Beginning Viola
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Mimi
[Lessons] Mimi: And we're going to just do IC and OOC at the same time, cause it makes things easier. Anyone want to tell me what a jam session is?
[Lessons] Sioned: a group of people practicing or just playing with no real music to look off of
Mimi sits on the floor somewhere in the middle of the rehearsal hall, plucking away at her fiddle, just an idle tune as she stares at the stage, head rocking along with the music. She pauses playing to bite her lip and lean over a scrap of paper to write something down, before she tucks her stylus behind her ear and reads over the paper, automatically playing out the simple song again.
[Lessons] Radel: A somewhat intuitive practice session. The theatre version of a jam session is an improve scene. Someone sets the basic ground rules for it, normally the teacher or more experienced person in the group and things take off from there.
[Lessons] Ylisa: In music terms it can be round a tune, or just a chord sequence.
[Lessons] Radel smiles and apologizes in advance. I'm a rl theatre directory (at least that's what my major is in ;) ) so I'll probably use a lot of theatre comparisons.
[Lessons] Mimi nodnods. All correct. Yeah, spur of the moment "Hey let's play something". You can have jam sessions on the beach, in the Mug, in the middle of a hallway...Anywhere. And it makes for some great RP.
[Lessons] Mimi: No problem, Radel. Can't hurt to learn a few theatrey things.
Radel rushes in, pipes in hand. Using the doorframe to help keep his skidding turn in control he slides to a stop behind Mimi and gasps out, "Am I *pant pant* late? I hope *pant pant* I'm not late. If I am *gasp* I'm sorry."
[Lessons] Mimi idly notes that she's pulling most of this class and information off the top of her head from a class she had like 6 months ago, so...Yeah. Hee.
Sioned enters in after the first person. She looks around, "Hello." she says cheerfully and walks closer to the Journeywoman and takes a seat on the floor.
Rislyn follows Sioned in from the Dormitory Lounge. "Hi hi." and she also takes a seat on the floor across from Mimi.
Ylisa is employed in similar fashion to Mimi, except that in her case, she's sitting on a bench at the side of the hall, and her arm is draped over a gitar. Her flute is beside her in its carrying case, on top of which rests a greatly scribbled-on piece of hide. It is at this that Ylisa is currently glaring, and there is no sound, musical or otherwise, coming from her direction.
Niara follows the others in, dropping her things into a pile as she settles herself down cross-legged on the floor.
Mimi stills her fiddle's strings with
a hand as she is slightly startled by Radel and turns a bit to look up at him,
"Hm?" Late? What? Oh right. "Oh yeah. No, not at all, have a
seat." The journeywoman had actually lost track of time herself. Fiddle is
set aside for the moment and her papers are folded up and put away. She motions
towards the floor, "C'mon, then. Have a seat, sit down. Y'all got an
instrument of choice?" A glance is thrown over to Ylisa, and a slight
shrug. Don't think she's scheduled for the class, but it can't hurt for her to
join in, "Hey Ylis, want to come play with us?"
Radel looks behind him as just about everyone else walks calmly in. Blushing furiously, both a result of his running and his embarrassment he quietly takes a seat a little bit apart from the rest of the group, his back to the stage...
Sioned shrugs and looks around. "Not really." and she looks around again not knowing some of the faces.
Rislyn hmms. "Well I'm not sure, all I have is my small pipes." and she looks around at the group that has accumulated here. "Any thing in particular that we need?" and she looks down at her pipes which are in her lap.
Ylisa looks up at Mimi's call, and blinks. Pulled from her intense concentration, it takes her a second to digest what Mimi has said, but then she smiles and gets up from the bench, holding the gitar carefully. "Sure - sounds like just what I need to get me out of the rut I'm in. What shall I bring? I've got my flute here, too."
Mimi picks her fiddle up again, setting it in her lap and tuning a string or two, "Uhm...." A glance goes over to Sioned, then back to Ylisa, "Maybe you could lend one to Sioned here?" She shakes her head to Rislyn, "Nope. Just something to play'sall. If you don't want to use your pipes, there're a couple extra flutes and a fiddle around over there..." A hand is waved towards a couple cases sitting in the corner, which contain said instruments. "No music. No papers. We're just going to see how you can do with a bit of improv."
