The room finally settled back into silence.
Realizing Alice had gone back to her room to plan tomorrow's shoot and tweak the direction, the band members' frazzled nerves finally got a chance to unwind. But they couldn't hold back their excitement either—they were practically buzzing, cheering and imagining what it'd be like to step in front of the camera .
Unlike the familiar stage of the Full Moon Party, the camera lens brought a whole new vibe—mysterious, fresh, and totally thrilling.
The chatter and energy dragged on for another half hour before Cliff and Maxim headed back to their room next door—they're roommates. Ollie and I share this one.
Ollie, still riding that high, took every ounce of willpower to calm down even a little. He reluctantly trudged off to the bathroom to shower, but not two minutes in, his booming voice belted out over the sound of the water 🚿. Looks like tonight's not calming down anytime soon!
Humming Queen's classic "We Are the Champions," Ollie stepped out, steam curling around him.
"Ronan! Sing with me! We! Are! The champions! No reason to lose!"
He waved a shampoo bottle like a mic, calling me to join in, but I didn't even glance his way. That didn't dampen his spirit one bit, though. He strutted over, peeked at what I was doing, and a spark of curiosity lit up his eyes .
"Huh? Writing something?"
While Ollie was showering, I'd grabbed my guitar, trying to jot down the piece I'd just finished. Easier said than done, though.
I've never properly learned standard notation—my memory's got nothing on it. In my past life, I started creating after I lost my hearing, so there was no point in learning staff notation. I just used weird little symbols only I could decipher.
But now? Everything's a fresh start. I want to learn it right from the ground up.
So, I was messing around with simplified notation—"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7" for the seven notes. I haven't studied that formally either, so I've got no clue if my symbols are even close to right. Still, I powered through, scribbling it down best I could.
I was so zoned in I didn't even notice Ollie sneaking up. He totally caught me off guard!
My first instinct was to hide it—my hands tensed up—but then I stopped myself. Why bother? If I really want to keep making music, maybe even have the band play my stuff, I can't keep hiding it. I've got to share, hear feedback, take criticism. That's the only way to get better.
Besides, Alice already heard this one—it's not some big secret anymore. Adding Ollie to the list won't hurt.
More than that, I want to learn staff notation properly.
From what I remember, One Day Kings' main songwriters are Ollie and Maxim. Cliff and I have dabbled, but nothing's clicked yet—we barely even share stuff in the group. Right now, every song we perform comes from Ollie and Maxim.
Broadly, they're both lyricists and composers. "Strike the Chord" was all Maxim—words and music. But if you break it down, Ollie's a little stronger with lyrics, Maxim's got the edge on melodies. Subtle differences, sure, but they're there.
Still, it's all relative.
If I'm serious about learning notation from scratch, Ollie's the perfect guy to ask—he's got the know-how.
With that in mind, I didn't just skip the cover-up—I slid over to make room and turned to him. "Yeah, Alice sparked some inspiration."
Ollie's eyes flicked over my messy simplified notes, letting out a little "Hmm."
That made me a tad nervous . Talking shop about music creation so formally? First time ever. Hard not to feel a bit shaky.
But I paused, took a quiet breath to steady myself, and kept going. "You can see my notation skills are... uh, lacking."
Ollie tilted his chin up slightly, dragging out a thoughtful "Mmm..." Then he shrugged. "It's not that hard, though." He plopped down beside me, grabbed the keyboard leaning against the wall, and snagged my notebook. In a flash, he sketched out staff lines and little tadpole notes 🎶—no hesitation, no questions.
Thirty seconds flat, and he was already in full-on teaching mode.
He set his right hand on the keys, flashed me a grin, and said, "Listen up." Then, with a "do-re-mi-fa-so" from the keyboard, he chimed in, "Every Good Boy Does Fine—those sit on the five lines."
It's a little mnemonic song for learning notation. Each word's first letter matches a note—"E" for mi, "G" for so, and so on. They line up on the staff's lines, slanting upward, tying the symbols to the sounds.
"Then, FACE goes in the spaces."
He played each note on the piano—super clear, easy to follow. "F" for fa, "A" for la—they slot between the lines, forming another slanted row. Together with the first set, it builds a C major scale.
"And then, Great Big Dogs Fight Animals and All Cars Eat Gas. Got it?"
Same deal—another scale, G major this time. First phrase sits on the lines, second fills the spaces.
Sure, it's just a nursery rhyme—basic stuff to get you started. There's way more to dig into later, but this is step one.
Ollie turned to me, eyebrows bouncing up. "See? Not tough, right? Study it systematically, and you'll pick it up fast."
My nerves eased up without me even noticing. Ollie using a kids' song didn't bug me at all—it's simple, catchy, perfect for a beginner like me. No issues there. I could already feel myself slipping into the world of notation with his voice guiding me. "How about we finish this score together?"
Why not? I could "translate" the melody in my head to staff notation, learn as we go, and bounce ideas off Ollie—all at once. Win-win!
Ollie nodded eagerly. "No problem! So, show me your simplified stuff..."
I strummed the guitar to walk him through my notes, and he smoothly jotted them down in proper notation. We talked, learned, and wrote—piece by piece.