Chapter 13 How Many Farmers Reap Wheat?

  Li Tuopan sat on the walking corridor practicing finger movements, constantly imitating the actions of the white-clothed man.

  "Some fingerings are not difficult, but rather easy to practice, while others are surprisingly difficult and hard to learn. Mastering these over 300 fingerings will likely take a considerable amount of time, but it's worth it, as it can make up for my deficiencies in fingering."

  The more fingerings a pianist uses, the greater the help in improving piano skills.

  Li Tu also stopped after practicing for nearly half a day, relaxing his body and exercising his fingers. Fortunately, he wasn't scratched by the strings; otherwise, it would have been troublesome.

  In the distance, a young man in white clothes was walking towards the bamboo building, with a faint smile on his face, looking extraordinary.

  The young man stepped up onto the bamboo building, the bamboo stairs creaking softly. Li Tu stood up with his guqin in his arms and bowed slightly to the guest, saying: "I've met Mr. Gong Yang."

  "Huh, how did you know the person coming was me?"

  The goat was surprised and walked up to the bamboo building, but he himself had never made a sound, how did he judge?

  "Everyone's breath, footsteps, and breathing are different. After a long time, it becomes habitual and can be easily judged. I remember the breath on your body, which is quite unique, so as soon as you approached me, I recognized you."

  "I see, I didn't pay much attention to it." Gong Yang nodded in agreement.

  "Please come in, sir."

  "No need, just sit here and enjoy the surroundings. The outside environment is not bad either. The gentle breeze, the gurgling river water, the blue sky and white clouds make for a great view, also suitable for playing the zither. You're practicing the zither, aren't you? Then go ahead and play a piece."

  The story of the male goat finished, he sat down casually, his eyes fixed on Li Tu.

  "Please enlighten me, sir."

  Li Tu heard the sound and sat down cross-legged, with an ancient zither on his knees. He tried out the pitch, then began to play.

  The sound of the qin is clear and light, giving a sense of quiet remoteness, with a beauty reminiscent of mountains and rivers.

  As the music began, Li Tu quickly entered a state of ecstasy, wholeheartedly stroking the strings, and one by one, beautiful notes floated up.

  Gong Yang quietly sat beside him, listening intently, his eyes fixed on Li Tu's hands, watching his fingerings.

  After finishing the piece, Li Tu bowed to Gong Yang and then sat quietly, waiting for his comments.

  "Your playing is okay, but there are still many defects and inadequacies in your skills that are not perfect and complete, which should be caused by the lack of systematic learning. The defects and inadequacies in your skills have resulted in a lack of technique, emptiness, and flaws."

  "The most obvious problem in your piano skills is the lack of finger technique, and you don't know how to use many techniques. Some complex and slightly difficult techniques are not used, but instead replaced with common and easy-to-use techniques. Although the sound produced seems to be no different, this will inevitably lead to poor tone quality and affect the overall quality of the music."

  "Guqin players have different levels of skill, and the music they play also has different qualities."

  "But with your situation, being able to become a sixth-grade qin master is already quite good, very rare."

  "My piano skills are mainly based on the teachings of my teacher before I lost my sight, when I was still young and not learning well. After losing my sight, my piano skills come mainly from sheet music and books, without the guidance and instruction of a famous teacher, and some knowledge of piano playing cannot be understood, and some fingerings cannot be grasped, resulting in the current situation."

  "Hmm, I guess it's about right, or else you wouldn't be like this." The ram nodded slightly.

  "Mr. Gong Yang, you just said that there are also differences in quality among piano pieces?"

  Li Tu was puzzled. He had never heard that there were grades of piano music, although he knew some pieces were harder than others, but wasn't that a matter of difficulty rather than quality?

  "It's not that the piano piece itself has a distinction of quality, but rather it's the pianist's performance that has a distinction of quality. For example, a piano piece with a difficulty level of 10 can be played by a first-rate pianist, but a ninth-rate pianist cannot play it, this is the difference in rank. However, for the same piece, both a first-rate and a ninth-rate pianist can play it, but the effect produced by the first-rate pianist is better than that of the ninth-rate pianist, this is the distinction of quality." Gong Yang explained.

  "The quality of a piano piece is related to many aspects, but mainly reflected in the technical aspect."

