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Chapter Nine
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Ellamae heard a soft knocking on the door. "Come in, Sunny. I've been waiting for you."
A little girl with long blonde hair walked in, and held up her mouth for a kiss. Ellamae gave her a peck, and then helped her up on the piano bench. "What are you today?"
"I'm a flower. A daisy."
Ellamae thought for a second, and then said, "The petals on a daisy go around; if you move your finger along, you come back to the same one. With music, it's the same, but there's a twist. If you trace along the notes, you come back to the same one." She played a few notes, and then closed her eyes and said, "To you, are the notes a circle, like the petals of the daisy, or a line, like the piano keyboard is laid out?"
"A circle! A circle!" Sunny said enthusiastically.
"Ok. I want you to improvise something for me that sounds like a circle. It's interesting to me that you hear it that way."
"Why?" the little girl asked.
"Why do I want you to play a circle, or why is it interesting?"
"Why is it interesting?"
"Because you hear things in ways that I don't, and sometimes I learn something new from you."
"Even if I'm a little girl?"
"Especially if you are a little girl. To me, the notes sound like a line, and so I want to hear you play. I want to hear the circle through your ears. Besides, it will help me teach you."
"What keys can I use? The big ones, or the little ones, or both?"
"Right now I want you to stay with just the big keys, although you can feel the tips of the little keys to help you keep your place. And remember that, when you are not talking with me or your parents, you need to call them the white keys and the black keys."
"Why?"
Ellamae closed her eyes in thought. "A smooth surface and a rough surface feel different, right?"
"Yes."
"And loud and quiet sound different, right?"
"Yes."
"There is a difference between the white keys and the black keys that is like those differences to a sighted person."
"On some pianos, the big keys and the little keys feel different. The big keys feel smooth, like hard plastic or glass. The little keys felt smooth, but a different kind of smooth, like bare wood. And on Gramp-Grampa's piano, the big keys feel like that funny stone in Polly's cage. I don't like pianos where the big keys and the little keys feel the same. Is that what you mean?"
Ellamae played a few notes, a musical question. Sunny played a startlingly simple answer.
"You hear and you touch, but they are different, right?"
"Yes, they are different."
"Well, seeing is different from hearing and touch, in the same way. It's hard to describe. Describing seeing to you is kind of like describing music to a man who doesn't hear."
"But music is like dancing! And swimming! And skipping!"
"Well, ok, I guess you're right." Ellamae's eyes lit up. "Imagine that you took off your shirt, and wherever you went, everything became really small and pressed up against your chest and your tummy."
"That would be fun! And confusing."
"But do you see how that would help you know where things are around you?"
Sunny frowned for a second, and said, "I think so."
"That is what seeing is like."
"I wish I could see!"
"I do, too. But you know what? You see a lot of things that other people don't. Your sense of touch picks up on things that most people don't -- like one of my friends, Sarah."
"I want to meet her!"
"That can probably be arranged. Anyway, you hear things that other people don't hear. When we improvise together, you do things that I wouldn't imagine, and in a way I can hear them through your ears. When you play music, you let other people hear the things you imagine, and that is a great gift."
Ellamae placed the child's hands on the keyboard, her left pinky on middle C. "Now, I want you to play music in a circle."
Sunny struck middle C, then the C an octave above, then the C an octave below. She played these three notes, venturing an octave further. Then she added D, F, and G, almost never striking two consecutive notes in the same octave. Then she added E, first playing fragmented arpeggios, and then all five notes, and then the whole scale, ranging all across the keyboard -- quite a reach for her little body! Ellamae didn't like it at first; it sounded jumpy and disjointed. Then something clicked within her, and she no longer heard the octaves at all, but the notes, the pure colors of the notes, arranged in a circle. This must be what it is like to have perfect pitch, she thought. Sunny wound the music down.
"That's very good, Sunny. Sometimes I think I learn as much from you as you are learning from me. Did you practice 'By the Water' this week?"
The little girl placed her finger on her lip.
"Do you still remember how it goes?"
Smiling, the child started to plink the tune away, in a light, merry, happy-go-lucky way. Ellamae said, "That's how we play 'At the Circus.' 'By the Water' is slow and restful, like Mommy reading you a story at bedtime. Think about drinking hot cocoa when you are sleepy. Can you play it again?"
Sunny played the song again, but this time at a placid adagio place. Her touch was still light, but it was light in a soft way.
"That's good, Sunny. Now, would you scoot over a little, to the right? Let's play Question and Answer."
Sunny moved, and Ellamae sat down on the bench next to her. Ellamae played a phrase, and the little girl responded. Then she played something slightly different, and the child varied her response. Ellamae played a slightly longer question, and Sunny played a much longer, merrier, dancelike answer.
"That's good, Sunny. Keep your hands dancing on the keyboard."
Ellamae started to play a complex tune, and at the very climax stopped playing. Sunny, without missing a beat, picked it up and completed it. Then Ellamae joined in, and the two began to improvise a duet, a musical dialogue -- sometimes with two voices, sometimes with one, sometimes silent. Many threads developed, were integrated, and then wound down to a soft finish.
They sat in silence for a while, breathless, and then Ellamae reached atop the piano.
"I have something for you, Sunny."
"A CD!" the girl said, with excitement.
"Yes, this is a Bach CD. For practice this week, I want you to spend a half hour listening to the Little Fugue in G minor. Have the CD player repeat on track seven. Then I want you to spend half an hour improvising with the theme. Stay on the big keys; it'll sound a little different, but stick with it. Next time, I'll show you a way to use some of the big keys and some of the little keys."
"Cool!"
A knock sounded from the door. "Is Sunny ready to go yet?"
Sunny gave Ellamae a hug, and turned away. "Mommy! Mommy! Look what Teacher gave me!"
With that, she was off, leaving Ellamae in silent contemplation.
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A Cord of Seven Strands >
Chapter Nine
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