[Palais d'Améthiste] Strum a String; Play a Note [Private]

[Esmé Xind'ell]

First Cycle in the Month of Ponutis
Season of Winter, Era XVII PF

Esmé was pure excitement as the brightening began to darken and the suns flirted with the horizon; candlemarks earlier she had gone to the University to discuss registering for a course in novice lyre, but she had not expected that her training could start so soon. Already, the very same brightening, her instructor was coming over to the Palais for some private lessons: a perk from being the Lady Thane of Jaedaxia. The purple-crowned Quel'anthasan sat by the front entrance, the elaborate lyre in her lap, waiting for the instructor.

Finally, she heard a knock on the door and a maid go an answer it, words were exchanged in Jaedaxienne, though Esmé could not make them out, the walls muffled them too much. But footsteps soon followed and Esmé sat bold upright as the maid entered along with a middle-aged human woman with curly, brown hair, "Bon soir, my Lady, this is Madame de Sainte and she says she is here at your request to instruct you in your lessons with the lyre." The maid turned to Madame de Sainte, "And this is Her Grace, Lady Esmé Xind'ell." The maid bowed and left the room.

Esmé rose and crossed the room to a comfortable couch that could easily have sat four people; the elf continued the conversation in Jaedaxienne, "Please, come have a seat with me here, it shall be more comfortable. And please, I insist you call me just Esmé." Madame la Sainte seemed like a cheery sort and crossed the room with a smile, sitting down with Esmé, "Well then Esmé, I insist you call me Paulette. I will be your instructor this evening." She pulled out a lyre of her own, though it was crafted of smooth, polished wood.

"Well, why do we not just begin immediately, eh?" Paulette smiled at the Quel'anthasan, "But before we begin playing, I want to explain the instrument to you. A lyre can come with different amounts of strings; we both are playing a ten-string lyre. When you play a ten-string lyre you play it like a harp, plucking each string individually as opposed to blocking and strumming, which you might do on a lyre with significantly less strings, like six or four."

She tucked the lyre in the crook of her left arm, "And when you play it, you hold it like this. Your left hand holds the instrument and your right hand plucks. At higher levels you can begin too pluck with both hands, but for now. Now the strings vary in tune, the one furthest from you is the thickest and therefore lowest note and the one closest to you, accordingly, is the highest note and thinnest string," She paused to look at Esmé, "Does this all make sense so far?"

Esmé nodded and shifted her lyre so that she was holding it like Paulette, though she let her right hand lightly touch the strings as if she were about to play, "Oui, so far I understand perfectly."

[Esmé Xind'ell]

Paulette nodded approvingly, "Bon! Well that is the easy part, I am afraid. Playing a musical instrument is not a walk in the park, it takes dedication and practice if one ever wishes to become talented. And it required more than just training your fingers to pluck the strings; you need to train your ears to hear the music, the subtleties in the notes to make sure that your instrument is in tune." She plucked a few strings, playing a short, simple tune. "I am assuming you have not tuned your instrument, let's do that now. I think that is a great place to start!" Esmé nodded agreeably, as if she would disagree with her instructor!

Madame la Sainte motioned for Esmé to hold her instrument properly and the elf shifted her position so the instrument was in her left arm, her right hand posed and ready to strike the strings. Paulette moved first and struck the string that was closest to her, the highest note the lyre could make, "Listen to that note carefully; listen to how is resonates in your ears and remember it. That is important because that is how that string should always sound that way. Let me play it for you again. I want you do it more than listen to it, I want you to feel it."

Esmé listened carefully as Paulette struck the string again; the note washed over her and it resonated in her ears, a high note that rang clear and beautifully through the air. She was sure to note how the note rang through her body and how it trembled through her heart. Paulette struck the cord once more, and Esmé did her best to lock the note in her heart and mind. "That is your highest note, remember it well. Now please strike yours and tell me what you hear." The Quel'anthasan nodded and struck the note.

