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 Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:23 am
The thought had been lingering in the child's mind for months, boiling and festering there until it finally purposed an idea to the child. If Senri wouldn't teach her how to play the piano then she would just have to find someone else to. How surprised would Senri be when she learned how to play a song for him? She sure hoped it would be a lot. Maybe he would smile? Maybe he would give her another piggyback ride? There were many thoughts that were purposed in the child's mind as she made her way to her new piano tutor Serenade.
She couldn't believe her luck that she had met such a nice woman that she could play the piano and then even agree to the child's request to teach her. Her excitement was festering inside her like a slow boiling pot of water, the child slowly going from a slow walk to a slow skip as she made her way down the hall of the community center. She had a couple flowers in her hand that she had picked for Serenade. It certainly wasn't polite not to bring something, right? Older girls liked flowers too, right? There it was, a small smile, finding its way onto her face as the room with the piano came into view. She hurried her last few steps and peeked around the corner of the door, looking inside to see if Serenade was here yet.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:40 am
Serenade always had a tendency to be early. She always got awfully antsy when she imagined herself being late. There were a few times when she had been absolutely panic stricken because she was so sure she was going to be late for an appointment, but then realized she was the first one there.
Being early didn't hurt after all. It was at least a little semblance of perfection she could uphold in herself, to stabilize her, after she had returned to the Castle and realized that the rumbling had caused Temple Ananke to be entirely inaccessible. Perhaps Princess Chronos couldn't yet be perfect, but Serenade Soriano could try her best to.
Sitting at the piano, thinking about teaching Ainsley, made her reminisce about when she had taught Benny in Barren Pines how to play Chopsticks and her fingers had immediately moved to play that very same song. She was so engrossed, mind half deep in thought and half focused on the keys that she didn't notice the door open.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:53 am
The door may have opened when Ainsley went to see if Serenade was there but the child didn't make it much further. She had been engrossed herself by Serenade's playing, her body freezing where it was as she stopped and listened to the pale green hair woman play Chopsticks on the piano. The child didn't want to disturb her, but slowly, she began to wobble towards the piano as the music was playing, her footsteps covered by the notes from the piano and before either of them knew it Ainsley was standing beside Serenade.
"Uwah," slipped through the child's lips as she continued to listen, her eyes following Serenade's fingers as her ears tried to follow the notes.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:19 am
As the tune went on, her experienced fingers flew faster over the keys, the quicker pace straightening her back and capturing her concentration. There would be no mistakes here, no slip ups and Serenade felt entirely comfortable and confident, secure in her expertise. It was the only thing that seemed to go well for her, and even when Ainsley broke in; she was only momentarily startled, catching herself before her fingers slipped. Luckily, she had just played the last few notes of the swift middle part and regressed back into the basic starting tune.
With that, she soon finished the song and smiled at the child. "Do you like it? Someone asked me to teach it to him, once?" There was a hint of wistfulness in her voice for a second but Serenade brushed it off, not wanting to be asked about who it was. "So um, I guess we should start?" She moved to the side of the chair, gesturing for Ainsley to sit. "How much do you know about piano playing?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:37 am
Serenade hadn't stopped as Ainsley approached and it allowed her to admire the end of the song happily. It had finished without a mistake and what luck had it been that Ainsley had brought flowers? She smiled at Serenade and promptly handed the flowers to her with a "I brought these for you. I hope you like them!" followed with a small clap of her hands to celebrate the end of the song Serenade had played. She nodded her head a few times and said, "I do like it!"
The heel of her shoe tapped against the floor as she migrated her position slightly. Her eyes were going between Serenade and the piano when she had been gestured to sit beside her and with her other heel kicking off the floor, the child moved to the chair and sat down beside Serenade. Her eyes were lingering on the keys of the piano as she thought about Senri and the first time they had met. He had told her some things about the piano including the notes. She smiled a little and using her pointer finger she pressed it over the keys.
