Completed Along Comes A Bard... V

[Tazrae]

Timestamp: 50th of Summer, 520 A.V.

Continued from: Along Comes A Bard...IV

She looked up from her writing... two more verses were next... then the bridge. This roadmap Xander was teaching her helped. Two more.... How much more of her own pain could she expose? Did she know enough of the story? Could she get it right? Tazrae thought long and hard while her instructor looked on. More about Syka. More about her own feelings of being lost and alone. Tazrae felt raw writing this, and she glanced up to meet Xander's eyes. He nodded. He understood. She felt the terror of loss, the isolation, the need to scream because of the fear and doubt at something like being lost and alone in the world.

"Freedom waits for you in the clean fresh air,
If you take the steps, be bold, and dare.
My sea blue eyes wash with my pain,
And fill the air with tears like rain.

Below the branches, here about
Do not you sense my fear and doubt?
Side a glistening river and the sparkling sea
I will find the answer to whom I might be."

More... she needed more.... It truly was raw. It was like reaching down and tapping into an emotional energy source that was so painfully close to the surface that it was reaching up for you, hoping you'd notice it. Tazrae did notice, and poured forth her creativity to pull something of what had happened together in a song. Her heart was breaking, her mind scarring.... she bit her lip so hard it bled as she wrote the next bridge next.

"Syka I love you, Syka I care.
Syka I came because of your dare.
In lofty jungle filled with wild
I came, I felt, I transformed into your child.
Love me, Syka as I love you.
Kin forever, there is so much to do.".

The bridge was her wish, her heartfelt wish. It was what she felt of Syka and what she wanted Syka to give her back. Xander looked on, watching her hum out the tune, puzzle out the words, try to give a message to the world. Would the world hear the song and understand it? Tazrae studied what she wrote on the parchment, scribbled out a few lines, and rewrote them again and again. "I need to get a small chalk stylist to work out lines before inking them in." She noticed idly, before she continued onward... writing out more lines.

"I'm happy with it... now two more verses?" She asked, and studied the journal again, wondering what else she wanted to say.

"Your mysteries are mine to know
and as I learn them my seeds I’ll sow.
By the sea and sun and salt and sand.
Those who came shoulder to shoulder will stand.
They will teach each other how to love,
And take flight high and far like a dove.


Every day is a brand-new start
and every day you steal my heart.
I wish I could see the future true,
To ensure this feeling stays so new.
I’m happy here, where so few have dared to live,
and because of that I’ll give all I can give."

The verses came easily now... the song forming itself. Tazrae was infused with the power that writing the song gave her. It was almost a contact high, like energy buzzing around her. She glanced up at Xander. He had a soft smile on his face, as if he completely understood.


Word Count: 625

[Tazrae]

"Now all I have to do is follow the forumla right?" She glanced down at the formula again. All she needed to do was plug the chorus and bridge back in and her song would be done.

V
V
C
V
V
B
V
V
B
C

"Syka I love you, Syka I care.
Syka I came because of your dare.
In lofty jungle filled with wild
I came, I felt, I transformed into your child.
Love me, Syka as I love you.
Kin forever, there is so much to do.

Come to me in Falyndar wild
Oh, beautiful lovely musical child.
Your presence here I so desire
How I need to feel your fire.

These jungle wilds have been tamed
with gentle hands and a settlement named.
By lapping surf and palm-filled skies
This haven invokes a million sighs.
People from everywhere heard the call
And flock to Syka to avoid a fall."

"It's like this song is two people singing to themselves, only one is a lost human and the other is a jungle settlement. I kind of love it even though it exposes so much of me as being raw." She said to the old bard who simply nodded. He'd pulled out a mandolin and had begun to strum it, as if looking for a key to set the song in as Tazrae finished the polish on it.

She dipped her quill again and wrote the entire song putting it all together and uniting it from the pieces it was in. It was almost like she was an artist slinging paint on a canvas... the words flowed from her mind and down through her hands, out onto the parchment. She surveyed her work. It was filled with sorrow and beauty, reminding her of Syka and how the settlement truly was.

Xander rose then, and pulled out a huge leather folder from his pack he normally kept with it. He removed sheets of parchment from the folder, all of them lined with the five lines she'd come to know as the blank score sheets.

"Try these, love." He said softly, handing her the sheets.

