Capítulo 38: July
Four months since the band moved in and everything has been going great so far for Tayaw. In the past four months. He never touched his View Points and has currently accumulated 57 million. He's guessing he will be forced to the white void again once it reaches 100 million. While his View Points climbed, his books started reaching its saturation point. His book sales peaked last May when the combined books sold of the two volumes reached 5 million, and it started coming down last June when his books sold 4.8 million copies. Still, he currently has saved 40,500,000 BGC after taxes.
"16… 17… 18… 19… 20…" Tayaw counted his 20th bench press and returned the barbell to its rest. Tayaw placed his weightlifting set in his room as he didn't want anyone see him bench press or lift weights because of his unique situation. The barbell he was bench pressing just now has two 20kg plate on each end. Adding the 20kg weight of the bar alone, he bench pressed a total of 100 kg twenty times lying down only using his shoulders, chest and upper back muscles. Four months ago, his limit is 100kg for just one repetition, and that was a sitting down bench press which used more muscles. Not only that, he also noticed he was getting smarter; could think faster and process information easier than ever. He also found it fortunate that his brain is being enhanced as well because he could have a hard time processing his enhanced senses too. These huge changes in his person is caused by the mysterious enhancements he noticed since his February roulette draw.
At first, he attributed it to his original melodies using his Perfect Pitch mastery. He later on realized that it wasn't. Before his Perfect Pitch draw, Tayaw has already felt that he was healthier than he's ever been compared to his past life. He realized his health came from the hundreds of song re-arrangements he has done for the songs he performed on his gigs at ROH Factory. It was only when he got his Perfect Pitch that making original melodies came easier, therefore he made more originals than ever before. Original compositions, compared to the unnoticed incremental enhancements by re-arrangements, gave Tayaw obvious enhancements. This made him classify the enhancements to two levels. Level one would be the unnoticed enhancements from the re-arrangements, and level two would be the enhancements from original melodies.
Over the past few months, he was able to compose around three hundred original melodies averaging three a day. Out of those hundreds, he was only able to count around forty compositions that met the standards for enhancement. While enjoying each enhancement, he also noticed that they are getting less and less noticeable each time he receive them. This however, did not dampen the fun he is having coming up with melodies.
He actually stopped measuring his strength a month ago. The reason why he bought his bench press table in the afternoon was because of his enhancement a day ago, one that is the most drastic he has ever felt. Yesterday, after performing to himself his most recent completed song on his guitar, his strings broke after he overexerted his strings on his last strum. He has written songs before, lyrics included and he never felt enhanced at all. He figured that his recent composition has finally met the standard required to receive the 'third level' of enhancement.
After resting for a while, Tayaw sat up from the bench and headed for the bathroom. He looked at himself naked in the mirror, and he examined his body which he wouldn't have even considered in his previous life. Tayaw, last February was 75kg, and he's still the same weight only his baby fat and other adipose tissues were replaced now by muscles. Aside from his sharper face, no one else, even among his housemates realized how ripped he truly is under his loose long sleeve shirts he loves to wear. The tiny pink and red dotty bumps throughout his body have also disappeared along with the pimples a teenager usually suffers from. His olive skin tone and sweat from his workout highlighted the details of his well- defined muscle tone from his body and limbs.
Satisfied with what he saw, Tayaw headed for the shower and washed off his filth, he is to assess his band's performance of the latest assignment he gave them to perform. Even though he told them his high requirements back in March, he was actually very lenient when it came to enforcing it. If Tayaw really enforced his rules, then no one will be left in the band. He understood that his band is still starting, and being students at that, have their limits. Despite that though, the band actually progressed much better than he thought.
Ike, the drummer, who had a hard time maintaining a stable tempo can now start and end in a perfect stable tempo. He is also now more subdued, unlike before when he would often overpower the other instruments. He also now knows how to fill beats appropriately which before was just excessive and would put chops in places he shouldn't. He is also now learning the rudimentary beats and grooves of other genres outside his main genre of rock drumming. He now also learned to communicate with Inson, the bassist.
Inson, who was just useful but has no style, is now starting to be a good support for the band's melody. Together with Ike, he's also starting to be a pillar of the band's consistency in tempo and quality of the groove. He now also is starting to learn how to use different tones in his playing and apply them appropriately to the melody. For example, he would just use the second string to play an E note every time just because it's easier, now he looks for the E note in the third string to give the note a thicker voice if the song needs it. He also now plays licks and riffs consistent with Hoon's guitar to give Hoon's riffs a fuller, supported sound.
