Chapter 4: Music Teacher

On the way home after the meeting, Noah had a fabulous idea to stop at a newspaper stand.

A question arose in his mind, and he quickly needed answers. It was a question that he had been wondering about for a while.

What exactly does the music industry in this world look like? He urgently needed to investigate how it had developed here.

The best perimeter for this was the billboard magazine.

Noah purchased the magazine and read it while sitting in his car. As Noah flipped the magazine pages, he was surprised to see many familiar faces.

He saw the faces of 50 Cent, Will Smith, and Akon and had to call out the system.

Noah - "Hey, system, come out of hiding immediately. I know you are there!"

System - "What the matter, host?".

Noah - "You should be telling me. You said that the music industry is different, but I just saw three big names from my universe".

System - "When did I say that the artist here would be different? It's a parallel universe, not a circus?".

Noah - "But doesn't this indirectly make your existence almost useless. As all I could do is copy a song that has not been released yet".

System - "Clearly, you don't know about the songs from 2005".

Noah - "I don't recall them that all."

System - "Actual, you might recall them, but you would be disappointed to find that they are not here."

Noah - "Can you not keep it short and simple? What with this ass foreshadowing".

System - "Alright, no need to keep on guessing, the artist in this universe will remain the same, but the songs they sing will be different."

Noah - "Oh, that makes so much more sense."

System - "After all, without competition, this whole adventure would feel a bit pointless, wouldn't it."

Noah - "It sure would be cool to compete with another artist."

A period of a week passed by Noah was getting used to his life new life. You know, going to school in the morning, then coming back home writing business plans on how to improve YouTube.

The first few things Noah decided was to completely eliminate the star system before it was implemented. He introduced the like and dislike button, recommended videos, etc.

It was not as simple as one might imagine. After all, he had to justify all that he was saying and back it all up.

As even if he had the most say, he was still a kid. He had to convince the other founders of his ideas and pitch them.

In his spare time, Noah would focus on grinding his singing skills by practicing with the help of a book. He found that if he practiced on his own, he would gain around 1 to 5 points per hour. It makes Noah very miserable.

As Noah realized that having a hit song in your hands but being forced to sit on it due to not capturing the sound is essentially like torture.

He had to come up with some way to increase the number of points he earned per hour.

Then it dawned on him, what if he learned from a professional music teacher instead of going off some random books?

Luckily for Noah, before he could ask his mother to appoint him a teacher. She surprised him with one.

On a Tuesday afternoon, when Noah returned from school, his mother called him into a spare room. It looked completely like a music classroom littered with various instruments.

There was the piano, a drum set, a guitar, a violin, and the trumpet. What surprised Noah the most was that a literal recording studio was built in one corner of the room.

It was all he could have ever dreamed for, not to mention with this much equipment, no one would even dare to question where the beats for the song came from.

He could just go. Oh, I made it at my house where I have a full room of different instruments.

Coming back to reality from his fantasy Noah noticed an old woman in her forties to fifties standing in front of a whiteboard.

Noah - "This is amazing. It feels like I am dreaming. Am I dreaming, mother?".

Emily - "Let's check, shall we." Emily then proceeded to pinch Noah's cheeks.

Noah - "Ouch."

Emily smiled and said, "See it, no dream."

Noah - "I do have to ask mother what gave you the idea that I was interested in music."

Emily - "hmm, it probably wasn't that I would hear loud singing of various tones when I was near your room."

Looking at the mother and child talking back and forth, the old music teacher finally decided to interrupt them.

Eliza - "Good evening, student Noah."

Noah - "Good evening, miss."

Eliza nodded her head in satisfaction. Emily - "This is miss Eliza. She will be in charge of teaching you music from now on".

Noah - "Oh, I look forward to your guidance, miss Eliza."

Emily - "Okay, I will leave you student and teacher alone."

Emily headed downstairs, leaving Noah in Eliza's company. That evening Noah learned all about the basics of music theory, such as Melody, rhythm, texture, structure, and expression.

The following week, Noah noticed a fundamental difference in points he gained after a lesson from a professional tutor. There really wasn't a fixed amount of points.

He realized that if he was not attentive, the points gained would be low and that points should only be referred to look at his overall situation.

Originally he had thought that different tasks had different fixed amounts of x points he would get upon completing the task, but clearly, that was not the case.

Essentially points depended on his understanding of music. He also realized the benefit of an older mind. According to his teacher, his learning speed was miles ahead of any of her other students.