Timestamp: 508 AV, Summer 20th
Location: Southern Suvan - Tova Bay
Purpose: Mandolin & Sailing
Status: Closed
Topaz sat cradling her mandolin, stroking its fine curved neck, as her ship the Sunseeker rocked back and forth anchored in Tova Bay. The day was waning, but Topaz didn’t mind. Crystal was frolicking in the surf and chasing other dolphin’s that belonged to the Pod as Tavan. Home was beautiful, even if she wasn’t anchored with Moon or the rest of her relatives. But now wasn’t the time for play, not like Crystal was doing. Now it was more than time for her to practice her Mandolin. Sure, she'd fumbled through it well enough up until now, but it was time to do some actual learning. Like Lia Turquoise always said – Why do something if you can’t do it with style?
Her mother’s father, one of Turquoise’ lovers had played. As a girl, he'd often let her sit by his knee, around the campfires on the beach, and listen to him play the very mandolin she cradled in her arms this instant. She remembered what he used to say about it quite clearly.
"Girl... you need to know your instrument well. It needs to always be in a playable condition, and it needs to be tuned." She already knew how to tune it. That was one of her birthrights. The Maelstrom's had keen ears and a good sense of pitch. She glanced down at the mandolin, following that well-remembered advice. She checked for cracks and warps, and then checked the pegs to see if they were tight and working. The strings were all in place, the four pairs of them, and tuned perfectly. She ran her hands over the neck, and noted the oddity of the strings. It was a beautiful instrument, carved of Svefra hands and worked with dolphins playing up its side fit her personality well.
The instrument she cradled in her arms was a rare beast. People often thought they were guitars, but they were not. Their sound, to Topaz, was richer more fuller and somewhat haunting. Mandolin's had eight strings, though they were arranged in pairs of two, each two tuned to the same note. They were designed to be played at the same time, and thus each pair only counted as one string. She smiled, checking them. Yes, they all looked good.
"Always check your action, girl. This is a critical factor, because if the strings are too high above the fret, you'll have a hard time pushing your fingers down on them to create your music. If their too low, they'll rattle or buzz on the frets." She checked the height, and adjusted it slightly. The fret, or little metal bars placed at various intervals along the neck, looked to be the perfect distance beneath the strings, ready to take her finger pressure. She loved his terms. "Fret... action" She didn't know what action was for the longest time... It just meant height. Bards took such interesting titles for their instruments and their parts.... so much so it made Topaz chuckle. Always, they had a flair for the dramatic. She supposed she wasn't too different.
Regan's voice spoke in her memory again. "Now, hold your mandolin on your lap so that the neck is pointed left, and look at the little strip of bone near the tuning pegs which the strings cross over. That's called the nut. The grooves in the nut should allow the strings to barely clear the first fret." She checked, and it did. She smiled at this. Topaz hoped her mother’s father would appreciate how well she'd been taking care of his mandolin.
"Now look at the bridge... the wooden bar that the strings cross over at the other end of your mandolin. I will show you a trick to see if your adjustment is correct." She remembered, in the clarity of her past, that he'd pulled stone miza from his pocket and neatly slipped it between the strings and the twelfth fret. Then he'd adjusted the action at the fret so it was exactly the miza's thickness. "I remember, Regan. I remember you saying that the lower the action, the easier it is to play. I will keep it low for now... until I get better...." But not too low she thought, remembering the funny buzzing noises you'd get from playing with your action set up too low. She laughed suddenly, glancing around. She hoped no one would have heard her speaking to her mother’s father, who was long passed from the world. When she discovered she was alone, she continued on.
Yes, that was the idea. Keep the strings low while your learning to play, then raise them up some when you're ready to start playing for others. She knew more experienced players preferred higher action because it produced a louder clearer sound.
Next the strings. She nodded, and then tried to remember what he said about those. "Strings, adjust them so they are just a hair above the first fret and miza’s length above the last." She checked.... yes.. all correct.
She was now ready to double check her tuning, then she could start playing. But first their was the Sunseeker to attend too. While she was anchored the tide was going out and the bay she was resting in was getting dangerously shallow. It happened sometimes on the isles in the Southern Suvan. Topaz set her mandolin aside, rose up, and pulled up the anchor. She let out the sail, cranked on the jig line, and caught enough wind to catch the boat and move it while there was still water under her hull. Topaz tied off the sail and scrim line, moved to the back of the boat where she could steer it better, and guided the little casinor out into deeper water. The jade blue of the sea beneath her was crystal clear, revealing reefs below. She settled the Casinor between two reefs, deeper into the bay, and threw her anchor out again. Now she wouldn’t run aground and be stuck until the tide came back in and lifted the boat free.
