Godsent Top Star [EN]: Chapter 299

299. Not a Vermilion Bird (2)

August 26, 2022

“Have you ever had singing lessons before?”

Suspicious eyes turned to Yeon-woo.

“No, I haven’t.”

When he looked back, as if asking if there was a problem, the trainer shook his head.

It was the day of his first vocal training.

The very bossy trainer spent a couple of hours practicing with Yeon-woo, and then completely abandoned his initial arrogant attitude.

“That’s strange. That’s strange……?”

It had been a bit strange from the moment he first made a sound.

“The way you make that sound……! That’s right. Yes, you’re doing well…….”

Similar situations continued to occur.

The trainer, who wore a strange expression throughout the practice, made all sorts of demands: make a loud noise, make a low sound, resonate, pull the vocal cords, cut off the breath…

There were incomprehensible requests, but after the trainer demonstrated once, he immediately grasped the feeling.

‘Is vocal training usually like this?’

He had never received it before, so how would he know?

He thought he would be singing Six Tails’ songs, but in reality, he only sang for about 30 minutes at the end.

“No……. How is your breathing so stable?”

“You were born with it, you were born with it…….”

“Where did you learn to breathe like that when you sing?”

He was almost half convinced that Yeon-woo had learned to sing somewhere.

“It seems like abdominal breathing is a way of life……? And your vocal cords are trained too……?”

He seemed to wonder why he had been called in the first place.

The reason why Yeon-woo was suddenly receiving vocal training was as follows:

A while ago, the PD [Production Director, a common term in Korean entertainment] delivered a message with absurd content to Yeon-woo.

The message said that Yeon-woo’s score would also be reflected.

“It’s not Yeon-woo himself… I think the score will be based on the level of perfection. The audience will evaluate the stage itself, regardless of whether Yeon-woo is a guest or not…?”

That was the case.

Excluding the live broadcast, which is the final third competition, the first and second competitions are judged by judges and audience evaluation panel votes.

In addition, after all the competitions in one episode are broadcast, online voting is received on the website for a week.

The number of views uploaded to YouTube is also added to the ‘online score’ and partially reflected in the results of the following week.

I heard that there were quite a few concerns about whether to include YouTube views, but the PD didn’t care.

“Anyway, our program doesn’t have any dropouts. That’s different from the planning intention. It’s more certain to give benefits to the winners rather than harsh punishments to the losers.”

‘I see. He said it wasn’t a program that would end as a one-off.’

The PD said that there was a risk of manipulating the number of views, but he predicted that the possibility of attracting overseas fandoms was greater.

If it goes well, the second or third season, and it is planned to continue producing even after that.

Anyway, therefore,

The audience evaluation team who will come to the scene and the overseas fans who will watch the video do not know about Yeon-woo and UTT’s situation.

They will only evaluate the completed stage itself.

That was the reason for the vocal training.

“Are you really sure you’ve never learned it anywhere?”

The result was a bit strange, though.

“Aren’t you an actor? Is that why you practiced vocalization because you’re an actor? No, if that’s the case, all actors should be good at singing, but that’s not the case either?”

He had never learned to sing.

‘But I have done asceticism.’

Come to think of it, he hadn’t learned to sing, but he had trained his voice.

“I have.”

Suddenly, one memory came to mind.

“I knew it. It seems like you’ve been learning for quite a while…….”

It was the moment when the trainer was very relieved.

“I used to do pansori a little bit.”

“Pardon?”

“Pansori.”

He also did some ballads.

‘Because there are times when you have to make a sound to perform a Gut [Korean shamanistic ritual].’

Pansori [Korean narrative song] is purely for the taste of the old people in the shrine.

Sitting under a pouring waterfall is surprisingly similar to the process of a singer achieving enlightenment.

If you don’t want your neck to break from the tremendous pressure pouring down from above, you must first put strength into your stomach.

‘I often screamed too.’

It relieved stress and was a pretty good method.

Thanks to that, it seems like I’ve gained something similar to enlightenment.

If you don’t want to be buried in the sound of the waterfall, you can’t just use your raw voice.

You have to put strength in your lower abdomen and scream with the feeling of widening your throat as much as possible so that air can pass through.

That way the sound won’t be buried.

“Pansori…….”

The vocal trainer, who seemed to be out of his mind, muttered.

“Um, okay. Pansori is… a song… a song, right? Yeon-woo has no problem with vocalization, breathing, or breathing timing because he is good at controlling the strength, so I think you just need to refine the style a little more.”

The initial arrogant attitude and contemptuous gaze were nowhere to be found.

The vocal trainer, who returned in a strangely hurried manner, never made another appointment after that.

And instead:

-Ting!

[Sudden Mission Complete!]

[Congratulations! Acquire additional acquirable stats as a reward.]

[Reward: Switching] [B+]

He gained an unexpected stat.

‘It feels strangely generous.’

Switching, a B+ grade stat.

It was one of the stats that the vocal trainer had.

It had the effect of being able to change the vocalization method of one’s own voice to a specific method for a certain period of time.

It sounds like a pretty good stat just by listening to it.

But.

‘It only adjusts the vocalization of the voice you have to a specific method, but it doesn’t improve the quality of the voice itself.’

As befits a B+ grade, there were restrictions.

If the basic physique does not support it, no matter how much you switch the vocalization method, it will not be very effective.

And it’s not a stat that upgrades the vocalization method itself.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

Anyway, Yeon-woo has several ways to fill the MR [Music Recorded] gap.

Although it started with pansori, he also has a volume and trained vocal muscles that surprised even the vocal trainer.

When I called it just in case, it felt different.

‘The high notes seem to be handled more smoothly. The feeling of the lyrics being delivered is also different.’

He’s not bad at singing.

