19 Chapter 19. Instrument Skills
When Aiden saw the system prompts before him, he felt like it was his lucky day. He always had a feeling that what he was seeing of his system was not everything.
It helped him improve his pre-existing skills rapidly, but there was surely a lot more to it. That’s why, when he saw the system prompts telling him that he had unlocked a special trait, he felt like his doubts had turned into a reality.
‘This will surely help me out in the future.’
He thought in his mind. Checking the instrumental skill of someone would be vital if he had his own performances in the future.
“Is there anything on my face, Aiden? You have been staring at me non-stop.” Emily suddenly spoke, feeling a bit uncomfortable from his gaze.
He was looking at his system prompts, but since Emily couldn’t see those, it felt like he was staring at her face.
“I’m sorry. I was just thinking about something.”
“Is that so? Or you just got a crush on her.” Jackson smirked. Emily glanced at the latter, and her expression revealed she didn’t appreciate such remarks.
“No, I didn’t,” Aiden said and changed the subject. “Let’s begin the practice now that we have discussed the song.”
They all nodded and left the lounge room and headed towards the practice room. The program team had allotted each band a separate practice room, so it was very comfortable.
As he walked, Aiden tried to use the new special trait he had unlocked. He was very curious about the level of his instrumental skills were at.
___
[Aiden Silvereye] [24 years]
[Singing level: Basic Grade 9]
[Acting level: Basic Grade 9]
[Instrumental skills:
*Guitar: Level 5
*Keyboard: Level 1
*Flute: Level 3]
(AN: Proffeicincy of instruments is now divided into ‘Level 1-10’ instead of ‘Grade 1-10’ to avoid confusion with other skill proficiency system.)
___
Aiden had learned guitar for a long time, so he was happy to see that he at least was middle level in it. As for the keyboard, he just knew the very basics and couldn’t play it very well, and the flute was something that he had learnt in India.
‘Let’s check the others.’
He thought and glanced at Cameron, who was walking ahead of him.
___
[Cameron Bryce] [21 years]
[Singing level: Intermediate Grade 2]
[Instrumental skills:
*Guitar: Level 5
*Bass: Level 4]
___
It was mostly the same as him. Though he knew how to play two instruments, Cameron didn’t really seem like the type of guy who would be interested in learning instruments.
Next was Emily, who was walking just beside him.
___
[Emily Jung] [21 years]
[Singing level: Basic Grade 10]
[Instrumental skills:
*Keyboard: Level 4
*Piano: Level 3]
___
Her Keyboard level was pretty fine, and Aiden thought that she would be able to perform ‘Sweet child’ well because, in the end, the keyboard’s part was very minimal.
‘Last is Jackson. I know he has played a lot of instruments.’
Aiden thought and quickly checked his skill interface, not knowing that he would be shocked.
___
[Jackson Brown] [18 years]
[Singing level: Basic Grade 7]
[Instrumental skills:
*Drums: Level 7
*Guitar: Level 3
*Bass: Level 3]
___
‘Am I seeing it right?’
Aiden couldn’t help but look at Jackson’s status with round eyes. He had thought that having Level 5 in guitar was pretty good, but Jackson had Level 7 skill in drums, which clearly meant that he was super talented in playing the drums.
After all, Level 7 was almost touching the top level.
‘I don’t think he even knows where his talent lies.’
At first, Aiden had thought of Jackson as someone who had reached Star week on luck. At least, that was the case if he just goes by the stats.
Jackson had the luck of a romantic comedy anime protagonist, barely surviving every round. But he had never thought that he would be so talented at playing the drums.
‘Now, how should I exactly use his skill?’ ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
That was the main question roaming in his head.
**
“I think we should do it a bit differently. We are clearly missing the sync in the second verse.”
“Yeah, and try to sing that part a bit slowly. The pace will pick up in the chorus.”
“Yeah, okay. I know what to do.”
