Chapter 5: Diligence Can Compensate for Lack of Skill

Chapter 5: Diligence Can Compensate for Lack of Skill

Some things in the world could be done quite well through hard work and relentless effort.

Other things, without natural talent, no amount of hard work or investment could help.

A typical example of this was artistic creation.

Within the field of art, talent could roughly be divided into two types.

One was the talent for learning and performing, the other was creative talent.

People with creative talent basically also had the talent for learning and performing.

But more people only had the talent for learning and performing, without creative talent.

Learning and performing could be improved through diligence, but creation could not. Without talent, one couldn’t even find the door.

Through systematic training and persistent study, almost everyone could become a qualified craftsman, but not an artist.

Many piano teachers taught piano their whole lives, yet could not write a beautiful piano piece.

Genius was one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

The second half of that sentence was, “Of course, that inspiration is the most important.”

The so-called inspiration referred to creative talent.

Chen Feng had no creative talent, and his talent for learning and performing was downright failing.

But luckily, he could get the standard answer first, and then work backwards to figure out the process.

He did not create, he only copied.

So what Chen Feng needed to do now was to use hard work to make his untalented self a qualified performing craftsman.

Chen Feng had another bit of luck.

That was, with his level of talent, if he slowly figured things out using his spare time in the real world, it would take him at least five or six years just to get started in performance. Someone with average talent would need about two or three years.

Zhong Lei hadn’t been talking nonsense; her eye was sharp. His talent really was that bad.

If not for this dream-like dream, by the time he learned enough in reality to completely replicate an entire piece, five or six years would have passed, and he would have long forgotten everything.

Also, if he dropped out in the real world to study music like this, he would starve on the streets.

It simply wasn’t feasible.

But now, he had entered the “dream” again, gaining a whole extra year out of thin air.

Even though he wasted two months in the Military Camp, he still had ten months left.

And they were ten months without work, without socializing, without any distractions!

So, these ten months for him were equivalent to five or six years!

Stolen time was especially precious. Chen Feng made a strict schedule for himself.

He got up at seven every morning, read books in the morning. The point of reading was to learn music theory and how to read sheet music.

After lunch, he slept for half an hour. In the afternoon, he picked up his Guitar and started playing. Even if he kept stumbling and getting stuck, he forced himself to play the Guitar accompaniment over and over again, piece by piece.

His evening schedule was relatively freer. He could watch some instructional videos on art-related tutorials, then go to bed at twelve sharp.

Although history was covered up, things related to entertainment and art were very detailed and plentiful.

…

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, over nine months had passed.

Calluses gradually formed on Chen Feng’s fingers.

The balcony floor where he often sat practicing had two smooth, mirror-like footprints worn in by his shoes.

The corner of the room was piled with dozens of strings he had changed himself.

His playing posture still couldn’t be considered cool; it even looked a bit clumsy. But he could finally use his Guitar to play the complete accompaniments for two songs smoothly and accurately.

Besides “Dullness”, the other one was “Night Has Grown Deep”, both early works by Zhong Lei.

“Night Has Grown Deep” was relatively more mature than “Dullness”. Despite the poetic-sounding title, this song was actually very explosive rock-style.

Chen Feng had only memorized the two songs by rote, which was a huge workload.

Besides instruments like the Guitar, the accompaniment included many others like Piano, bass, drums, guzheng, organ, cello, trumpet, tuba, and so on.

Experienced players knew how to find the rhythm and key points, making it easier to memorize by analyzing and summarizing patterns. Memorizing a piece wasn’t that hard.

Take some simple pop songs, for example. Even though the whole piece might be several minutes long, it’s really just two or three chords combined over and over.

Master the chords, combine them, and the framework of the whole song emerges.

But Chen Feng couldn’t do that. His study time wasn’t long enough, he wasn’t skilled, he didn’t know other instruments, and his musical sense was poor. He could only force himself to memorize every note for each instrument.

It was like someone not good with numbers trying to memorize pi to hundreds or thousands of decimal places.

Or like a high school slacker trying to memorize the “Memorial Expressing Feelings”.

It was all very twisted.

In the small, dark basement space, Chen Feng lay quietly on the slightly musty-smelling leather sofa, eyes tightly shut, muttering under his breath like chanting scriptures.

He was repeatedly recalling the complete composition of the two songs, “Dullness” and “Night Has Grown Deep”, in his mind.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes, confirmed that every melody was firmly memorized and wouldn’t be mixed up, and let out a long sigh.

Chen Feng looked up at the clock on the wall again.

The time was almost up.

October 27, 3020 AD, 9:43 AM.

If he remembered correctly, in a few minutes that strange thing would appear in the sky.

This time he decided to hide in the basement, not look at the light, and see if he could survive.

Throughout this year, apart from practicing music hard, he hardly paid attention to worldly affairs.

But more than half a year ago, he had tentatively spread the news of the impending Doomsday through social networks.

However, the rumors he put out were quickly suppressed, and he also received a first-level warning from the World Government, telling him not to spread alarming rumors or face the consequences.

After that, Chen Feng stopped meddling in other people’s business.

He was just an ordinary citizen. Managing himself already took all his effort. Why bother worrying about saving the world?

He only made a little preparation for himself.

He used his saved welfare points to exchange for a long-vacant underground bunker room. He prepared a large amount of food and drinking water in the room.

He wanted to try again, to see what would happen if he didn’t die, if he could live a few more days in this dream.

If time permitted, he would learn a couple more songs.

Click.

Chen Feng turned on the old-fashioned flexible screen TV.

When the last dream ended, he was playing ball with other Subsistence Allowance Recipients on an outdoor tennis court and ascended to heaven on the spot.

This time he could see if there was any explanation on TV.

After a very brief flicker, the TV picture appeared. The default channel was Chinese Channel One.

A pre-recorded interview program was playing.

A Military expert was communicating with many reporters and public opinion Leaders, explaining why such a large and seemingly redundant military system was still maintained today.

“Yes, it is now an era of eternal peace. But six thousand years of human history tells us that war is the switch for Civilization’s progress. To maintain the stability of social order, our army should be kept at a sufficient level. This can both promote technological progress and prevent problems before they occur.”

The Military expert spoke eloquently like this.

A respected civilian scholar sneered discontentedly, “That’s absurd. Even without focusing on the military, we would still advance basic disciplines. Prevent problems before they occur? What problems? You’re just wasting taxpayers’ money for nothing, wasting the productivity of technological progress!”

As soon as the scholar finished speaking, the TV flickered suddenly, the signal was briefly interrupted, and the program was replaced.

Chen Feng glanced at his watch. There were about four minutes left until that time.

A few seconds later, the TV signal recovered.

Looking at the new picture that came on, Chen Feng’s pupils suddenly contracted, and his breath stopped.