It was different, the note that played from Esmé's lyre than had played from Paulette's. She knew that, but she could not place exactly what, "It is... different. It almost seems higher than yours, as if it is playing too high. Does that make sense?" Paulette merely smiled, "Very good Esmé, the term you are searching for is sharp. The note was sharp because it played higher than it should have, it if were flat it would have been too low." Paulette then showed Esmé how to adjust the taughtness of the string so it played correctly.

They proceeded to go through all the strings in the same fashion and then Paulette, after they were all tuned, asked Esmé to pluck through all the strings over and over and over again so that she became used to the notes. It was tedious but extremely helpful/

[Esmé Xind'ell]

The lyre was now tuned and the notes, while perhaps not completely memorized, were familiar to Esmé. She plucked the cords gently so that the notes washed over her ears gently; the vibrations and reverberations of each coursed through her body, so that she heard each note as much as she felt it. The music that the lyre created was truly beautiful, though even yet she could not play as lovely as her instructor. Even when they were just plucking the strings casually, Paulette was able to do it with a skill much more graceful and skillful than Esmé. She plucked all the strings again, but still she could not make the sounds like Paulette could.

Esmé was a bit of a perfectionist and she could not sit by while Paulette plucked so much better than she did. Obviously, her instructor was much more talented than she was, as this was Esmé's first brightening and this woman was an instructor of the lyre. Still, the Quel'anthasan wished to be more like Paulette, "Excuse me instructor, when you strum your lyre it is so much clear and resonating than when I do it. Why is that? What am I doing different than you, for did we not tune our instruments together?"

Paulette was a kind woman, and she smiled at her student, "That is because the clarity of the note has to do with more than whether or not the string is tuned. It has to do with the quality of the string too, though yours are of suburb quality. It also has to do with how you strike the cords; actually, that is a perfect thing to study right now." Paulette positioned her arm so that her right was bent out and the fingers stiff on the strings. Only her fingertips touched the cords, and the rest of her fingers were straight, meeting the palm firmly.

"You need to keep your arm in a tight posture, it cannot just flop around however you like it too. And you only strike the strings with the tips of your fingers. If you use too much, you will muffle the sound of the strings and the clarity leaves much to be desired. Please, mimic my arm." Esmé complied and tried to position her arm as she saw Paulette do. Paulette set her instrument down so she could raise her elbow and curve her palm a bit more. "There you go, wonderful. Now play the cords again."

Esmé, holding her arm as it had been positioned, struck the cords with the tips of her fingers. Already the sound improved indefinitely from how it had sounded before, but it was still miles away from how Paulette sounded. At least she had the technique to improve upon and a goal to reach.

[Esmé Xind'ell]

Esmé plucked the strings a few more times, practicing the new position of her arm that she had learned. The notes were so much clearer than they had been previously, and with each pluck she began to prefect her notes further. Esmé smiled, she could not help it, to hear her fingers make such sounds. But it was just that: sounds. She had yet to connect the beautiful sound of each string when plucked to the other. Individual sounds, while beautiful, floated through the air unaccompanied.

Paulette had instructed the purple and blue Quel'anthasan to just practice plucking, to get a feel for the instrument. Her fingers were working to memorize the thickness and texture of the strings. Each one varied and while the individual thickness between two strings might be hard to determine, it was easy to discern that each string, from right to left, became thicker and thicker. Just as when Esmé plucked each string, from right to left, the note became deeper and lower.

Esmé randomly plucked the strings. She then closed her eyes and tried to imagine where the strings were as she plucked them. Esmé was still trying to connect each string with the notes that they produced. While the note between two strings that were next to each other might be subtle, the difference between notes further apart became more and more pronounced. All of this may by simple and easy to guess, but it was important, especially for Esmé, to explore and discover.

