• Solo • [Busker Fest] An Unwanted Lesson

[Seira Shiryu]

Continued from here


68th Ymiden, 721


"Well, a promise is a promise. Are you ready for your instrument lesson now?" Pippin asked cheerfully.

"Err...well..." Seira began hesitantly.

"Can you actually teach us anything?" Seri asked bluntly as the crowd began to disperse.

Pippin frowned pensively.

"Well...I have to, don't I? A promise is a promise, and I am a man of my word."

Seira and Seri exchanged glances as they considered Pippin's words.

"What instruments do you know how to play?" Seira asked at last.

Maybe he knows how to play several different instruments...or even just two, and if he does, there's a chance that he knows how to play a different instrument better than he knows how to play the fiddle... Seira thought hopefully.

"Just the fiddle, I'm afraid. So there's not many options to choose from for your lesson."

No point in asking him to teach me something he doesn't know, I suppose. At least he didn't try to pretend he was skilled at any other instruments that he can't really play...

Seira really didn't want to accept the offered lesson. It was obvious that Seri thought that it would be a waste of their time, and to be honest, Seira didn't think that she would be able to learn how to play a fiddle from someone who played it so very badly. And yet...Pippin was right. A promise was a promise, and a promise was important. She didn't want to be responsible for preventing someone from keeping a promise that they had made. Besides...as little as Pippin might know about the fiddle, he knew more than she did, so it wasn't completely impossible that she might learn something from him. And Seri would be there to make sure that if he taught her something that was wrong, she would probably know it.

"Promises are important. I'd hate to be the cause of you being unable to keep one, so I guess I'm ready." Seira said with a polite smile.

[Seira Shiryu]

Pippin beamed at them.

"Perfect! I know the perfect place for a lesson over there." he said as he gestured to a spot that wasn't too far away.

It was out of the way, so they wouldn't be likely to disturb anyone with the lesson, but it was also outside, and close by. They wouldn't have to go somewhere with a complete stranger. Seira and Seri followed Pippin to the spot he had showed them, and got right to work.

"Let's start with the absolute basics; the parts of a fiddle. This is the scroll." he said as he pointed to the very top of the fiddle.

"Then we have the peg box just below the scroll. As you can see, there are two pegs on each side of the peg box. You use those pegs to tune the strings of your fiddle."

Seira nodded to show that she understood what Pippin was saying. She did glance at Seri though, wondering if what he was saying was right. When she nodded, Seira felt slightly better about this lesson. She turned her attention back to what Pippin was saying.

"Beneath the pegbox here is the nut. Then you have this long, narrow part of the fiddle. This is called the neck. And this length of wood that is glued to the neck of the fiddle is called the fingerboard."

Pippin pointed to each part of the fiddle as he named them. Seira couldn't help but wonder what each of the parts were supposed to do, but she decided against asking. Given the man's horrible performance during their contest, she had no confidence at all that he actually knew what each of the parts did.

"These are the strings, of course. And the largest part of the fiddle is called the body. Then you have these fancy little holes here. Do you see that there is one on each side?"

Seira nodded.

"Those holes are called the f holes. They don't really look like the letter F to me, though. I've always wondered why they were called f holes. Then again, I don't really know what you'd call them if they weren't called f holes. Do you?"

Seira shook her head, and Seri rolled her eyes. Pippin didn't seem to notice.

"This next part here is called the bridge. and this is the fine adjuster. Then we have the tailpiece, or what I like to call the tail. And finally, we have the chin rest. That's where you rest your chin when you play." Pippin explained as he pointed to each part in turn.

"Do you have any questions so far? And please don't ask me what each of the parts are used for. I know what some of them do, but I haven't learned about all of them yet."

Seira simply shook her head. Once again she was reminded that it was useless to ask someone to teach her something that they didn't know.

[Seira Shiryu]

"So...what are the parts of a fiddle?" Pippin asked.

There was a gleam of a challenge in his bright green eyes, and Seira grinned at him. Then she started at the top, and pointed at each part in turn as she named it. When she got all of them right, Pippin grinned at her.

"You catch on quick! If you keep this up, you'll master the fiddle in no time!"

Seira bit back the urge to tell him just how much work really did go into mastering an instrument. Instead, she simply gave him a flat look.

"What's next?" she asked.

"Nest, I'll teach you how to play the fiddle. It's easy, really."

At Seri's pointed look, Pippin backtracked quickly.

"Well...it sounds easy, anyway. You play the fiddle by drawing the bow...that's this separate piece here...across the strings of the fiddle. Like this."