Rislyn nods, she reaches over to a case picking a flute. "Will this be okay?" as she holds up a flute, carefully piecing it together.
Sioned smiles and grabs a fiddle, plucking the strings quietly. She rests her chin on the rest and adjust herself then puts it down. "Thanks." she says with a smile.
Radel brings the pipes he's holding and brings them up to his lips. Licking his lips he starts to tunelessly toots on them, apparently warming up.
Ylisa joins the group, gitar in hand, and smiles cheerfully. "Improv? Great!" She drops to the ground, and makes herself as comfortable as one can be, playing a gitar while sitting crosslegged on the floor. Her fingers run across the strings, plucking a quiet chord. "Are we going to tune?"
[Lessons] Mimi: Mmkay. You'll want to figure out a pose order to hold when you're playing. So we're going to go Me, Rislyn, Sioned, Radel, Ylisa when we start, which will probably be my coming pose. ^^
Mimi smiles around the group, this being one of her favorite lessons, seeing as there are no set guidelines and it's really just fooling around on your instruments. "Tune up pretty quick," she goes about fixing a couple strings and allows them all a moment to test their instruments. "Okay, I'm going to start off, and let me play for two or three measures, then come in when you feel comfortable." She rolls her head around, before placing her fiddle under her chin and picking up the bow. The melody starts, a high alto countering a low tenor, two younglings harmlessly flirting between each other, laughter and merriment flickering from the notes.
[Lessons] Mimi: Alrighty, what you'll want to do is try and paint a scene, or a little story with your music.
[Lessons] Mimi: Not to mention I was just flipping through a little bluegrass-ish cd that I have and found a song with just about all of our instruments called Robin and Marian, so I'm pretty much using Robin Hoodish things, here.
Rislyn licks her lips ready to jump in. She gets the beat and smiles, she places the pipes up to her mouth and blows a few simple chords in time jumping around, then she fingers out a C holding it for two beats and continues jumping around then notes. She takes in another breath and continues starting on a high C going down the scale.
Sioned picks the fiddle up again and places it under her chin, deciding a more soprano would be nice, she waits for Rislyn to play a little then enters in. She places the bow up and hits a few chords in the second soprano area before going higher in to a soprano tone playing around the first fiddles notes. Letting her harmonize a couple octaves above.
Radel picks the tune up a couple of measures after Sioned. Strangely enough he picks up on Mimi's tenor, playing under and around it, giving the tenor a more playful romantic feel, a young man, flirting shamelessly with his sweetheart...
Ylisa, on the gitar, decides that her part is to provide some underpinning. She listens to the others for a few bars, picking up the time and the key, then joins in, strumming gently at first with a steady rhythm. The sound is warm, dependable. She is the ground on which they are standing, the earth beneath their feet.
[Lessons] Mimi nods. Very nice, all of you. Ris and Sio, focus a bit more on the scene and feel than the actual notes and technical stuff. Uhm...Oh yeah, a song will probably last about four pose rounds, depending how many people you have around. The first pose is really just a start, the second develops your scene/story, the third is a climax, and fourth a conclusion.
Mimi smiles around the group as she continues at a slightly more neutral alto, letting her students take the parts. Middle note intrudes between the pair, pulling them away from each other, young love in a tragic tale, sending the young man's tenor away and containing the soprano of the flutes, flitting about her, and shooing her further from him.
Rislyn pauses for a measure letting the dreary sound surround the rest of the group. She picks up and lets a small simple sound out, trying to bring hope to the tale. She lets the notes lead them though.
Sioned pauses when Rislyn does and waits another measure longer than Rislyn. She picks up again and lets a low thrum, as danger comes near. The clouds turn grey and black and she continues on a steady beat simple and clean, letting the rest take the main parts.
Radel comes in almost immediately with Sioned, going even further down the scale into a long, dark note of despair and anger then just vibrate on through the rest of the melody until the boy needs to take a breath. Then, with his next breath Radel counterposes his melody, now higher and more martial in tone, a lover defiant and determined to get his lady back, regardless of the odds, eager to brave any enemy, any danger for his love.
