You're Sitting?

Writers: AL, Francesca
Date Posted: 22nd August 2008

Characters: Lirit, Arrilon
Description: Arrilon has a slightly embarrassing voice lesson with Lirit.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 11, day 10 of Turn 4
Notes: Mentor Approved.

The sound of familiar footsteps entered the room as Lirit was leaning over
his gitar, plucking at the strings and turning the pegs to ease the sound up
or down. "Hello Arrilon." He lifted his face to smile in the direction of
his pupil. "Ready for your voice lesson?"

The first time Lirit had recognized his footsteps in the hallway (which had
only been after their third lesson together) Arrilon had felt a strange sense
of homecoming. That Lirit had recognized his steps had been, to him, a
sign that he was settling in to his new life at the Weyr. Since then, he had
enjoyed the frequent lessons. At first this had been because Lirit's lack of
sight made him feel like he could disguise his nervousness at taking "real"
harper lessons for the first time. He had soon learned that Lirit was as
good, if not better, at picking up on his emotions, and the pleasure came
from the Journeyman's style of teaching and the amount Arrilon was able
to learn at each lesson.

Arrilon softly cleared his throat and placed his music on the stand. "Yes."

"Have you been practising?" Lirit played with one more string until he
finally got it tuned.

"Yes, I've spent most of my practice time working on 'Just a Little
Song.'" It was a song most people knew, but _really_ learning how to
sing it was more challenging that it seemed.

"Good." Lirit began to pick the tune out, fingers lightly dancing over the
strings. "Let me hear you."

The apprentice cleared his throat again, then began singing the first verse,
trying to remember everything he had been practicing since the previous
lesson. Breath control, phrasing, emphasizing the correct words and
syllables, staying with the guitar. His voice cracked slightly as he
switched from his head to his chest voice, but he kept singing, which was
an improvement from his first few lessons, when he would automatically
stop at each little mistake. His voice still sounded untrained, and it tended
to fade away at the end of each phrase, but beneath the amateur mistakes
was a rich baritone with a warm timber.

"Very good." Lirit nodded. "We need to work on your breath control
some more, there's still too much air, and this is causing you to go a
bit sharp."

Arrilon frowned a bit. He thought it had sounded fine, but unless he was
in a corner, or another place that echoed, he couldn't trust his own ears.
"Maybe if I stand?" he suggested.

"You're sitting?" Surprise flicked across Lirit's features. "Arrilon, you
should know better than to sit while singing. Do you practise when you
sit?"

The apprentice blushed and quickly stood. "Sometimes," he admitted.
"But, I thought it was ok if I kept my back very straight."

"It's best you do it while standing." Lirit shook his head, disappointed in
Arrilon's laziness. "I'm not saying you _can't_ sing while sitting, but
you'll get better support while standing."

Arrilon was glad Lirit couldn't see him. He was as bright as a redfruit
with embarrassment. Now that he was being chastised, he could clearly
remember a previous discussion they had had about breath support and
standing. **Stupid stupid stupid.** "I won't do it again," he promised
softly, feeling like a child, but realizing he had made a big mistake.

"Good. Keep your back straight. Drop your shoulders and when you
breath, don't gasp. I shouldn't be able to hear you breath very much." A
lot of the apprentices he taught had a tendency to gasp. It was rather
annoying. "Let's go over this again, then we'll talk about some other
points."

He tried not the breath loudly and follow all of the Journeyman's advice as
he sang the song again, but part of him just wanted the lesson to be over.
While he was learning a lot, it was hard to remember everything from
week to week, as evinced by his careless error. He would need to skim
through his first notes as soon as he got back to the candidate barracks to
make sure he wasn't forgetting anything else important.

"Yes, definitely better. You're still going sharp, but not as much." Lirit
nodded his approval, his smile lighting his face. "Now, your enunciation
needs work. Remember, you have to enunciate much more clearly while
singing than you do while speaking. Your 't's are sounding a lot like 'd's as
well, so make sure you make a clear, distinct 't' sound."

Arrilon relaxed a bit at the praise, settling back into the normal rhythms of
practice. He practiced singing a verse again, this time feeling a bit
ridiculous at his exaggerated enunciation of the 't,'s and 'p's.

"Good, good." Lirit stopped his playing, "You're still getting too much
air. I want you to continue to do your breathing exercises and build up
those muscles."

"All right." **Is the lesson already over?** he wondered.

"Now, there's a new piece I want you to work on." Lirit turned to the table
behind him, hand groping about til it came into contact with a bit of sheet
music. "This one is really going to work on that upper range of yours."
He turned back to his student and held out the music for him to take.

Arrilon took the sheet and scanned it, grimacing a bit at how high it went.
He would need to do a lot of warming up every time he wanted to practice.
"All right. Anything I should work on, besides breathing?"

"For this piece, you really need to open up." Lirit pointed out and opening
his mouth in an example of how wide. "Aim for the top of your head, and
that breath support is really important. Well, it's always important, but it's
what makes the difference between a pure sound and a flat or sharp sound.
"Think you can sight read it well enough to go over it once?"

"I can try." Even though all of his teachers stressed the importance of
being able to sight read, Arrilon couldn't help but feel that it was not the
most useful skill to have, at least for singers. It seemed easier to play the
notes on a guitar, or just about any other instrument before trying to sing
it. However, he knew he would need to become very good at it if he was
to continue his studies as a harper.

"All right, four bar intro and then come in." Lirit's fingers glided over the
strings.

Arrilon listened carefully to the intro, keeping the beat quietly with a hand
against his leg. He thought the first note, took a breath, and sang… and it
didn't sound right at all. He stopped, flustered, unable to think of what the
correct note could be. "Sorry. Can I try that again?" His cheeks were
bright red.

"Let's do solfège." Lirit really should have had him start out with that in
the first place - a mistake on his part. "That, I think, will help a lot."

This time when Arrilon opened his mouth to sing, the correct note came
out. Doing solfège made the intervals between notes more apparent and,
while he did slow down at the harder intervals, he managed to get through
the first section.

"Good! Practise the solfège until you're comfortable with it." Lirit
suggested, "Then add the words."

"I will." By their next lesson he was sure he would know all of the notes,
and be comfortable with the words as well.

"Good, good. Let's go over this a few more times before we call it a day."
Without waiting for an answer, Lirit began to pluck at the strings,
musically urging the young man to sing.

Arrilon did so and the rest of the lesson was, thankfully, uneventful. He
felt more confident each time he sang the piece, aided by Lirit's
accompaniment. And, although he was still embarrassed by his oversight
and mistakes, he vowed to spend some extra time practicing that
sevenday.

"Good job, Arrilon." Lirit praised as the last strains of the music died
down. "I'll see you next sevenday."

"See you then." Yes, he would practice right after stopping by the Dining
Caverns for a snack.

Last updated on the August 24th 2008

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