After sometime had passed, Paulette finally spoke again, "Esmé, your playing is already improving, though you are just striking notes at random. We need to move past this, but before, I want to tell me what you have learned about your instrument from just striking it as you have." Paulette smiled at her student, "If you need to play a bit more to cement your thoughts, please go ahead. I want to tell me all you have learned, from the obvious to the subtle."

[Esmé Xind'ell]

Esmé touched the instrument lovingly; already the textures and shapes of the lyre were already becoming familiar. "Well I can tell you the obvious, because that is the easiest. The sound seems to be determined by the thickness of the string. If the string is particularly thin, like the one closest to my body on the right, is highest note, and then the opposite, the furthest, on the left, is the deepest and lowest note. The notes then gradually change from the highest note to the lowest note between the two." Esmé smiled, it seemed a bit ridiculous to go through such simple things but Paulette was encouraging.

"Also the strength of the note seems to be dependent on how hard I strike it. If I pluck softly, the note is soft and gentle. And if I strike it harder, then the note gets fuller and stronger, not to mention louder. But if I strike it too hard, then it does not sound as pure and twangs a bit." Esmé laughed and tucked a lose strand of purple hair behind her long, tapered blue ear, "These things must seem so obvious to you, but they are all new to me. I have never played an instrument before, so even these simple things are new to me." Once again, another smile. Her thin hands worked themselves over the instrument, taking in the textures and feels as she watched her instructor.

Paulette nodded and smiled, "Oui, of course this is obvious to me. And it will be obvious to you soon, but every player was new once and learned this for the first time. I prefer that you learn this on your own rather than me just teaching it to you because it helps you remember it. You discovered it and therefore you are more connected to your instrument. Now I want you to press further. You have learned about the strings and the instruments, now tell me more. What else can you learn from your instrument."

Esmé frowned slightly. Her instructor wanted more? How much more could she learn by inference before she needed specific instruction? Could someone just learn the lyre without an instructor, is that what Paulette was telling her? She looked down at her instrument again, her amethystine eyes cutting into the carved picture. What other secrets were hidden in the carved wood.

[Esmé Xind'ell]

Once again Esmé was left to explore her instruments. She struck the notes; she struck them quickly and she struck them slowly. She played the string in order, starting from the highest note and then working her way down. Then she started began to work in the opposite direction. With each pluck of a string, Esmé learned the notes better and better. Already she was fairly certain she could tell the notes apart and if they were out of tune or not. It was amazing how fast she was picking up the lyre. She had fallen in love with it when she had first seen it, and with every pluck of the string she loved it more.

But determining her love for the instrument was not her assigned task; Esmé was supposed to be learning about the instrument. Taking a break from playing it, Esmé held the instrument up in the air. It was hollow. Obviously she had known this when she had first purchased the instrument. It had not seen important then. Not it seemed to strike her as if she had never thought of it before. It was hollow!

Esmé returned the instrument to the playing position, with it nestled safely in her left arm. When she went to pluck the strings again, Esmé was careful to feel the instrument. She plucked a string. She heard the familiar note and felt it in her heart as usual. But she also felt that the body of the instrument had vibrated with the note, as if it grew in there before coming out. Esmé smiled, finally she had discovered something that was not completely obvious, at least not in her opinion.

"The body of the instrument is hollow. And I think that the notes really play from there. I mean, I strike the string, but the note vibrates within the body which then projects the body. It is the body that develops the sound and projects it." Esmé looked up, her face impassive, though really she was just uncertain. Paulette smiled broadly, "Oui, that is exactly it. The hollowness of the body is what makes it work. It amplifies the sound and gives it its clarity. If it were not for the body, the lyre would not be as beautiful. It is just as important, as if not more, than the strings."

[Esmé Xind'ell]

Madame la Sainte continued on, "But now it is time to move past just technique and learn how to actually play. Already you can play the strings properly, or at least well enough for your level, but you do not know the connection between the notes and what we call each note. You can hear it, but you can not express it verbally. And that," Paulette raised her finger into the air to stress the point, "Is very important. Often when you are receiving direction, they will tell you notes and you will need to know which string they want you to play."