When Pippin demonstrated what he had been talking about, the sound that he produced was absolutely horrible. Seri clapped her hands over her ears, and Seria barely managed to resist the urge to do so herself.

"I see what you mean." she said quickly, in the hopes that Pippin would stop "playing" the fiddle if he thought she knew what he was talking about.

"What Pippin is not saying is that while at its most basic level you do play the fiddle by drawing the bow across its strings, you need to know how to play the different notes if you want to play actual music instead of...that." she said pointedly.

Pippin pouted for a few trills, but he regained his good cheer quickly.

"I can do that too! Listen to this!"

He began to play the fiddle so badly that Seri grabbed his shoulder, startling him enough that he stopped playing.

"I think we have a good idea of how...well you play. Why don't we move on to something else?"

She turned to Seira, and moved closer.

"I can play the individual notes for you later so that you can hear what they're supposed to sound like." she whispered.

Seira nodded. Pippin recovered quickly, and he thought about what else he could offer as part of his lesson.

"The body of the fiddle is hollow. I know that that is important for some reason...but I'm not really sure why." he admitted.

His eyes widened.

"Actually...I've heard that there are some fiddles that don't have hollow bodies. But I have no idea if that is really true or not. My friend was quite drunk when he told me that, and he doesn't know much more about the fiddle than I do."

"I'll keep that in mind." Seira said softly.

She was really hoping that this "lesson" would be over soon. It was true that she was learning a few things, but it was painfully clear that Pippin didn't know much about playing the fiddle. It was possible that he knew less than she did just from listening to her twin sister play it. No...that wasn't quite true. When he was telling her what the names for the different parts of the fiddle were, Seri indicated that he was right about what he was saying. So she had learned that much at least. It was a start.

"Oh! Here's something else. The strings of the fiddle can break sometimes. It can happen for a number of reasons. The important thing to know is that the strings of your fiddle can be fixed if you break them. So don't get rid of your fiddle if you break the strings, okay?"

Seri snorted at that. Seira could tell from her reaction that the idea of throwing a fiddle away because its strings were broken was offensive to her. That told her that Pippin was right about the fact that the strings could be fixed...and that that was something that was painfully obvious to anyone who played the fiddle.

"That's all I can teach you, really. Are you sure that you don't want me to play for you some more so you can get an idea of what the fiddle should sound like?"

"I'm sure." Seira said gently, but firmly.

"We should probably get going, anyway. Seriel and I wanted to see more of the busker fest before it ends, and totrial is the final trial of it."

Pippin grinned at them.

"Then I'd better let you get going. There's certainly a lot to see. This was a lot of fun, though. Maybe we can have another contest again in the future?"

The twins exchanged glances. Seira hesitated, struggling to come up with the right words to say.

"Only if you practice a lot more first." Seri said bluntly.

Pippin pouted for a few trills. Then he grinned at them.

"You can count on it! And next time, I'll be the one who wins!"

Pippin ran off, and vanished into the crowds. Seira and Seri watched him go.

"That was...weird." Seira said at last.

Seri nodded.

"He can't play the fiddle to save his life, but he does know a few things about it. If he practices enough and keeps learning, then maybe he really will get the hang of it sooner or later. Maybe."

With that, the twins went back to exploring the busker fest some more.

[Doran]

Seira:

Knowledge:
Musical Instrument; String (Bow): the parts of a fiddle

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10

- - -

Comments: This was an interesting instrument lesson!

Poor Seira and Seri were so hopeful, but Pippin turned out to be totally incompetent. I have to admit, I was amused when he rattled off the various parts of the fiddle and played absolutely terribly. You described the twins’ reaction to his incompetence quite well in my opinion. I admire their patience. They actually stayed there until he was finished. I agree, by the way, that was a weird lesson – a very weird one.

It was quite funny for me as the reader though!

With that being said, you requested 5 knowledges for “Musical Instrument; String (Bow)”. I’ve decided to only award you the first knowledge. Knowing the different parts of the fiddle is important, but Seira didn’t play a single note in this thread, and she didn’t even touch the fiddle and examine it herself.

She just listened to Pippin.

Skill knowledge should be practical knowledge.

I’ve also decided to not award you the “Teaching: you can't teach what you don't know” knowledge. Teaching knowledges should be about actually teaching. This knowledge isn’t about teaching though. It seems like common sense to me.

With that being said, please post in the PSF if you have any questions!

P.S.: I would have added "Discipline" to the list of skills used as it seemed like it took a bit of discipline for Seira to stay until Pippin was done.