  "A first-rate zither player may have started his career earlier than a second-rate one, but that doesn't necessarily mean his skill is superior."

  "It's the same piece of music, but a ninth-grade guqin player with good technique may not necessarily sound worse than an eighth-grade player."

  "Of course, under normal circumstances, a higher-ranked qin player's skills are better than those of a lower-ranked qin player. When comparing qin players, the difference in rank is generally not more than three ranks; if it exceeds three ranks, comparison becomes impossible - this is an unbridgeable gap between high-ranking and low-ranking qin players."

  "The higher the grade, the better the piano skills, this is a normal situation, but you are an exception. Without systematic learning, you have many defects and shortcomings in your piano art, your piano level is completely relying on your extraordinary talent to pull it up."

  "So, you may be a sixth-grade zither player, but you don't have the skills that match a sixth-grade zither player. Any ordinary sixth-grade zither player can easily defeat you, and even seventh or eighth-grade zither players can."

  "The competition among qin masters is a competition of the quality of their music, and the good or bad quality of the music also reflects the superiority or inferiority of their skills."

  "The level of piano skill affects the breakthrough in piano art. Each grade has corresponding piano skills, and if a pianist practices the piano skills at his current grade to perfection, it will be easy for him to make a breakthrough in piano art, but this is very difficult, and few people can practice their piano skills to perfection."

  "When the level is low, it's not easy to feel the impact of piano skills on oneself, but when you reach the third or second grade, you will feel it, and the importance of piano skills."

  "Now, can you understand your own shortcomings and inadequacies?"

  "Thank you for your guidance, sir."

  Li Tu stood up and bowed to Gong Yang, feeling extremely grateful in his heart. If he hadn't had a famous teacher to guide him, he might have gone his whole life without knowing these things. Then, after his qin skills reached a certain level, they wouldn't have made any further progress, and could only tread water.

  "Sit down, since I've taken you in as a student, I'll also guide you. After all, your talent is quite good, and perhaps one day you'll achieve great things."

  However, the school accepted you, but it was conditional.

  "What conditions?"

  "Within one year become a fifth-grade guqin master."

  Li Tu fell silent, if he hadn't known his own shortcomings and inadequacies before, perhaps he would have had confidence, but after hearing Gong Yangzhuan's words, he became somewhat worried, in this situation, it was very difficult to become a fifth-grade qin master within a year.

  "Has he also lost confidence after entering the school?" Gong Yang asked with a slight pause.

  "Yes."

  Li Tu no longer thinks about it, after entering the school, with the guidance and guidance of famous teachers, he can improve his previous piano art defects and make up for his piano skills. Moreover, that mysterious "Divine Sound Chapter" will also be of great help to him, and it is possible to become a fifth-grade pianist within a year.

  "It's good, it should be like this." Gong Yang Zhuan smiled.

  After Gong Yang left, Li Tu continued to practice finger techniques even more diligently, wholeheartedly devoting himself and forgetting everything.

  A horse carriage stopped at a distance by the riverbank near the bamboo building, and two girls got off from it. One was wearing white clothes with light green embroidery, and the other was wearing blue brocade. They looked far away at Li Tu practicing finger techniques on the bamboo building.

  "How can the sound of the qin be so unpleasant? Is he really the sixth-grade qin master you mentioned?" The girl in blue asked doubtfully.

  Dantai Ji looked at Li Tu and was silent for a moment before saying, "He is practicing his finger techniques, it's not surprising that the sound of the guqin is unpleasant."

  "Oh, I see." The girl in blue said and walked towards the bamboo building.

  Li Tu was intently practicing his finger techniques when he stopped and suddenly heard a woman's voice beside him, which made him slightly startled.

  "There were two wheat fields, the larger one was twice as big as the smaller one. All the farmers spent half a day cutting the larger field, and in the afternoon they divided into two groups: half of the farmers remained in the large wheat field to continue cutting, and finished by dusk; the other half went to the small wheat field to cut, but still had one block left by dusk, which was then cut by one farmer who spent another whole day on it. If the progress of cutting wheat is the same, how many farmers are there?"

  The girl in blue looked at Li Tu and suddenly spoke out, and her side's Han Taiji was also slightly startled.

  "Huh?" Li Tu was confused, what's going on?

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