Paulette laid her lyre down on the couch closest to her. First she pointed to the thinnest string, "This first note, your highest, is called C." She struck the string, "That is your high C on the lyre." She moved onto the next string, "This is your D." And she continued down the instrument, "This is E; this is G; this is A; this is B; this is C; this is D; this is E; this is F, and this is G" Paulette smiled and watched her student.

Esmé frowned for a moment, something was not making sense. A few notes were double listed, how was she supposed to know the difference? "Paulette, I am a bit confused. There are two Cs and two Es and well, two of all the notes except A and B. How does that work? Why does it not just continue down the alphabet?" She understood that all the notes were different, her experimenting with the strings had already proven that to her.

Her instructor clapped her hands, "I am sorry, Esmé! Sometimes I forget to explain the things that come as second nature to me, and I promise that eventually they will be second nature for you too." Paulette smiled again; she sure seemed to smile a lot, "Notes range from A to G and then they restart. If you had more strings then it would continue in this pattern. To discern between two if you have them, we refer to them as high or low depending on if it is the higher of the two, or the lower. Does that make sense?" Esmé paused, thought about it, and then nodded. Yes, it did in fact make perfect sense.

[Esmé Xind'ell]

"Let's review those notes to be sure you have learned them, shall we?" Paulette lifted her lyre again, "This test involves a few parts to really drive home the name of the note and matching it to the appropriate string. I would like you to specify between high notes and low notes, so I know that you are not guessing," Another flash of teeth, "Not that I do not trust you of course, I am just striving to be the best teacher I can be." A tinkering laugh.

"Now the first part of this lesson involves me pointing to a string and then you naming the note, being sure to specify if it is high or low. And then after a few go throughs like that, we will switch and I will name a note and you point to the string. Do you understand?" Esmé nodded, it seemed simple enough. And then they began. Paulette would point to a string and Esmé would attempt to name it. At first, it was very challenging and Paulette's finger lingered over each string for quite awhile until Esmé was finally able to announce the correct string. Slowly but surely, however, Esmé was able to name it with faster speed and greater accuracy. Finally, and at random, Paulette went through the entire ten strings without Esmé making one mistake.

"Fantastic, Esmé! Now let's switch, you will find that you know them better but going this way might cause a bit of confusion. Your brain has learned it one way, and now it needs to learn it the other way, though it will be easier. Shall we begin?" And then without waiting for Esmé to confirm she was ready, Paulette leapt into it, "Find your high C... low E... find your A... very good... find your low D..." And it continued in a similar fashion as the previous method had, though this time Esmé plucked the strings. It proved more challenging than the elf had thought it was going to be, but she also grasped this much more quickly than she had the other way.

Once Esmé had successfully completed an entire cycle through the strings without pause or mistake, Paulette set down her instrument. "Now we will make it more challenging. I want you to close your eyes and I will play a note and then you name it. Purely off of sound. This shall be challenging, so try not to get frustrated. If you are ready and understand you may close your eyes." Once again, Esmé merely nodded and then closed her eyes. Her tapered ears were attuned to the air, ready to pick out the subtitles in the notes. It was certainly a challenging task; and Esmé crinkled her brow in frustration. It was much harder this way, and many times, Esmé simply could not answer.

Like before, though, slowly and surely Esmé was beginning to grasp it. She was frustrated almost to the point of tears, for the difference in pitch and depth for each note was hard to grasp going this direction. She tried to recall when she plucked the strings in response to her instructor calling out the notes; how had the notes sounded? How had they resonated within her? And finally, she began to get them correct. She named the notes, not always correct on the first time, but certainly by the second time. And finally, like she had with the other methods, Esmé successfully completed an entire cycle.

