Timestamp:35th of Summer, 520 A.V.
Continued from: A Family Heirloom Comes Home I
Tazrae knew it was important to learn a few scales, because they contained the notes she needed in order to play melodies. It was what her grandfather always said... the more words you had, the more notes, the more sentences and the more vocabulary. Music was just like that. Without notes and without scales, there was no way to construct song. All scales contained eight notes; the first and last notes are always the same, but an octave apart. She remembered that from what he'd told her.
She thought about the D scale, and it having these notes:
D E F# G A B C# D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
She tried to find it, the D scale, on her mandolin. The first note of the scale (D, of course) was played by striking the third, or D, string open. Next, she had to push the D string down at the second fret with herr index finger and play it . . . that was an E. Then play the D string at the fourth fret, using herr middle finger, to get an F# . . . and at the fifth fret, using her ring finger, to produce a G. She followed that by playing the second, or A, string to get (obviously) an A. She pressed her index finger down on the A string at the second fret to produce a B . . . then she used her middle finger at the fourth fret to play a C# . . . and finally, she pressed her ring finger down on the A string at the fifth fret to finish the scale with a high D.
Tazrae smiled in approval. That was it. She ran through it faster, forcing her fingers to behave.
She practiced her scales over and over, using just a downstroke on her pick to strike each note. Then she tried playing the notes by alternating up and down strokes with her pick. I worked nicely so long as she didn't forget to hold her pick properly and to move only her wrist, not her arm, as she struke the strings.
Tazrae practiced (and practiced, and practiced some more), until she felt pretty decent at it, then learned to do it forward and backward over and over again until she could do it without the slightest stumbling or hesitation. Then she decided to really learn how to use the scale of hers.
She knew that scales are the building blocks with which she could create melodies. Once she got comfortable with the D scale and develop a "feel" for the notes - how they sound, and where were on her mandolin's fingerboard - she was ready to experiment a little. She tried going partway up the scale and then back down. She also tried to play the first few notes and then skip a note or two before completing the scale. Then she played every other note. It was really fun, and she found herself loosing herself for bells working with the scale.
As she became more and more adventurous, she discovered familiar melodies right at her fingertips. She played the first three notes of the scale: D (striking the third, or D, string open) . . . E (third string, second fret) . . . and F# (third string, fourth fret). Then she played her D string open again, and repeat the four notes.
She recognized the tune immediately. It was an old song called "Are you sleeping?"? The rest of the melody (and thousands of others) she decided, could be picked out using only the eight notes of the scale.
Tazrae had ran through the scales, and learned the chords, now it was time to think on other things. There were aspects of mandolin playing her grandfather had told her wasn't traditional playing for a mandolin, but she knew she needed to learn them anyhow. Primarily, she was concerned about fingerpicking. First and foremost, she wanted to be well informed on the possibilities, all the aspects of what a mandolin could do, verses what was simply accepted... Fingerpicking definitely fell into that category.
Word Count: 693