Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Solal Segal (Oncology and Immunology) in Side sim - A Concert for the Ages

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Achilleas Petrakos (Chief Science Officer) in Side sim - A Concert for the Ages

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Solal Segal (Oncology and Immunology) in Side sim - A Concert for the Ages
Posted by… suppressed (13) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Achilleas shrugged in response. “To get better at something? Were you satisfied with how you played? I thought we did well but there is room for improvement. We don’t need to play or practice if you don’t want to.” He stretched his shoulders and set the cello on the stand next to him. “Why were you alone playing the violin? Why no orchestra playing with you?”

CSO Petrakos

“My performance was… less than adequate on that song.” He said, placing the violin’s bow on the music stand. His next question was harder to answer. He did not want to call it ‘embarrassment’, because that was… too human. But that seemed the only word that came to mind in response. But he could answer the last part. “I never played in an orchestra. I had private lessons.” He responded with a shrug. “So I am not accustomed to playing with others.”

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

“What do you think of doing a duet then?” Achilleas asked. “Could you feel energy as we played off of each other?” He wasn’t trying to convince Solal that he needed to practice or that they needed to play together again. However he was regretful over untapped potential and Solal had a decent foundation. Some polishing and practice of a song would show great results.

CSO Petrakos

Solal had no idea what Achilles meant by ‘feeling the energy by playing off each other’ but it did certainly sound different with the voice of Achilleas’ cello added in. So, after a long moment’s thought, he replied, “…Okay.” He wanted to experiment with the sound. See how other pieces sounded. And maybe see how this piece was if he played better.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

“Okay… what?” Achilleas asked in confusion. It felt okay to play together? It would be okay to play more together? Feeling the energy while playing with someone else felt okay?

CSO Petrakos

Solal hadn’t realized his answer might be confusing, so he gave Achilleas a confused look in response and clarified, “Let’s do a duet. I want to hear how the music sounds with your cello in it, too”

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

“Oh…” Achilleas said in response. “Oh! Cool! I wasn’t sure what you meant but that’s definitely a good thing to hear. Do you want to do a couple more runs of it now then? How long is your booking of the holodeck for?”

CSO Petrakos

“An hour and a half,” Solal replied, and then he checked the time. “It’s been 48 minutes… So we probably have time to run through it again today.” At the first ‘Oh’, Achilleas had sounded kind of… un-enthusiastic, and then it seemed he had suddenly become very excited. Solal decided that was probably a good thing.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas nodded then took the cello and bow off the stand and set it up between his legs. “Okay then let’s give it another run. Here are some things to keep in mind, maybe it will help a bit.” He then gave some general tips that should help but who really knows. After checking that Solal more or less understood what was said, he counted the beat then started to play.

CSO Petrakos

Solal picked up his violin and its bow, pulling the instrument up to his chin. He listened to Achilleas’ tips, planning to try and use them this play through, but well, they’d see how that turned out. And on the first beat Achilleas played Solal began to play as well.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

The second run through the score went a bit easier for Achilleas. Mainly because he was more familiar with some of the trickier parts and knew when he could end a note slightly earlier to get more time to smoothly turn the page of the music sheet. He was able to immerse himself a little deeper into the music and feel the intent behind the composer’s writing.

CSO Petrakos

The second run through was still rough for Solal, but less so, as he already knew the notes. But it still took some techniques he wasn’t familiar with, and those parts sounded kind of rough. Soon the song had ended once again, and Solal lowered his violin, looking to Achilleas as he stretched out his arms.

~ Lt JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas closed his eyes for a moment as he pondered their performance before opening them again and nodding to Solal. “That was better. I think that this could definitely be something that with a bit of polish would be fantastic. How do you feel about it after having a second run?”

CSO Petrakos

“It sounded better, I think. There’s a section of the middle that I find particularly difficult,” said Solal honestly. “It would take several more practices to get it to sound ‘fantastic’ as you put it, though.” He added.

~ Lt. JG Solal, Doctor

Achilleas smiled and shrugged in response. “Most things take great effort to perfect or get good at. Naturally it’d take several practices or more for it to sound fantastic. I don’t know about professional orchestras but my siblings and I would take weeks at the very least for a song or months to learn and perform well a selection of songs.”

CSO Petrakos

“Do you want to practice for weeks in order to perform this song? And perhaps we could pick some others?” Solal asked. He wasn’t sure they’d have the time for that, but they could at least try if they decided they wanted to.

~ Lt. JG Solal, Doctor

“I think that depends on how often either of us could get a holodeck booking, when both of our schedules are free, and how much effort you wants to put into this. I’m game for seeing how this goes in the meantime. There’s no such thing as wasted time on an activity that is fun to do.” Achilleas replied with a nod.

CSO Petrakos