"Excellent, Esmé!" Paulette beamed at her student, she knew that task had been difficult, "There is only one more way we are going to do it, though I am sure you will find it a bit easier after that one, but it is still the most difficult. This time I will turn around and then play a note, and I want you to play the same note on your instrument while calling out the name. Let's begin." Esmé sighed a bit, it sounded hard, but she dove right in. But after all the practice, Esmé found that the notes were coming easier and easier and she completed this task quite easily.

[Esmé Xind'ell]

Paulette reached behind her and produced a sheet of parchment. Drawn carefully across the sheet were neat lines, five of them, which were all bound together. Dotted along these lines were circles, some were filled in and others were just outlined; some had stems and others were stemless. There was not that much variety, but they were also staggered across the lines. And they fell neatly in two spots, either on a line or off of a line. Esmé's lamp-like amethystine eyes scanned the sheet carefully.

"This," Madame la Sainte indicated the sheet, "Is how notes are represented on paper and how a musician plays music. They read these notes on the sheet and know which string it corresponds to. The notes also give more direction than that, they tell the player how long to hold each note as well as how fast to play." Paulette flipped the sheet around and slid it on the couch towards Esmé.

With a calloused finger, Paulette pointed to the lines, "The lowest note starts at the bottom of the staff, which are these lines that you see. So the notes at the bottom represent your low notes and then it builds up to the top, which are your highest notes." Paulette then pointed to each note, one by one, telling Esmé what each were. It was a rather simple task as the notes rose one increment, alternating empty space and line, in pace with the strings. There were no gaps. "That seems rather simple, I think I can manage that, so far," Esmé murmured as she read the sheet.

"Yes, once you know the notes as you do, and I was sure to drill the notes into your head before we got to this point, it makes reading these much more simple. But there are also different types of notes that you need to be aware of. Actually," Paulette paused, "I am getting a bit ahead of myself. First we need to talk about counts. Do you see how the staff is divided into section by vertical lines?" Esmé nodded, she had spied the lines earlier, "Well, each bracket contains four counts of music. So the quarter note," Paulette pointed to a solid black note with a stem, "which is this one, is one count. So a bracket can have four of these."

Paulette moved her finger to a different type of note; it looked similar to the first note that Esmé had been shown, but this one was hollow instead of being filled in, "This note gets two counts and is called a half note," her finger moved again to a note that looked similar to the half note but had no stem, "This is called a whole note and gets four counts." Now she moved to a note that looked just like a quarter note except its stem bent at the top, "This is an eighth note and it is two counts to one of the quarter note; often this note is written attached with its stem to another eighth note." And finally her finger moved to the last type of note, "And this one is called a sixteenth note and it gets four counts to one quarter note."

Esmé nodded. All of this, the entire darkening, had been full of new information. Whole. Half. Quarter. Eighth. Sixteenth. She attempted to store all of those in her skull, making sure to remember the counts that were associated with each of them, "I think I get it, shall we try playing them, now?" Esmé was clearly eager to continue.

[Esmé Xind'ell]

Paulette nodded, "Oui, we shall begin. We will start with something easy, scales." She pointed to the sheet; the part that she pointed to was full of quarter notes that neatly rose from one to the next. It was asking her to pluck the notes in order, starting at the bottom of the staff, the lowest note, to the top of the staff, the highest note. It seemed easy enough. Each note was a quarter note, as well, so the pace should be steady, "How, exactly, do I know the pace of quarter notes?"

"Well that is something you learn more the more you play. The most important factor is to be consistent, you need to learn tempo. The tempo is the rate at which the song plays and it is usually consistent through out the song. For now, I will clap my hands at the rate of quarter notes. So you play one quarter note per clap. Try to tap your foot along with my clap and each note as it will help you remember where you are." Esmé nodded, she understood. Of all things that they had covered this brightening, this seemed to be easiest.