Ylisa roughens her strumming, changing the pattern. Fingernails strike the strings more sharply as an element of conflict intrudes. She adds some more sinister notes to the harmony, puts more emphasis on the bass strings - a storm on the horizon. This tale is heading for dark places.
But wait. Mimi quickens the tempo, allowing for the tenor to surface - he's not leaving without a fight. The young man encounters our resident villain who is added with a frantic high tenor, attempting to rid song and story of the young man, but he falters. Soprano and our hero's lady love is ever present, lingering somewhere behind the villain. (OOC: Whee! Fight scene. ;D)
Rislyn takes a few measures out and comes back in with a shriek and holds it. She takes another breath and comes back in, a high tone, the lady pleading her captor vigorously to let her go. She lets the last note abruptly end, tho the fair lady watches still in hope.
Sioned quickens her tempo and raises the deep thrum to a slightly higher tone as the fight commences. She plucks the chords sharply and the fight intensifies with each blow and move. She waits a couple beats and plucks a different chord, much sharper, a lady's fear and cry for her love as the fight continues.
Radel slows his tempo, drawing out his notes around Mimi's villain, taking the measure of his opponent. Then, all of the sudden he starts to a high, quick melody, darting and dodging around Mimi's tune, challenging, aggressive. The lover determined to take care of the villain as quick as possible to get his love back.
The gitar strings sound almost metallic as Ylisa strikes single sharp chords, like blows or the clash of swords. She maintains a strict but urgent tempo, and the volume builds as the struggle intensifies, working to a climax. A final blow, fortissimo, then a bar of silence. The gitar comes in again, softly, strings plucked, not struck, and in a minor key. Someone has fallen - but who?
[Lessons] Mimi: Okay, this will be the last round of poses. Everyone play to juuust about finishing, and Ylisa can wrap it up, since she's last in pose order
[Lessons] Ylisa: OK.
Mimi leaves the mystery hanging for a moment before returning the tenor, triumphant, proud. Nothing in her way, the soprano weaves around the tenor, together at last, reunited again. Le happy sigh.
[Lessons] Mimi: Oh, to note, a lot of jamming performances aren't as story-oriented as this one. More thing-oriented. Like...a butterfly. Or something like that. I just came across the song and couldn't let the idea go. 'Sides, it made for fun RP, yesh?
Rislyn smiles and jumps in again. She plays the high road, the light shifting to a lovely day and the two's love reunited and happy, releasing the tone of nature around them.
Sioned slowly brings the thrum up and continues. She suddenly goes back low as the evil creeps of in to the distance die alone. She ends her music, letting it die out as the evil dies. and places her fiddle down in her lap, and listens to the rest of the song.
Radel abandons the young hero and shifts to playing what's almost a dancing melody, working around Mimi's tune, making the couple dance in the sun that peeks back out from behind the receding clouds, the villain forgotten. This time he hits a couple of hitches as he tries to bite off a little more than he can chew by taking on a more complex part but he just winces and doggedly continues to play...
Ylisa's gitar sings its joyful arpeggios, with no discordant notes to mar the scene, as the dance-like beat continues Simple harmonies show the two together, the future bright and full of hope. Slowing slightly on the last two bars, the music draws to a happy close.
[Lessons] Ylisa: That was the last round of music, so we stop playing now. Could carry on talking.
Once the music stops Radel looks down at his pipes almost as if he were accusing them of being the culprit of his sour notes towards the end of the jam...
Mimi grins as she draws out a finishing note, nodding around her circle of pupils, "Good /job/, everyone. That was just lovely." A solemn nod. Then individual advice, "Ylisa, nice using the guitar as general atmosphere. Rislyn just work on your breath support. Otherwise, it was good. Sio, good. Your ending was cute. Radel, great. Don't rush things. You'll learn more with time and practice. Don't attempt things you know you can't do." She idly strokes the fiddle in her lap, "Well, technically, that's it for the lesson, unless you want to do another song?" Looks go around the circle, eyebrows raised. Mimi certainly wouldn't mind, as this isn't your average lesson.
Radel looks up from the offending pipes and nods slightly at Mimi's comment, then smiles a little bit and finally grins, "That was kind of fun, it was."
<We went on to do another song, as I recall, but there's no log>
