try to save us anything. Just make whatever you need, and we'll eat whatever we can make for lunch. Go pick out the best stuff to cook."
The three girls went to cook happily, while Gaoxing and Halizi each lit a cigarette.
"Xiao Liang! What's going on in the east wing of your house? There's been so much noise all morning!" Gao Xing asked, taking a drag of his cigarette.
"My younger brother makes electric guitars inside."
"Wow! You guys can make your own electric guitars?" Gao Xing asked in surprise.
"We can't make high-end products, so we can only make ordinary ones."
"I need to go over there and see if I can learn a thing or two."
Gao Xing ran lightly to the east wing, and was dumbfounded when he saw a boy sweating profusely.
"This is your younger brother? He's so young!"
I'm so glad this is the first time I've seen Liang Feng.
Liang Liang was exhausted: "Uncle Gao! I'm only eighteen, how old can my brother be?"
"You're only eighteen? I feel like you're in your thirties or forties?"
Am I that old?
"I'm not talking about your appearance, but about your way of doing things. Although you often say things that don't keep their mouth shut, the way you handle things always makes me feel that you are an adult."
"That means I'm psychologically mature."
How could we not be familiar with each other! He's a man in his forties who's been reborn, and he's even more mature than Gao Xing in terms of mentality.
Gao Xing and Ha La Zi watched Liang Feng work in the east wing for half an hour, then came out and stood under the eaves to chat with Liang Liang.
Are you making this guitar for yourself?
Liang Liang shook his head: "These kinds of guitars are for beginners to practice with, so we naturally wouldn't use them."
"If you don't need them, why did you make all these guitars? I saw your brother made five or six guitars, even if he just kept them for fun, it's impossible for him to make so many!"
“Those are for sale. I run a music store in Lianwan. These guitars can be sold for three or four hundred yuan each.”
Gao Xing's eyes started darting around.
"So you're planning to have guitars made and sell them yourself?"
"It's not that I'll sell it myself. If I process and produce more in the future, I won't be able to sell it all myself. I'll have to wholesale it to others, like setting up a stall in the Xiliu Market for wholesale."
“If it reaches that scale, your brother can’t do much on his own. Even if you are very skilled, you can only make one guitar a day. You need to hire people, like me, who are interested in making guitars.”
In the countryside, there was only so much work to do. In 1994, before the infrastructure market had opened up, after finishing the farm work, all you could do was stay at home and watch ants climb trees.
If we can find some other work to earn some extra money, it will be a way to supplement our family's income.
Liang Liang laughed and said, "If you really want to do this, that's fine, but I can't give you a high salary for now. I can only give you 240 a month at most. After all, it's the initial stage, and I can't see any profits for a while. That's all I can give you. Once the market opens up and the business is profitable, I will raise your salary."
In the latter half of 1994, a salary of 240 was not much, but it was still acceptable considering the impending wave of layoffs.
How many people do you need?
“I don’t need many right now. At most, a few people from your band can come and do it if they want. Because when I need people, I have to prioritize the people in my own band, then the people in my brigade, and only then can others be considered. The reason I don’t need too many people right now is because the place is too small. My house only has this one yard, and it’s not enough space for too many people to play. Even if I were to hire more than ten people now, it wouldn’t be more than that.”
Using other players instead of your own team members? Aren't you just asking for trouble?
Being able to use these four members of the band is already a huge honor.
With the four of them, and another six or seven people recruited from our team, these ten or so people will become the backbone.
Each of them will learn one or two skills, and then they will teach others, thus forming an assembly line-like production.
If this project takes off in a few years, the key personnel from these companies will leave to start their own businesses and expand their operations.
In this way, the project took root in southern Liaoning.
If Bi Sheng can establish a large-scale production of wooden guitars in Lianwan or his hometown, then this place will become an important guitar production base in the country in the future.
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