Paulette began to clap her hand at a steady pace and motioned by an inclination of her chin for Esmé to begin. The Quel'anthasan let out a controlled breath and then, syncing her foot taps with Paulette's handclaps, and then, she began. She plucked the strings attempting to match with the foot taps and handclaps. At first, the notes were awkward and the tempo was inconsistent but after constant and diligent repetition, building up and down the scales. Slowly but surely, like had happened before, Esmé's hands became more skilled and her pace evened out. The notes matched the claps and taps more accurately.

The pair transitioned now, to different types of music; to something that might actually be considered a song. It was simple and it started off just using simple quarter notes. The notes would fluctuate from C to B and then back to C, and over simple variations. It was a simple song but as it progressed, a slow progress, to be sure, it became more difficult. The note variance changed more severely, and the types of notes changed. No longer was she using just quarter notes, but half notes and whole notes as well. Some notes passed quickly into the next while other lingered in the air, the note resonating and fading before the next was struck.

[Esmé Xind'ell]

After playing through that sheet a few times, Paulette seemed satisfied and removed it. In its place she placed a new one, one that was significantly more difficult looking, the range in notes greater than anything she had practiced that darkening. Esmé took it into her thin, blue hands and studied it with her crystal purple orbs. Her eyes darted back up to her instructor as if to see if she was serious and then back down. "Yes, Esmé," Paulette spoke, "It is a difficult song but it is the culmination of our course together. When you play this successfully, you will have learned everything there is to learn from my class. There are still miles to learn ahead of you, but you will be well on the way."

"I want you to try something called sight-reading, something you have already done. This is when you try to play without studying the music or rehearsing first. You will make many mistakes and it will feel clumsy, but I want you to try your hardest. Begin, straight away." Esmé nodded slowly, and then beginning to tap her foot to help her keep pace, Esmé began. This time, Paulette did not clap for her. The song was very difficult for her, and she moved through the notes painstakingly slow. Despite her foot taps, Esmé had a difficult time pacing the notes and keeping an even tempo. Quarter notes were held too long or too short, half notes suffered as well, and whole notes seemed to stretch on forever. The sound on the eighth and sixteenth notes was worse as she sacrificed technique for speed.

Esmé's cheeks were flushed as she came to the end of her song, and she set down her lyre in frustration, tucking a lose strand of purple hair behind her long, elegant ear. A slow sigh escaped her lips; that had been embarrassing. "Esmé, do not be concerned, sight-reading is always difficult and a skill you will develop later. I just wished you to try, not for you to be perfect." A warm smile, "But now I want you to go practice for a candlemark or so, and then I will listen to how you have done and deem whether or not you are worthy to have completed my course."

And Esmé was on her own, Paulette left the room to go tour the Palais. Esmé sighed, she looked at the sheet of music again. It was best to take it in pieces. She began with the first line, working it over and over until her fingers and mind had it memorized. And then she moved to the next and the next, repeating her process until the entire piece moved more smoothly. Then she strung it all together, like aural beads. She smiled to herself, it was starting to sound beautiful.

Paulette returned and sat down, and motioned for Esmé to begin. Esmé took a breath and began to tap her foot. She started slowly, as the song did to. The notes were long, ringing through the air before slowly fading. Just before one disappeared, Esmé's long fingers would strike another chord and the notes would continue before fading again. Slowly the pace of the song sped up and the notes deepened. Esmé struck the chords harder and the clarity and depth of each note strengthened. The sound of song softened at the end, slowing again and fading out. So the transition from song to silence was so and natural, the heart was ready for the song to end, but it was still sad.

The silence was broken by Paulette's claps, "Very good Esmé, you have successfully completed the song and I think you are deserving to have passed this course! If you ever need anything again, please let me know." The two women exchanged thank you's and your welcome's and au revoir's and the Esmé saw Paulette to the door, her face beaming.

[Crimson]

	Congratulations! Thread Approved and Complete! Level One Training Complete! Rank: Novice in Lyre (Trade-Instrument) Attained! + 2 Experience Points in the Lyre Attained! Includes all techniques associated with this Skill.