I'll Give It to You
Shinye logged out and signed in on my account, and viewers started flooding in almost immediately. Ten thousand. Then twenty thousand. Her stream had been sitting a little over thirty thousand, so the rest had probably gone AFK for something urgent and couldn't make the switch.
"Welcome, everyone."
"What? I'm still in my twenties."
"Thanks for all the donations, everyone. Shall we get started, then? Do I say 'game start'? Or 'performance start'?"
I pressed the round button nestled between the arrows. For now, it was Standard Piano Mode 1. Notes began dropping down the screen, and the moment I saw the first one, I started to play. I went with Destiny, the way I always did.
It was my first time, so the notes on the screen didn't really register. I just let my hands follow the keys the way the score in my head told them to. Still, I kept sneaking glances at the falling notes as I played, trying to get used to them.
Strangely enough, even though it was a rhythm game, no score appeared. Land the timing and a 100% would flash as the combo climbed. Apparently all the system wanted was for the notes and the beat to line up — that was enough for a perfect.
"Wow. Jiyoung, your piano skills are something else."
"It sounds amazing. Did you get it tuned separately?"
"No. I bought the Pianote, plinked around on it a few times, then the thought of actually learning it was so daunting it got reclassed as a decorative totem. So no, I never had it tuned."
"Really? Buying something like this and barely playing it... that must feel like such a waste."
"Ah, no. I couldn't accept something this expensive."
I nearly jumped when Shinye suddenly offered to give me the Pianote. No matter how you sliced it, taking a hundred-million-won piano made no sense. If I could borrow it whenever I came over, that was more than enough.
"Thanks, everyone. Is it okay if I try another piece on random?"
"Of course. Go ahead, knock yourself out."
This time I picked something easy enough that I could actually handle it on random.
Für Elise.
Beethoven, again. The notes started falling, and I understood how random mode worked right away.
I'd been bracing for the note names themselves to change. They didn't. If a piece was supposed to be played in the third octave, the random version just shuffled the positions — first octave, fifth octave, and so on — while the actual notes stayed the same. In other words, if the score called for do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti in the third octave, the random version still wanted do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti. You just had to play each one in a different octave.
If the note names had been scrambled too, I honestly wouldn't have had the confidence to even try. But if they stayed the same, that was a different story.
I followed the shuffled octaves as I played, and somehow the music still came out in the proper register. Once I realized the note names hadn't changed, I could check the falling notes and actually hit them. I'd never seen a piano like this. It was fascinating.
It was digital, but it could still deliver the touch of a real piano, and people already called ordinary silent pianos expensive — this thing cost far more. If the price had been even remotely reasonable, I might have wanted one. Then reality set in, and I let the thought go. To even buy this, I'd have to move first.
"Wow, this is so cool. It's actually really fun. Hehe." I said it with a smile.
"Aww, you're too cute."
"Thanks, unnie."
"No, no. I'll pass. I don't even have space for it at home. I'll just come over often instead."
"Alright. If you ever want one, just say the word. Or should I buy you a new one?"
"Ah, no. I'll just take the thought."
I had no intention of asking for something this expensive. Me coming over often was enough. The trip took a full hour, but it was only one subway ride, and Mina stopped by the house now and then anyway. I could just tag along with her and play then.
"You got that exactly right. The note names don't change — only the octaves do."
"What does that mean? I don't know the first thing about music, so this is news to me."
"Take Für Elise, for example. It goes E, D-sharp, E, D-sharp, E, B, D, C, then the A minor chord, right? In the random version, those E, D-sharp, E, D-sharp are still the same notes — they just might land in the first octave, or the fifth. And even if the original score has everything in the same octave, the random version can scatter every single note into a different one."
"Just hearing that sounds insanely hard. So the octaves could go from 3-3-3-3-3 to something like 1-3-3-7-5."
"Yes, exactly. Though when it's a chord, they seem to move in the same octave together."
Honestly, I could only pull this off because it was an easy piece. Anything harder and I wouldn't have had the confidence. I could barely even follow the notes with my eyes — would it even be possible? They'd said random was only available for the easy songs anyway. At least each note was a different color, so they were easier to track. Small mercies.
"Next I'll play Flight of the Honeybee on regular piano."
"Isn't that an insanely hard piece? When I watched videos of people playing it, their hands were flying."
"It was hard at first, but it's nothing now."
"Ah, right. My bad. Hehe. I glanced at the chat and just... anyway. Flight of the Bumblebee, coming up."
"Aww, so cute. The stream's already this fun, and you're adorable on top of it."
"Our Jiyoung is just so cute, isn't she?"
"She really is."
"Right — for a complicated piece like Flight of the Bumblebee, sheet music mode is going to be more comfortable than the falling notes. The notes drop from the top, so it's hard unless you've memorized the piece, but sheet music mode lets you play while actually reading the score. Mode 4 is regular piano, so it doesn't get in the way of performing."
"Yeah, if you pick the sheet music version, you wouldn't even need to prepare a separate score. That's convenient."