Cadenza [BINI Mikha X OC]

Chapter 17: Callouses

Charles and the others exited the glass room, leaving Jon and Mikha behind. Aiah quickly left as she received a notification that vocal practice would resume soon, dragging Maloi out with her. The rest of the group followed Martin to the meeting room, while Jon walked to the back of the room to grab a guitar bag. He usually brought two guitars with him to the studio: a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul. But today, he chose neither. Instead, he opened the bag to reveal a PRS guitar.

"Here. Try this one," Jon said, handing the guitar to Mikha.

She took it, immediately noticing its weight—much heavier than the acoustic guitar she was used to. As she slung the strap over her shoulder, she marveled at the guitar's color and shape.

"It's a PRS SE Custom 24," Jon explained. "Do you like the mahogany finish?"

"Um... yeah, it's fine."

"Would you prefer it in red?"

"How did you..."

"The guitar you played at your first BINIVerse concert," Jon said. "It was an EBMM Majesty Iced Crimson."

"That was a pretty cool guitar," Jon added. "I'm guessing that you like the color red", as Jon pointed out Mikha's hair.

"How'd you manage to guess that, Sherlock?" Mikha said playfully.

"That guitar by the way, one of our music choreographers let me borrow it," Mikha said. "It was cool."

"I wouldn't recommend it for you, though," Jon noted.

"Why?" Mikha asked, sounding a bit curious and disappointed.

"It's a very customizable guitar, built for solos and distortion," Jon explained. "But what I'm going to teach you goes beyond just solos, so you'll need something more versatile."

Mikha realized she was about to see Jon in a new light—not just as a musician, but as a teacher.

"First things first, do you know any songs you can play on guitar?" Jon asked.

"Um, sure. 'That's What You Get' by Paramore," Mikha replied.

"Ah, the song you played before. Can you perform the entire song?"

Mikha hesitated. She knew parts of the song—like the verse and chorus—but the bridge and solo were still beyond her.

"I don't really know how to play the whole song," she admitted.

"That's fine. That'll be our first lesson," Jon replied. "Whenever you want to learn a song on guitar, you must first learn it in its entirety."

"Why?" Mikha asked.

"Many guitarists just learn the cool riffs or solos and ignore the rest of the song," Jon said. "That's a bad habit. It hinders your growth."

Mikha understood. As a musician, she knew the importance of mastering an entire song to maintain timing, tempo, and rhythm. Learning only parts of a song would never work for her as a singer, so it made sense that the same would apply to guitar.

"I understand," Mikha nodded.

"Alright. Then play me a song you know all the way through."

"Sure." Mikha started strumming the chords D, F#m, Bm, and G. Jon immediately recognized them as being in the key of D. She began singing the lines from "Torete" by Moonstar88.

As Jon listened, he found himself admiring Mikha's unique voice, even though he was supposed to be critiquing her guitar playing. Time and time again, Jon's fascination of Mikha's vocal quality does not diminish. He couldn't help but be in awe. Still, he has a job to do.