Solo The Wrong Note

[Gwin]

Spring 5, 514 AV

Key Notes


The dorms still felt foreign and strange to Gwin, the winged Akvatari used to open spaces with only the sheer force of wind, earth and fire as limit. After registering for classes, a fellow student had shown her to her room and explained the rules. That woke such a deep dislike in her that she returned to the sea for the night. The following day was the same. The third came with heavy winds that forced her indoors. When she stopped practicing to look outside for a moment, she noticed it was already dark and simply curled up on top of the blankets in the dorm bed.

The next morning her turquoise wings carried Gwin through the West Wing towards the music room known as Key Notes. Entering the room at the appointed time of two bells after sunrise, she found a red-haired human woman sitting cross-legged on a table and playing the flute. Its metal was glistening in the light coming in through the open window. Gwin was instantly drawn to the elusive and mysterious sound. Its voice was high-pitched like her violin, only sweeter.

With a mere whisper of wings, she settled on the floor, finding it appropriate not to put herself on the same level as her teacher, and opened the small instrument case she’d bought in town. The content, however, came in pieces of polished metal. No matter how she looked at it, she didn’t know how to put her flute together. So she leaned back and listened to the music that went on and on in serpentines and somersaults.

After a while, the melody was abruptly cut short. Gwin almost jumped, instead her fingers twitched and her gaze met the woman’s blue eyes. “Are you the new student?” The Akvatari nodded in polite greeting and answer to the question.

The woman slid down from the table to shut the door and inspect Gwin with narrowed eyes. Then she gave a bright smile. “Welcome. I’m Niamh, your instructor. I’ll teach you the basics of how to play the flute in thirty chime lessons and I expect you to work hard and practice on your own too. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Gwin disliked the decisive tone she was lectured in, but for the sake of simplicity, she’d go along with whatever Niamh said. If her teaching methods collided with the Akvatari’s concepts of freedom and creativity, the rules wouldn’t apply anyway.

“Good. Shall we begin?” Before Gwin had a chance to answer, the redhead sat down in front of her and took the small case to examine the new flute. Gwin tilted her head – curiosity about an expert opinion ruled out her dislike of Niamh’s manners.

[Gwin]

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“Good work, it is,” the expert said while examining each of the three metal parts. “It’ll suffice for you. Now, there are three joints. The one with the mouthpiece is the head joint, the long one with the keys is the body and the bottom is the foot joint. You assemble them by gentle twisting. Don’t use force, they’re supposed to slide together easily.” Nimble fingers gave the demonstration to her words before disassembling the flute again.

Nodding, Gwin took the parts and tried for herself. Indeed, the different joints fitted perfectly into one another so that all she had to do was twist gently. Niamh showed her how the holes on the head joint and body were aligned. The footjoint was twisted a little to the side so that her pinky could touch the last key instead of hanging in the air.

“Your fingers go here.” Reaching up to the table, Niamh grabbed her own flute and placed her fingers on the keys. Gwin tried to mirror the positions: The fingers of her right hand covered the last four keys while her thumb rested opposite the index finger. The fingers of her left hand started at the halfway point of the flute, although they skipped one key between the index and middle finger. Her left thumb rested on the second key on the opposite side, although Niamh told her it’d operate the first too.

Then she put her flute away with a pleasant smile. “Well done. Your fingers are more flexible than a beginner’s.” Gwin detected a spark of curiosity in the human’s dark blue eyes and didn’t mind sharing bits about herself. “I’ve been playing the violin for a long time.”

Niamh nodded enthusiastically. “So you want to expand your repertoire of instruments, so to speak. That’s a good thing to do. It also means you’ll be less stupid than most of the students who come to me demanding lessons. Let’s work hard together!”

Gwin nodded, not sure what to make of the sudden enthusiasm. The next moment her thoughts were cut short as Niamh moved on to lip shapes. Apparently she had to bring her lower lip into a pouting shape by whispering ‘puh’. Gwin tried. “No, don’t purse them! Just relax your muscles.” A sigh. “Yes, that’s better.” She leaned in until Gwin felt something cold touching her lower lip. Frowning, she pulled away only to see Niamh had put the mouthpiece of Gwin’s flute to her lips.

“What? That’s where it goes. Your lower lip should cover one half to one third of the mouthpiece. So if you blow air down, you should produce your first sound.” Gwin did as commanded, but all she heard was a voiceless breeze of air. Niamh instructed her to cover less hole with her mouth, then to cover more. All Gwin could do was try again and again. In time she got a feel for the mouthpiece and its hole. Suddenly she didn’t hear air, but a clear and velvety sound.

Surprised, she stared at Niamh. “Yup, that was it.” While her teacher smiled, Gwin only managed a sigh of relief. During the experimenting, the redhead had grown more and more impatient and Gwin hated to endure pressure put on her by others.