Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Executive Officer) in Holosuite 1- Finding the Melody

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in Holosuite 1- Finding the Melody

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Executive Officer) in Holosuite 1- Finding the Melody
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The issue of a setting for their lessons had been rolling around in her mind. She didn’t want to assume that what would be comfortable for herself would equally be comfortable for Aasrel.

So Shara compromised.

Her mind drifted to those late nights on Arkelis after she closed Tank’s. She would sit at the piano (the only one she had access to at the time) and play like no one was watching. Which had always been the case until that fateful night that Edward Calloway had wandered into the tavern with his freighter shipmates.

Shara looked around at the well-lit room, sunshine cascading in through the windows. It was a simple space with a pale hardwood floors and the piano sate a couple metres from athe bay window, facing a wall so the light cast onto her hands as she played, as well as any music she wanted to put up on the rack. The open door to the music studio led out into the verdant surroundings, trees casting shade, and the dense underbrush adding the smell of green, growing things. It wafted inside without any of the allergen issues some people experienced.

She sat at the upright piano and lifted the fallboard, exposing the keys. She the back of her fingers along them from the first key (A), up four and a half octaves to E, letting her hand flick off at the end. She then set about doing some warm-up arpeggios, starting with simple ones and working up to more advanced exercises. She did this all from memory.

~Shara Calloway, XO

Aasrel stepped in while she was still doing her warm up exercises. He stood in the door momentarily, looking a little nervous. Finally he stepped further into the room, stopping quite a ways from her and the piano. “Hey.”

~ Izei, CMO

“Hi,” she said, briefly glancing in his direction before she continued playing. The song changed into the melody of a simple children’s lullaby: Au Claire de Lune. She played it with her right hand only, her fingers stroking each key lightly.

“Come join me. I promise we’ll start slowly,” Shara said.

~Shara Calloway, XO

Aasrel stepped closer and stood just behind the bench. He wore a long sleeve shirt and long pants, soft cotton gloves covering his hands. It felt too warm to be dressed that way, but such was typical of the slightly odd doctor. “What are you playing?”

~ Izei, CMO

She gave him a soft smile. “It’s an old Earth lullaby called Claire de Lune. Like many songs on the piano, we can make it as simple or complex as we like. She shifted over more on the bench to make room for him. “Come on and sit, there’s not point in standing. You won’t learn anything that way.”

“What would you say your musical skills include already? And don’t discount anything. It might help me a lot.”

~Shara Calloway, XO

“Uhm… I was in a choir in school.” Aasrel said as he sat, a little awkwardly, on the bench next to her. “I learned some music theory, you know, reading notes and the like. But instruments…” He shrugged.

~ Izei, CMO

She shook her head and smiled. “Believe it or not, you already know a lot. Being able to read music will help a lot. Because while there are two lines of music, once you know how to read the notes on both, you have the ability to learn lots of different songs.”

She hit a white key in the middle of the piano that was part of a set of two white keys. “This is middle C. I’ll show you on some sheet music in a moment, but everything to the right is played by the right hand, and everything to the left is played on the left hand. The right hand plays the top line of music, which is written in treble clef, and left plays the bottom line, or bass clef notes. As you start we’ll just do the right hand for now until you’re ready to add in the left. Sound okay?” Shara said, looking at him to gauge whether that was too much or just enough info.

~Shara Calloway, XO

Aasrel seemed to be following along. She explained clearly and simply. He was staring at the keys, memorising which one was middle C. “Alright, got it.”

~ Izei, CMO