Cameron said, glancing between a sheet of paper containing the lyrics and Aiden. They were in the practice room, and it had already been two hours since they started practising for the next round.
At the start, they were pretty bad since they didn’t know if they would be able to keep up with each other, especially Cameron and Emily, who were making many mistakes like missing a beat or forgetting the lines in the middle.
Even Aiden looked out of place with the electric guitar in his hand. Only Jackson was able to play the drums perfectly.
In the two hours practice session, he was brilliant. Aiden could vouch for that as he constantly kept an eye on him. Moreover, he could say with guarantee that Jackson’s skills in drums were way better than his singing skills.
‘Ah, I really want to find a way to use his skills. Otherwise, I feel like I’m missing an opportunity.’
Aiden grimaced in his mind. He wanted to make the drum part more critical in the song as he knew Jackson would be able to show his skills the best only then, but he didn’t know how to do it.
Finding his behaviour a bit strange, Emily tapped him on the shoulder.
“Are you okay? You seem out of place.”
“Ah, yeah, I am okay. I am just thinking of an idea to make the song even better. Something that will get us extra points from the judges.”
“Like what exactly?” She tilted her head. “Are you thinking of changing some lyrics like in the second round?”
Aiden shook his head. This time, there was nothing really wrong with the song that he could add. At most, they could rearrange it to suit themsel-
‘Wait! I know what to do!”
“I got an idea.”
He said in a raised voice, attracting the attention of both Cameron and Jackson. They both walked up to him, wondering what idea he had.
“What type of idea did you get suddenly?” Cameron asked, looking at the grin on Aiden’s face.
“Let’s go for a drum solo for 30 seconds at the song’s end.”
This was what Aiden had come up with. Although he can’t rearrange the whole song, he could at least change the last 30 seconds.
“What do you mean? A drum solo at the end! You’re joking, right? We don’t have time for this.”
Cameron looked like he had heard the most absurd joke because this song was more about the bass and guitar than the drum.
“Hear me out.”
Aiden took a deep breath and started explaining his idea.
“I’m pretty sure we would be able to pass this round with our group, but I don’t think the song will leave any lasting impression. People would say that we sang the song well, but at the end of the competition, no one will really remember it.”
“Aiden, what are you trying to say?” Emily raised an eyebrow, finding his words both weird and intriguing.
“I’m saying let’s make the performance memorable. It worked when I did it in the second round. Changing lyrics wasn’t a lot, but it made a very good impression on the judges. This song has nothing to change, but we can omit the last vocal part.”
“Why would we do that?”
“So that the judges and the live audience get an electrifying drum solo. It won’t be hard, considering that the last part of the song has a 10-second drum and bass part with the vocals breaking through it in the end. We can just remove the vocals and the bass and give them a drum solo that makes their hearts beat faster.”
Both Cameron and Emily imagined the idea in their head while Jackson already loved it. They had listened to drum solos before and knew their impact if done right, but it needed a very high skill level to pull it off.
“No, it’s too risky. Moreover, there’s no need to take the risk.” Cameron said, rejecting the idea completely.
“I think Jackson can pull it off.”
Aiden countered, looking at Jackson, who nodded his head rapidly.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can pull it off. Drums were my first instrument, so I practised with them for hours. I’m very confident in doing a 30-second drum solo.”
“Still, I don’t agree with this idea.”
“Let’s just take a vote.” Aiden proposed. The fastest way to proceed with this was a vote, and Cameron didn’t mind it either, thankfully.
“Go on. I’m rejecting it.”
“I’m in favour of it,” Aiden said, glancing beside him at the red-haired guy.
“I’m in favour too.”
Now, only Emily was left with her decision going to decide the outcome. The three of them looked at her, and she felt a bit of pressure, wondering who to give her vote to.
In the end, her eyes moved a bit towards Aiden before she frowned.
“Uh, well, I think it’s an idea worth going for. So I’m in favour.”
With that, it was decided!
…
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