Hoon, the lead guitar, has improved tremendously. Before, he only mind numbingly practiced and imitated famous shredding from famous guitarists. When it came to foundation, he was lacking. After a few months of coaching from Tayaw, he quickly filled up his basics. He can now pick every single note cleanly and would sound clear to a trained ear except for Tayaw's. Hoon also has now very consistent hammers, pulls, bends, and vibratos that would rarely miss or sound muted. He is also now displaying the basics of improvisation; Hoon would attempt to create the sound in his head to his guitar.
Bay-an, the pianist who only had great skill in chords, is now skilled in playing individual series of notes in accordance to the needs of the band. Bay-an actually is the most versatile of the group as he can express different styles in his chord playing and give notes and chords feelings. Tayaw has no idea how to play the piano, but he memorized the keys, so he used his perfect pitch to coach Bay-an about what sounded good or awkward and Bay-an took those advice and ran with it. He also has great sense of tempo that would in turn judge his timing on inserting his flare with the drums and bass.
Ramil, the saxophonist has also improved a lot due to Tayaw's feedbacks. Ramil no longer excessively bends his notes and is starting to bend them wisely. He also learned how to do a variety of vibratos. He would play a straight note, a narrow vibrato note, or a wide vibrato note at appropriate parts. Just like Ike, Ramil also learned to be consistent and smart in his dynamics, how loud or soft he should play certain notes. Tayaw's suggestion of letting Ramil play the saxophone as a substitute for the vocals at half of their assignments from Tayaw helped too in hastening Ramil's improvement.
Jenna, the fiddler, has also improved in her own skills. A violin has no frets like a guitar or bass so there is a lot bigger risk in playing sharp or flat on notes. Tayaw told her to play scales to familiarize herself how notes should sound. Jenna played violin just for herself before Tayaw recruited her so she had the worst sense with playing with a band. Tayaw gave her a metronome to help catch up with the great sense of tempo the rest of the band already has. Despite her shortcomings though, her bowing is very consistent and reliable which is something that even experienced violinists have problems with. What Tayaw appreciated more, however, is Jenna's stable vocals. She doesn't have a unique charming vocal like he does, or fancy techniques, but it's stable enough to serve as a second vocal to Tayaw. Her and Tayaw's voice when singing together is actually pretty good.
To Tayaw's eyes and ears, the band is still very nascent. Tayaw however also know his standards are too high and avid music listeners will be more than satisfied with his band. With this, Tayaw approved the band as good enough to play as regulars at the ROH Factory. Technical skills alone, Tayaw's band can give Beyond Cape Town a run for their money. Tayaw's band, however still lacks experience and their own styles compared to Beyond Cape Town members. They only practiced 20 songs in the past four months which can only fill an hour and a half set. They also never performed in front of a crowd, and Tayaw is not a crowd.
Tonight's assessment is the last the band will undergo this month. Next two weeks will be busy for the band as they finish all their school projects and study for the final exams, then after that they will go home to their own hometowns. Because of that, this assessment is also different than the ones the band has done before. This time, Tayaw will join their performance. He will play with the band and assess them at the same time. Over the past few months, Tayaw in many occasions have jammed with the band, which led him to give feedback to each member. Just like his jamming sessions with them, he will play rhythm / second guitar tonight and sing.
After changing to fresh clothes, Tayaw headed to the basement where the band is already waiting.
"You guys good?" Tayaw asked the band as he entered the studio.
The bad straightened their backs when they saw Tayaw not of anxiety or fear, but out of esteem. Over the past four months, their respect for him has grown a lot. Tayaw has treated them very well not only monetarily but also as a good friend. Tayaw, despite no longer studying engineering, can still help them in their school work and even supplement their knowledge with Tayaw's past life experience as an engineer and his currently enhanced brain. Tayaw also accommodated as much as he can, the members' personal concerns when they asked for help or advice. Because of this, the band received a lot of help in maintaining a good mental health.
One big reason for their respect is also because they watched Tayaw's gigs at the ROH Factory. Tayaw signed up as the third in the line-up during the busiest days of the weeks which proved how capable he is as a solo musician.
At first, when the band just started their training under Tayaw, they just saw Tayaw as a very experienced musician. But as their skills and knowledge in music grew, they also realized how far ahead Tayaw really is compared to them.
Ironic as it is because of Tayaw being the youngest in the house, they already started treating him as a mentor and a teacher.
"And… We're set." Inson said as he finished fine-tuning his guitar with the piano. Tayaw then picked up his acoustic guitar and joined the band in the live room.
"Good. Ah-one, ah-two, ah one, two, three let's Jam."
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