"I've never written my own music. Just a few lyrics here and there." She added, looking suddenly terrified. She glanced at Xander, knowing they'd talked about this nearly all day, but his amused look surprised her.

"How about a quick refresher?" He asked, knowing he could do that easily enough to help her finish her very first full-length song. "It might be a good idea, because while I know you know the basics, it never hurts to start over and make sure none of the basics were skipped.

Tazrae glanced down at the lyrics written in her journal and then down at the blank sheet music in her hands. "It's a very good idea. Thank you, Xander." She added, and smiled at him setting the blank music aside.

"Start from the beginning...." She suggested and leaned back to get comfortable, knowing her song wasn't actually going anywhere.


Word Count: 544

[Tazrae]

Xander cracked his knuckles and looked amused. “I’m going to treat you like a small child… like one that knows nothing. I’ll cover the basics. Just smile and nod even if you know this. You probably already know this… but I want to cover all the basics.” He said, then took her journal from her and began to make notes on his own.

“The musical alphabet is very limited. You have A-B-C-D-E-F-G. The letter names of the musical notes always indicate tehir pitch. Each note letter has a specific place on the musical staff to let you know its letter name. I already wrote you out the staffs so you could see their positions.” He added, flipping back in her notebook until they could see the staff.

Tazrae nodded. “It’s made up of five lines and four spaces. I know the position on those lines and spaces tells you the pitch like you said... and the letter name of the note as it falls on the staff.” She added. Then she indicated the Treble Clef and Bass Clefs. “These are the base and treble clefs right?” She added, hoping to impress him a little bit.

Xander only smiled. “So… if your writing music for bass instruments, you use the base clef, and all other instruments and vocals use the treble clef.” He advised, then moved on quickly. “There are other clefs too… like alto for viola, but we use them much less and you won’t need to use them at all unless you pick up those instruments.” He said, leaning back and writing some notes for her.

“You can find the notes on the staff by following a set order that you can absolutely remember with a phrase or rhyme. Starting from the bottom, the treble clef saying reads “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.” He added with a grin, then moved to the treble clef and pointed out that the notes in correct order spelled out the word “F-A-C-E.” Tazrae chuckled.

“The pattern is the same for the bass clef, but it begins on a different note. “Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always” and “All Cows Eat Grass”. Tazrae nodded again.

“I remember those.” She added, nodding as she reached out to touch the diagram. Even though she’d never been a songwriter or had written music of any kind didn’t know she couldn’t read it… though her knowledge had been shaky self-taught. Now though… it would be easier.

“You won’t always have room on the staff for all the notes, especially those really high and really low. So you can add additional lines to the staff called ledger lines that are short little lines that just cover the span of the note itself.” He added, and looked thoughtful before moving on.

“The music accidentals are important. They are the sharps and flats that will give you all twelve musical notes. If you play a piano, for example, the whole notes are always the white keys. But the black keys are sharps and flats…. And you’ll need some indication of what those are. So you can get additional sounds out of the base notes by adding musical accidentals to the score as you write it. A sharp is written with a # symbol. It means just raise the note one semitone higher… while a flat is written with a b symbol. It tells you how to lower the note one semitone.

“Got it. I understand the accidentals.” Tazrae said, happy to be picking up everything in a more formal way. She studied Xander’s diagram and nodded. He moved on quickly enough.

“Next, you need to know the Key Signatures. They are a collection of sharps or flats at the beginning of a line of sheet music that indicates the key of the song or score. Unless the score tells you otherwise with accidentals, maintain the sharps nad flats on the lines and spaces written in the key signature throughout the entirety of the song. Lets see… what else. Oh! For major keys with sharps, the very last sharp in the key signature is the leading tone of the key. The leading tone is always the 7th degree in the scale. So what you can do is count up one semitone from the last sharp to determine the key’s root. With flats on major keys, the second to the last flat is the key signature in the key’s tonic…. That’s it… that’s all you have to remember.” He added, smiling slightly.

“Most songs are clear-cut and don’t have fancy key signatures, but when you get into orchestral music, it’s a whole new world. And I doubt here in Syka, you’ll be playing for nobles and the wealthy.” He said with a smile, dealing her a little dose of reality. Syka was, and probably always would be, a settlement out far beyond the bounds of an old established city with its rich upper class.