"C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C..." she trailed off, her fingers doing the same. "It repeats!"
She looked back at up to Serenade, that hopeful gaze reflecting in her eyes as she listened carefully to what she might say.
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Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:09 am
"Thank you!" Serenade replied, receiving the flowers with a look of surprise which was soon replaced by a smile. She had never thought to expect a gift at her first piano teaching gig and it only served to strengthen her opinion that Ainsley was a very sweet girl. And it was a good thing! Serenade had never really thought about being a piano teacher, always preferring to be more of a performer. She had only offered when Istas and Ainsley mentioned they would like to play the piano. Perhaps it would be something to think about?
"That's very good!" She said, smiling encouragingly. "You do know quite a bit!" And she had gotten the notes correct, no less. She hadn't known whether to start from the very basics; was it common sense to know all this? "Do you see the black keys? They're usually between two white keys and they're half a tone. For example, this is C, and this is C sharp and then D. But if you go down, it's D, D flat and then C. So C sharp and D flat are the same thing, it's just relative to the note. Does that make sense?" Was she going way too advanced here? She thought worriedly.
"It's okay if you don't get it at first! We can try an easy tune with only the white keys. Like, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star..." She played it slowly, an octave above the middle key. "Just follow the notes, okay?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 12:13 pm
The child blushed a bit at Serenade's flattery and encouragement. The child had worked hard to remember those notes since the day Senri Cross had not-so-willingly explained them to her last December. It was the extend of her knowledge though, and when Serenade started to explain the black keys the child's eyes narrowed in. This was something she didn't remember being told about! She... tried to grasp it, she really did. She could understand that they were like family to the white keys, but what made some sharp and the others flat were beyond her train of thought at the moment and her face frowned. She'd have to try hard to study those!
"A little," she whispered. "I'd like to play that song," she agreed as she watched Serenade slowly hit the notes. She'd have to remember this. It could be the first song she could play for Senri, and perhaps even the stars above them would appreciate it as well.
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Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:58 pm
There had to be a simpler way to explain how the black keys worked. It was so basic for Serenade that she assumed that people would know it too, but that wasn't the case with beginners like Ainsley. She could even barely recall what she had been taught, and made a mental note to buy some piano books for beginners. Or she could even draw the staves and notes out... but that was really more of a theory lesson...
Should she even give Ainsley the score for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? It would be good to teach her how to read the notes, but perhaps it would be easier after she had played it. "Alright, we'll start with the first part then. C C G G A A G... that's when the song goes Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star..." Serenade sang it softly and then smiled at the young girl. "Can you play that for me?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:53 pm
C C G G A A G...
The child thought about those keys carefully as she tried to start from the same spot that Serenade had suggested earlier. She didn't press the keys yet, but her fingers traced carefully over them as she went through the alphabet. This was E, this was D, this was C... ah ha. The child smiled to herself as she made a note of it and then looked for the next two keys. It took her a moment but tracing the same steps as before she found those keys.
She took a breath and hit the C twice before making an abrupt pause to find the G again. Perhaps she should go a little slower to give herself a moment to find the keys again while she was playing? It seemed like a good idea and the child decided to try it, pressing the G twice in a slower manner so the time it took her to trace back to the A wasn't as big. It didn't seem as bad! The last G was memorable, and she found it quickly enough.
Completing her task, she looked Serenade and asked, "How was that?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 9:26 am
"That was really good, Ainsley!" Serenade had an approving smile upon her face, clapping her hands gently. "But before we go on, I'll teach you how the fingering goes, okay? Your thumb rests on the middle C," The green-haired girl demonstrated this as she talked, careful not to go too fast in case Ainsley could not catch on, "your second finger rests on the D, the third on the E and so on. Pretend you're holding the top of a balloon and your fingers will space out naturally, so it looks nicer that way." And it was much easier than hitting notes with only one finger.
