Read Online Big Time by Tom; Ryan - Free Book Online Page B

and I’m only barely starting to understand how to read music. I’m pretty sure that any idea I bring up will have something wrong with it. I’m with Tyler—let the musical wonder figure it out.
    â€œSuit yourselves,” says Ms. Kogawa, “but I don’t think either of you should refrain from bringing ideas to the group. That’s half the fun. But it’s clear that neither of you are totally comfortable with reading music yet, so maybe when you’ve progressed a bit you’ll be more willing to add your suggestions to the mix.”
    We spend almost an hour doing more sightreading, and by the end of the class she seems happy with our progress. I might not be as far along as I’d like to be, but I’m on the way, and it feels good.

Chapter Eleven
    When I arrive at practice on Sunday, there’s no sign of Keith.
    â€œHe said he would be here,” I tell Ms. Kogawa.
    â€œDon’t worry,” she says. “We’ll get started without him, and if he shows up late we can just fill him in on what’s going on.”
    As Tyler predicted, Bernice has charged full steam ahead on creating a mashup. She passes around neatly stapled pages of lyrics and music, and I notice that she’s even written it all out in musical notation and everything.
    â€œWow,” says Ms. Kogawa. “You’ve really done a lot of work on this.”
    â€œI figured if I was going to do it, I should do it properly,” says Bernice.
    Unfortunately, the songs she’s picked aren’t my idea of a good time. One of them is “Love Doesn’t Die,” a drippy ballad that I recognize as the theme to some stupid action movie from a few years ago. I’ve never heard the other one, “The Brightest Star in Space,” but Bernice informs us that it’s the biggest hit from a recent Broadway musical called Love You to the Moon . She’s certainly done a lot of work mashing them together. They’re both perfectly arranged and organized so that the focus shifts from one to the other, blending at appropriate moments. There’s no denying that they’ll fit together well—just humming them in my head tells me that much—but they’re very slow and overly dramatic, which makes them kind of similar. I thought the idea was to combine two totally different songs. I’m not about to stick my hand up though. I doubt I could explain what I mean if I tried, and I’m sure Bernice would just remind me I don’t have a background in music theory.
    â€œHas anyone else got any ideas?” asks Ms. Kogawa.
    â€œDavis and I kind of played around with a couple of songs,” says Macy. “We thought it might be kind of cool to start with something really cutesy, like a nursery rhyme, and then mash it up with something heavy, like a hard-rock song.”
    â€œDid you come up with anything specific?” Ms. Kogawa asks.
    They glance at each other and then Davis counts back from three and they start to sing. Macy begins by singing “Pop Goes the Weasel” and then Davis comes in with “Rock and Roar,” by the heavy-metal band Burn Unit. At first it sounds kind of nuts, but soon they begin to weave together in a unique and surprisingly catchy way. It’s funny and impressive at the same time. After a couple of verses they stop, and Davis takes an exaggerated bow.
    â€œThat’s what I’m talking about!” yells Tyler, as we applaud. Bernice smiles stiffly and claps politely, but I can tell she isn’t as impressed as the rest of us.
    â€œWell,” says Ms. Kogawa, “that’s the kind of creativity I was looking for. From all of you,” she hastens to add, smiling at Bernice. “Macy and Davis, do you think you could try to transcribe your piece?”
    â€œSure,” says Davis. “We could probably do that this week.”
    â€œAre we really going to sing that one?” asks Bernice. She