Word Count: 882

[Tazrae]

Xander, of course, demonstrated it for her.

“What’s next?” Tazrae asked. She looked curiously on, knowing most of this but wondering when he was going to get to actual notes.

“Patience, girl. We need to talk about Time Signatures next. You see, musical passes are divided into segments called measures. Each measure contains a set value of beats. Time signatures simply show you how many beats are in a measure… and which note value is equal to a singular beat. You can always find it at the start of the music right next to the clef as two numbers stacked up on top of each other. The top number always indicates the number of beats in a measure and the bottom number indicates the value of a single beat. Almost everything is 4/4 time…. meaning four beats in a measure and the quarter note is equal to one beat.” He said as a simple explanation. Then he added the 4/4 to her already made diagram of the musical staff.

Tazrae nodded, retrieving her journal and taking more notes. Xander launched into an explanation of rhythm then, giving her a series of cheat notes to understand them.

Rhythms, it seemed, were the value of each note and how long it was head in a measure. Tazrae hadn’t known that, not up front, but she intrusively understood that’s what she was doing when she was piecing songs together and holding notes as she heard them sun.

Each rhythm value is a fraction of the total time in a measure.

• A whole note lasts the entire bar. In common time (4/4) that means its duration is four whole beats. It’s written using a hollow note head with no stem.
• A half note lasts half the bar or 2 beats. It’s written using a hollow note head with a stem attached.
• A quarter note lasts for one quarter of a bar or 1 beat. It’s written with a solid note head and stem
• An eighth note lasts for half a beat. It’s written with a solid note head and stem with a flag. When several eighth notes are written together, they’re connected with a beam.
• A sixteenth note lasts for one quarter of a beat. It’s written with a solid note head and stem with two flags. When multiple sixteenth notes are connected with a beam.

They were getting to Tazrae’s favorite part. How to write musical notes and what they meant. Xander ran through all of them from whole to half to quarter, then he even outlined eight sixteenth and thirty-second notes. She loved how they had notations for both played and rested areas… rested being where there was silence. She made careful notes in the form of a chart in her journal.

“Are there any more?” She asked, almost cheeky in her question.

Xander laughed. “Almost infinite numbers of notes, but that’s crazy composing. You’ll use these and probably nothing more for your whole life.” Xander explained with a laugh. “Now, there are also dotted notes and triplets. A dot symbol right behind the written note means that its length is drawn out by half its original value. A dotted half note, for example, means it’s a half note plus a quarter note… for a total of three-quarters of a note. Rests follow the same rule.” He added, watching her make another chart that was identical to her first one, but with dots added and the explanations for them written out by the symbols.

“Don’t forget, that the dotted notes will almost always be followed by a note that can fill in the missing space in the quarter. In 4/4 time that means that dotted half note will almost always be followed by an eighth note.” Tazrae nodded at the sense in this. There measures of time didn’t break rules, so there’d never be, say 5 notes in 4/4 time.

“Now, sometimes a note will have a 3 written above the beam or bracket above the steams. These are called triplets. They are a type of irregular rhythm where three notes are meant to fit into the space of one. You’ll know it when you hear it…” He said, then picked up his mandolin and played a series of triplets until Tazrae ‘heard’ it.

She smiled and indicated she understood. “Music is composed of noise, but it also is composed of silence. Silence in scores is just as important as the music notes that fill the silence. So we have rest notes….rests are the musical notation for intervals of silence between the notes. They have a whole series of values to tell you how long they last. Instead of telling you, I’ll indicate them next to your notes in that chart you made…” And at that, he grabbed her quill, dipped it, and began putting in rests in a new column.

“Wait, what are ties?” She asked, hoping he wasn’t going to skip them.

“Oh, right. Ties are curved lines that connect notes of the same pitch together. They tell you to hold the note for the duration of both values combined. So you aren’t playing two notes for that length.. just one… and holding it.” He added. Tazrae nodded. She definitely understood this one.

“And with that… I think you are ready. Lets get some music to your song.” Xander encouraged, indicating the blank sheets and handing her back her quill.

“Okay… one last lesson… then I want you to write the music for your song.