"So, um, back to the song. Next is How I wonder what you are..." She set her fingers upon the keys and played the following set of notes; F F E E D D C. "Is that okay? If I'm going too fast or getting too complicated, just tell me, alright?" She always worried too much, that perfectionist side of her that never ceased to rest.
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 4:42 pm
Ainsley smiled a bit at the encouragement that Serenade was offering her. It was always helpful to be told you were doing a good job when you were learning how to do something so you didn't get discouraged. It certainly also helped to have a strong determination to learn that pushed you on even if you failed or didn't get any encouragement. Ainsley fell perfectly into that group, her eyes staring at Serenade's hands as she explained how to do fingering with the piano. She watched and listened, and experimented with her hand. She would press down with her thumb on the C, attempting to follow with the rest of the keys that were.
It was probably most notable when Ainsley stopped attempting to hit the keys and tried to spread her fingers apart in the air in front of her face as if she was trying to hold something no one could see. They squeezed in and tried to pull apart, despite the desire for the fingers to stay together. It was most certain that the child was trying to hold a balloon that wasn't there. How big was a balloon? She tried to expand the balloon she was holding to spread her fingers further so they could reach all the keys.
The balloon figuratively popped, and Ainsley's attention shot to Serenade. There was more to the song! The song she was going to play for Senri!
"Okay," she nodded, trying to keep track of the keys.
FF EE DD C.
"Fed Cora, twice but only with one Cora," tried to help herself. There was only ever one Cora.
Her fingers looked for the keys, taking a moment to skim her fingers over the keys until her thumb rested on the C, telling her where all the other keys would fall. She thought about her little sentence. It started with F so she could feed Cora, and then she did it again so. She repeated it for the EE and DD, completely the sequence of fed successfully. There was only one thing left and after a moment her thumb pressed down. Cora had been fed!
It was a simple tune, not too complicated in terms of what she had to remember. It was simple to do small sections at a time when she took it slow to try and recall what the keys were. If she took it too fast she would slip up and her finger would slid, hitting the wrong key in the process. She tried her best to try and not do that by taking her time. It would be a nice, slow star lullaby. No need to rush, right? Although the song had a bit of a tempo that Ainsley seem to cut in half despite it already being pretty slow.
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Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 8:25 am
It certainly was gratifying to see Ainsley so determined to learn, and applying a creative method to it as well. Serenade couldn't help but smile as the younger girl murmured words to herself. Wait, Cora?
The name stirred in her mind, and she recalled a cat she had met in a dream a while ago, along with Hypnos. Perhaps, Serenade decided, she was just overthinking things. Names were pretty common, after all. Or maybe, she had just misheard Ainsley. She shook her head, clearing her mind of that thought, and focused on the lesson instead.
"And then we have up above the world so high, and like a diamond in the sky," Serenade sang at a steady pace, so that Ainsley would be able to follow, "and they're both the same tune, see? So we just play the following notes twice." With that, she laid her fingers on the piano and played. "GG FF EE D. GG FF EE D."
"It's quite easy." Serenade explained. "We just start at G and then play each note twice as we go down the scale to D."
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:21 pm
Ainsley was a keen student, watching Serenade with both intent and curiosity. She watched her fingers and listened to the keys she called out for the notes. It was GG FF EE D and then it repeated the same notes for the second part. It was simple enough, and Ainsley tried to memorize it with a cute story.
"Glorious Green Fluttering Fairies Eagerly Eat Dandelions~" she said proudly, slowly finding each note. Glorious Green Fluttering Fairies Eagerly Eat Dandelions quickly became Bold Blue Fluttering Fairies Eagerly Eat Dandelions when Ainsley accidentally hit the B key, mistaking it for the G key. It had been a mistake but she realized it and when the second half came around she corrected it.
"Not Bold Blue but Glorious Green Fluttering Fairies Eagerly Eat Dandelions~" she giggled.
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