In the first place, if he didn’t have a sense of music, Madam Kang wouldn’t have made him sit among the musicians and sing.

‘It also feels like my voice is mixing into the song more.’

The feeling conveyed is different from when I sang it before.

To be sure, the advantages of Lee Seung-min’s arrangement of the song come to life when the vocalization method changes.

That wasn’t the only difference Yeon-woo felt.

“That’s strange.”

Maknae [youngest member] Raon muttered.

It was in the middle of finishing recording and coming out of the recording studio.

“Yeon-woo hyung [older brother/male friend], did you go somewhere alone and get vocal lessons?”

“?”

“No. There’s no time for that……?”

His drowsy eyes turned to Yeon-woo.

UTT members have been crazy busy for the past two weeks.

Just the most basic preparations, such as choosing a song, choreography, arranging, and planning the movement, took a week.

In addition, the remaining time was spent preparing for the competition, including choreography practice and competition song practice, as well as opening clip shooting, pre-interviews, and broadcasting setting shooting.

From recruiting and contracting dancers to matching them to stage settings.

And there were many things to be busy with, from deciding on and finding clothes and styles that fit the concept.

Yeon-woo’s situation was no different.

“Aren’t you with us for almost twelve hours? We practice together, right?”

As he had to fill the sixth spot, he couldn’t miss the dance practice.

“What did you do when we were filming? No. You have a schedule too, so that can’t be it, right?”

Yeon-woo was not subject to the filming of the breakthrough, such as profile photos and pictorials.

Anyway, the main focus of the competition is idols.

Yeon-woo is participating in the competition stage as a special case this time, but the mentor only needs to take one standing photo for the poster.

That can be used for posters and for standing in the program.

“We have to take care of us and film hyung’s schedule. No matter how I think about it, I don’t think I have any time…….”

Even Yeon-woo meticulously looked after the parts that UTT was struggling with due to lack of time.

‘I have to make them win. I have to win…….’

The concept has been decided and the idea meeting has been roughly completed, so now we need to prepare the props and tools needed for the stage setting.

The concept and style of the costumes have also been decided, but the preparation stage was difficult.

In fact, I didn’t intend to touch all these parts.

But…

“Yul hyung. Is 3 days enough?”

“3 days is short, 4 days… If you include fitting, 5 days… I don’t know Yeon-woo’s measurements.”

Do-yul, the most taciturn and quietest in UTT.

He looks the fiercest, but in fact, he is the most shy.

Because he is shy, he doesn’t talk much and is quiet, so he is often misunderstood as he looks, but Yeon-woo knew.

‘French embroidery stat A, weaving stat A+…….’

If he were a truly nasty and violent person, he would never have such domestic stats.

‘Stats are developed only when talent supports them and interest follows.’

In other words, the biggest and scariest-looking Do-yul actually has a very simple hobby of making teddy bears during his break.

“5 days is too tight? Our competition time is…….”

“If I stay up all night, I think 3 days is possible…….”

At first, I didn’t know what he was talking about.

But from the moment Do-yul suddenly brought a pile of fabric to practice, drew something, cut it, and picked up a needle,

Yeon-woo felt that something was going wrong.

When I asked him what he was doing, the answer he gave was spectacular.

“Costume… Production.”

“Production? Are you making it? Why?”

“There’s no size. The fit is important, so it’s hard to buy.”

“…….”

So you’re saying you’re making it yourself?

Even in the middle of the competition?

While not getting enough sleep and groaning from lack of practice time?

‘How did you treat the kids so badly that they made their own stage costumes?’

What an absurd situation this is?

Yeon-woo felt a very deep regret for the UTT agency president, whom he had never met.

Maybe the president didn’t sleep well that night.

So Yeon-woo decided to control everything directly under the name of mentor.

First, I stopped Do-yul from making clothes.

‘Win… To win, I have to fix these kids’ way of thinking.’

When Yeon-woo took care of everything from start to finish, everything started to work out like magic.

Most of it was solved with money.

The UTT members were impressed by watching all of this.

“This is what it feels like to be supported…….”

Min-chan even muttered this.

“Our manager… didn’t really do anything…? Should we replace him?”

The problem was that they didn’t know how bad it was because there was no comparison group.

They realized that even the manager was an amateur after receiving Yeon-woo’s systematic management… which is written as rolling and support.

“So. Is it bad?”

Pushing aside the memories of a few days ago, Raon jumps up and says that can’t be true.

“No?! Before, hyung’s voice felt a bit out of place? Oh, I don’t mean it in a bad way. Hyung’s voice is really good. The delivery of lyrics and appeal are not bad either. But it was a bit out of place. As hyung knows, our leader hyung’s arrangement style has a strong harmony feel. So there was a bit of a popping feeling…….”

Raon is the youngest in the group, but unlike his usual playful appearance, he gave a fairly serious analysis.

“I thought it couldn’t be helped because we hadn’t matched up with each other for a few days. But today that disappeared. It’s just like we’ve been singing together for years? Hyung’s unique tone didn’t die and it blended really well with the song.”

“Leader hyung’s style is to make the song fit the voice, not to make the voice fit the song. He brings out the characteristics of our tone. You had a strong feeling of singing a standardized song, but that disappeared.”

Even Min-chan joined in and nodded in agreement.

“You mean it’s good?”

“Oh, are you saying the obvious!”

“Then that’s it.”

“No, I want to ask how it changed so quickly…….”

Yeon-woo lightly ignored the question.

The effect of the B+ grade switching stat was certain.

It’s good because it will help you win.

‘Why am I so uneasy?’

It’s strange that he’s giving so much without fulfilling any special requests.

It’s like he knows what Yeon-woo’s purpose is and is telling him to take it, giving all sorts of ridiculous reasons.

‘Am I going to be told to debut as an idol for real?’