Despite Catherine's deliberate attempt to act mature, which felt a bit like a child playing house, when she truly immersed herself in teaching, she was different from her immature exterior; she had her own understanding of curriculum instruction, and Landon needed to be fully focused to keep up with her pace, which made him feel he was gaining a lot.
Today's lesson began with pitch positioning, continuing to consolidate the pentatonic scale: Do – Re – Mi – Sol – La.
This time, she chose the simple and upbeat melody of "Groundhog's Day Song" for teaching.
Catherine had Landon follow the standard pronunciation on the CD, repeatedly singing along using movable-do solfège, while coordinating his breath control.
In the rhythm decoding training segment, Catherine introduced mixed rhythms and dotted rhythms, increasing the difficulty.
She selected the Mexican folk song "La Cucaracha" as well as "You Are My Sunshine," but this time she focused on breaking down and imitating their complex rhythmic patterns.
When entering the "dictation closed-loop" practice, Catherine was pleasantly surprised to find that after yesterday's high-intensity training, Landon had basically no trouble humming and memorizing the simple melodic fragments she played.
What surprised her even more was that Landon's timbre was excellent, carrying a natural magnetism, rich in penetrative power, and highly malleable.
She initially thought Landon just hadn't joined the cast yet and had some free time, wanting to find something to do, mostly as a hobby.
But now, she realized she might have been wrong.
Landon had a good voice, even possessing the potential to become a pop star.
This discovery caused her enthusiasm for teaching to soar.
At the same time, Catherine was even more curious: Landon mentioned yesterday that his goal was to write and sing pop songs.
Was he really, like her, also working on songwriting?
This realization heightened Catherine's interest in Landon once again, which indirectly led her to be more dedicated during the subsequent teaching.
Landon also genuinely felt the power of this high-intensity teaching; his musical sense, pitch accuracy, and rhythmic stability improved at a speed visible to the naked eye.
By the afternoon, he was already able to close his eyes and completely transcribe the main melody of "You Are My Sunshine" onto sheet music.
Seeing his rapid progress, Catherine suggested: "Since you said you want to write songs, why don't you try it now? Hum a melody that often circles in your mind, and we'll try to turn it into sheet music together. Start with the simplest fragment."
Landon hesitated for a moment, then did as she asked.
He did not choose Usher's "Yeah!", but instead directly brought out "Like I Love You," one of the lead singles from Justin Timberlake's 2002 debut solo album, "Justified."
This song was seen as Justin's transition from an "NSYNC" idol to a mature singer-songwriter, blending funk, R&B, and novel electronic elements, with an extremely strong sense of rhythm.
Why bring out this song?
Perhaps it was because of Justin's future relationship with Cameron, perhaps it was the complex emotions of sympathy and regret generated after that brief contact with Britney, or perhaps it was just a subconscious resistance to the "perfect idol" Justin.
In any case, Landon chose this song.
He first picked up a pen and wrote down the entire English lyrics on the staff paper Catherine had prepared.
When Catherine leaned over and saw the complete lyrics flowing from Landon's pen, she was completely stunned.
She had always thought Landon was just "interested," with at most a few small fragments of inspiration.
But now, what lay before her was a set of lyrics with a complete structure and a distinct style!
She read it over several times, and the more she read, the more she felt... the quality of these lyrics was far more mature than her own works!
This fact made her feel somewhat dejected, even a bit frustrated.
She was someone who intended to devote her whole heart to music!
Studying since childhood, participating in competitions, and even willing to go against her family's views.
But now, a student who started halfway through, casually produced such decent lyrics?
Landon did not notice the waves churning inside his young teacher's heart.
He began to try, based on the melody in his memory, to arduously write down note by note on the staff paper.
This was not easy; the melody in his head, needing to be converted into visual sheet music, was still very difficult for him.
He wrote stumbling along, often frowning in thought, occasionally humming.
Landon just wrote a segment like this, then hummed a segment himself, and then had Catherine correct a segment.
The two got closer; Catherine held a pen: "Here, this note you wrote is wrong. Can you hum this line again?"
Landon hummed softly as requested.
"That's not right, you hummed it a semitone higher than what's written on the score..."
Catherine's ears were extremely sharp, able to immediately detect differences, and she directly used her pen to modify the score.
"And the rhythm here, when you hummed it, there was a syncopated feel, but the score didn't reflect it..."
Unknowingly, the two were completely immersed in the world of music.
Catherine had long since thrown the "serious teacher" image she wanted to play in the morning to the back of her mind.
Her pointer had already rolled under the coffee table; her plain glasses were also taken off and tossed casually onto the sofa armrest;
She even pulled off her women's necktie, and the top two buttons of her shirt had been undone at some point, revealing her slender collarbones and a hint of cleavage.
She sat cross-legged on the carpet next to Landon, clutching a ballpoint pen in her hand, listening to Landon hum while quickly circling and modifying the score, sometimes unconsciously biting the pen cap with her lips.
The rhythmic framework and melodic progression of this song were completely different from the bubblegum love songs or teen dance tracks popular at the time, delivering a strong sense of impact.
The more she listened, the more excited she became; the more she listened, the brighter her gaze toward Landon grew, like the glowing eyes of a fan seeing their idol.
Landon was also fully engaged, working hard to recall and hum, while comparing Catherine's modifications to understand the rules of music theory.
Their heads were unknowingly leaning very close, almost touching, as they worked together to modify the notes gradually taking shape on the staff paper.
Zoe in the corner, from initially covering her mouth to giggle, gradually quieted down, resting her chin on her hand, watching the scene before her with some astonishment.
She could tell that these two were truly immersed in the atmosphere of creation; that focus and spark made her, an outsider, reluctant to disturb them.
When the last note was finalized and the main melody of the entire song was finally presented completely on the staff paper, Catherine suddenly put down her pen and let out a cheer!
"Amazing! Landon! This song is amazing! This is definitely going to be a hit song!"
She was so excited she forgot herself, turning to hug Landon beside her, planting several "smack, smack" kisses on his face, and then jumping up and down on the sofa.
Landon was taken aback by this sudden youthful enthusiasm.
He somewhat helplessly wiped the girl's saliva off his face with the back of his hand, looking at Catherine, whose little face was flushed with excitement, and found it funny in his heart: This girl, acting as if she were the one who wrote the song.
As the excitement subsided slightly, Catherine finally calmed down a bit, but her eyes were still surprisingly bright.
She grabbed Landon's arm, her tone urgent and serious: "Landon, this song! You must go register the copyright immediately! And then, you must record its demo as soon as possible! Otherwise, it would be such a waste!"