Word Count: 984

[Tazrae]

And once the lyrics were down and her knowledge of reading/writing musical notes refreshed, Tazrae took the blank sheets of five-lined paper and began to write music. It wasn't a complex task. No... it was easy. The music was already inside her. It had grown as the theory of Songcraft had been laid out on the table in front of her, courtesy of Xander. She smiled, her pen flying... and soon the lyrics had music... and beautiful music at that.

Finally, it was done, the lyrics arranged, the music added. Tazrae paced around the kitchen of the Protea Inn a moment, thinking... and then she settled down with her mandolin. She laid it across her lap and stroked the strings, checking it its tune. It was already perfect, she knew... but she had to play the song out in its entirety, for Xander... to thank him for all he'd taught her. Her mandolin sang out, the tune filled with loss, understanding, and a bit of two souls finding each other. It had a compulsion to it, a longing, and a gut-wrenching sense of her love of Syka. Tazrae was satisfied as she raised her throaty alto and released it, newly birthed, into the world.

Tazrae’s Song for Syka

"Oh gentle sea winds ‘neath moonlit skies,
Don’t you hear my heartfelt cries?
I’m lost and alone and drift at Sea
I’m wondering what and who I could be.
Then you Syka called to my heart so strong
And in my mind, I heard your song.

Forgotten in a city so proud
Its waterfall is too loud.
No direction, no passion, no flare
Enemies closing my mind to dare.
Dreaming dreams was all I had left
Until I fled away in a night of theft.

I heard…

Come to me in Falyndar wild
Oh, beautiful lovely musical child.
Your presence here I so desire
How I need to feel your fire.

These jungle wilds have been tamed
with gentle hands and a settlement named.
By lapping surf and palm-filled skies
This haven invokes a million sighs.
People from everywhere heard the call
And flock to Syka to avoid a fall.

Freedom waits for you in the clean fresh air,
If you take the steps, be bold, and dare.
My sea blue eyes wash with my pain,
And fill the air with tears like rain.

Below the branches, here about
Do not you sense my fear and doubt?
Side a glistening river and the sparkling sea
I will find the answer to whom I might be.

Syka I love you, Syka I care.
Syka I came because of your dare.
In lofty jungle filled with wild
I came, I felt, I transformed into your child.
Love me, Syka as I love you.
Kin forever, there is so much to do.

Your mysteries are mine to know
and as I learn them my seeds I’ll sow.
By the sea and sun and salt and sand.
Those who came shoulder to shoulder will stand.
They will teach each other how to love,
And take flight high and far like a dove.


Every day is a brand-new start
and every day you steal my heart.
I wish I could see the future true,
To ensure this feeling stays so new.
I’m happy here, where so few have dared to live,
and because of that I’ll give all I can give.


Syka I love you, Syka I care.
Syka I came because of your dare.
In lofty jungle filled with wild
I came, I felt, I transformed into your child.
Love me, Syka as I love you.
Kin forever, there is so much to do.


Come to me in Falyndar wild
Oh, beautiful lovely musical child.
Your presence here I so desire
How I need to feel your fire.

These jungle wilds have been tamed
with gentle hands and a settlement named.
By lapping surf and palm-filled skies
This haven invokes a million sighs.
People from everywhere heard the call
And flock to Syka to avoid a fall."

Xander quietly began to applaud.

Word Count: 724
Thread Count: 3759

[Tazrae]

Grading

Tazrae-

Songcraft +5, Singing +3, Psychology +2, Writing +5

Songcrafting: Composing A Song Under Guidance, Physcology: Pouring Ones Heart Out In Songcrafting, Songcrafting: Placing Notes On Paper, Songcrafting: Roadmaps To Songs When Composing Songs, Songcraft: Writing A Song For Syka, Songcrafting: The Musical Alphabet, Songcraft: Music For Base Instruments use the Bass Clef, Music For All Other Instruments Use Treble Clef, Songcraft: Alto Clefs & Misc Other Instruments, Songcraft: Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge Placement Phrase, Songcraft: FACE, Songcraft: All Cows Eat Grass, Songcraft: Ledger Lines for extremely high or extremely low notes, Songcraft: Accidentals (Flat, Sharp, Neutrals), Songcraft: Key Signatures, Songcraft: Time Signatures, Songcrafts: How to use Rhythms, Songcraft: Value. Songcrafting: Using Musical Notations, Songcrafting: What Music Notes Mean, Songcrafting: Composing A Song For Syka