What if I ain't no violinist?

40. Twoset Singers II

Brett stared at the message he just finished typing. He did a lot of editing to make sure it satisfied the word count limit. He didn't want his message to span over 2 or more messages and come across too keen or desperate. He was aiming to be... light and breezy. Although inside, he had whirlwinds in his stomach as he pressed the send button.

Eddy's phone gave out a ping.

He quickly grabbed it, even though he was a work. He quickly put it on silent, then he checked his singing app – he had never heard his phone make that sound before so he was certain it was from the recently added app.

1 New personal message

Wow, you can send personal messages on this thing?

Eddy thought that his singing app would only allow him to send public messages that were attached to the collaborated songs.  But such messages were VERY public as they were displayed on the main stream for any app user to read, so Eddy would only ever write polite thank you messages for the collaborations and had been hesitant to write any personal information or any messages that were somewhat intimate.

As Eddy had hoped, the personal message was from brettybang. Eddy held his breath as he clicked the message open.

"G'day, thx 4 collab'ing with me, loved ur voice, beautiful harms. Would def love 2 sing with u again."

He couldn't help let a smile escape his lips.

"Good news ?"

Eddy looked up. It was his colleague.

"What ?"

"You look like a 14 year old girl who finally got noticed and received a text from her senpai."

Eddy pretended to cringe.

But he couldn't help thinking about the message he received and grin all day.

That evening after work, Eddy bought some takeaway food on his way home from the station and once we sat down on his living room sofa, he opened his message from brettybang and pondered on his next move.

Should I send a message back? But I have no idea what to write...!!

Eddy decided instead to make a few recordings and invite brettybang to collaborate with him. He could then send him a message to that effect. Sounded like a good plan.

So Eddy scrolled through brettybang extended list of songs he had sung to date.

Oh my god this guy has sung more than 10,000 songs..!!!

As Eddy scrolled through the vast volume of songs, he couldn't suppress his grin.  Apart from the popular songs at the time, brettybang was singing a substantial number of "oldies" which were also favourites of Eddy's, he was almost certain that brettybang was close to his own age.  Eddy picked 3 "oldies" songs that were frequently sung by brettybang which Eddy also liked. He then made 3 recordings - they were all "collaborative recording" which allowed others to join to collaborate with him by completing the song. He did one male-female duet and sung the female part with his falsetto and the other 2 songs he recorded with his tenor register. He even tried on one song to pre-record the harmonising parts, which was much harder to do than harmonise with someone who had recorded the melody first.  Eddy was a bit nervous, as he wasn't sure brettybang would like his natural singing voice.

Finally, Eddy sent a private message back to brettybang.

Eddy wasn't a big fan of all those texting abbreviations but he quickly worked out why brettybang used so many – there was a word count limit in the messages you could send and brettybang probably wanted to squeeze everything into 1 message, which was what Eddy was trying to do now.

"Hi, thx 4 ur reply. Glad u liked our collab, I've sung 3 songs that u know, hope u will join me."

The next morning, Eddy was pleased to find brettybang had collaborated with Eddy for all three songs.

Eddy clicked on the soundfiles saved by brettybang. The first song started with Eddy's tenor voice, followed by brettybang's baritone. Eddy thought their voices were so compatible, he thought they sounded fantastic together as he enjoyed the natural transitions between the alternating two voices. The next song started with Eddy's falsetto, followed by brettybang's baritone, then a chorus of them together. Brettybang knew how to harmonise too, adding so much more depth to the chorus of the song. Eddy listened to the third collaboration by brettybang. This song Eddy sang with his tenor range and he challenged himself to sing the melody and harms alternatively throughout the song. Brettybang had managed to do the same, so the finished song sounded harmonised throughout, with the tenor and baritone taking turns singing the melody.

Oh my god this sounds incredible..!!

Eddy was blown away by how they sounded together.  He felt flustered.  He really, really liked the guy's voice.  He thought it was one of the most beautiful things he's ever heard.  And he loved the fact that he could sing with him and sound fantastic together.

Eddy noticed he had also received a private message back from brettybang.

"Thx for the invites to collab with u. Gr8 choices, love all those songs! Joined all 3. Loved ur voices. Can't decide if I like ur falsetto or"

In fact there was another message.  Eddy grinned.  Brettybang obviously couldn't fit all of what he wanted to say in one message.  Eddy thought that was kinda sweet as he clicked on the next message.

"tenor voice more, I've decided I loved both.  So whereabouts are u in Australia? I'm in Brisbane."

Eddy's jaw dropped.

Oh my god he's local...!!!

To be continued...