performance & lessons

[pissandvinegar]

Who: music appreciators
When: September 29th, early morning
Where: library
What: plink
Warnings: sqq is a severe and old-fashioned teacher and I mean that in the worst way. sorry in advance

[ sometime yesterday an inked note appeared on the bulletin board:

Qin performance and lessons will be held at the library tomorrow in the morning.

with a painted depiction of an analog clock face depicting 6 o' clock. so. the writer of the note expects attendees to be awake before the morning bell and also skip out on breakfast in the cafeteria if they want to come, apparently.

Kongxu has set things up at some of the study tables. there are a number of unstrung guqins lined up occupying one table, and he himself is sat at another, his own instrument already prepared. he tunes it before the bell rings, though he already tuned it earlier, so it's more just a formality of a quick check.

after the bell rings, after a silence to let the sound of the bell leave the air, he plays a classic piece, without introduction or fanfare. if anyone talks while he plays he just ignores them but you should tell me in your reply if they did or not so that he can react after the fact,

when the piece comes to a close he sets his hands on the strings to mute them. ]

If you want to learn, you'll start by learning to string and tune it. Take a qin.

[ he takes one of the unstrung ones himself, starting to demonstrate how to tie the strings and wrap them through the tuning pegs ]

Comments

[demonvinegar]

[ taking a qin. he's going to be so normal about this. ]

[pissandvinegar]

[ he's going to be so normal about this

watches expectantly. he should already know how to do this part. ]

[bowtiedbones]

[she’s here BRIGHT AND EARLY to support her teammate and to learn. this event is the best, people just keep teaching her things.

Eowyn stays quiet through the performance, of course, except to take out a notebook and make a small sketch of him playing]

[inexorableiron]

[He promised to help, so he is, but if you think this asshole is showing up any earlier than 5:59 you are WRONG.

He even stays quiet during the show but he also keep his eyes closed... ]

Zither, huh.

[demonvinegar]

[ he does, and he strings the qin quite expertly. at least better than he could whenever Shen Jiu last saw him string a qin, which was likely in his childhood. before the abyss.

he also proceeds to tune the instrument. after he finishes he waits for the other students to be done. ... while watching shen qingqiu go about instructing the others. but look he's done it perfectly already look look look at hiiim ]

[pissandvinegar]

[ sometimes... a school really is a place of learning

after he's finished demonstrating one string, asking her ]

Did you understand how to tie the knot?

[pissandvinegar]

Have you already received instruction before?

[ as he continues to string the qin ]

[inexorableiron]

Nah, old man didn't want us doin' that. But my mother could play.

[pissandvinegar]

[ he finishes demonstrating stringing and tuning his own qin, first, then goes around to check. reaches out as he passes, strumming all lbh's strings in one go to check the sound. as always lbh is infuriatingly prodigious at everything ]

Demonstrate the other tunings. Change it to qingshang diao.

[demonvinegar]

[ if you want to see him fail at something you should check him out in the chemistry post--

but yes. the cold assessment and lack of criticism is enough to fill him with a sense of accomplishment and he nods, eagerly adjusting the pegs accordingly. ]

[pissandvinegar]

Surprising. Where I'm from, it's considered a scholar's instrument.

Are you here to learn?

[pissandvinegar]

[ runs him through all of these ]

[inexorableiron]

Yeah, well. He thought distractin' us from magic would make us less useful.

I can fuckin' try...

[demonvinegar]

[ shizun. shizun this is so much.

BUT... IF SHIZUN DIDN'T THINK HE COULD DO THIS, THEN HE WOULDN'T PUT HIM THROUGH IT RIGHT? of course, it's just because he has so much faith in him to remember all of these!

guqin isn't as strong of a skill of his as fighting or stalking, but he does his best to run through all of them. after a while he even starts to remember a little faster... this is a skill he doesn't use quite as often as an adult, so clearly shizun is just trying to refresh his memory.

once again. luo binghe performs nearly flawlessly.

and when he's finished he looks up at shizun with a big, expectant smile. he did good? ]

[pissandvinegar]

[ on one hand: mad on principle that Magus got to have a mom that he probably had a decent relationship with

on the other hand: if he did have a good relationship with his mom, in spite of that, Magus talks way more about how much he obviously can't stand his dad. in a way, sqq can appreciate this. can feel a sort of vindictiveness towards it. he's not the only one whose hatred drowns out anything good he might have had. ]

... In my opinion, among qinqishuhua, the qin is the easiest to teach, but the biggest pain to learn.

[ it requires the most proximity with your teacher. requires hours of facing them, staring into them while they stare down at you, months of reworking yourself over and over through the repetitions to become their perfect mirror. at least in weiqi, you have to have your own thoughts. ]

You can't learn to play in just one lesson. Soon enough, this task will come to a close, and these instruments will be taken away from us before you can even reach the level of plucking a single simple melody.

But I can teach you how to take care of one.

[inexorableiron]

Maintainin' your tools I get. I can do that.

[pissandvinegar]

[ lbh is lucky he doesn't have tea on hand

that said. the sting is duller these days. nothing like a few years as a quad amputee to put your other issues sharply into perspective. or maybe it's just that he hates lbh for better reasons now. ]

Return it to zheng diao.

[ he just walks away to attend to the other people present for now ]

[pissandvinegar]

[ most of guqin care honestly boils down to: the main body is all wood so make sure it doesn't get too wet. store it in a place that is dry but not too dry, store it with desiccants if need be, cover it, wipe it down but not with anything wet, clean your hands before playing and make sure not to get sweat on the strings, replace the thinner strings every couple years and the thicker strings something like every ten. he shows him how to rosin the tuning pegs so that they don't slip. he shows him how to tie the knot to anchor the strings, and how to slip each string through the cord, wind it around the tuning peg, stretch it across the body of the guqin, and finally wrap it around one of the legs. looking at him expectantly ]

You string it now.

[demonvinegar]

[ ... YOU COULD AT LEAST PRAISE HIM ]

[bowtiedbones]

Is it like this?

[she holds the string up and ties it loosely in the air, checking before she has to do it with tension on the qin]

[inexorableiron]

[Magus is not a musician or a crafter. But he is very intelligent, and he picks manual things up quickly. It had served him well before on board shipd and tying rigging.

This is ... not like rigging. Much more delicate. It takes finesse and a finicky hand. Magus is better at brute forcing it, which works with winches. This is slow. It would be agonizing if he weren't absolutely determined to get this right and if it takes way too much time, he is going to do it. Hope you wanted a long lunch break, buddy]

[pissandvinegar]

[ what part of 'I won't give you affection' isn't getting through your head

he comes back eventually, and sits across from him at the table, with his own guqin. proper guqin teacher-student formation, mirroring. ]

Play Jieshi Diao Youlan.

[ it's the one he played earlier for Klein, tho he isn't aware lbh would know that. he never taught his own lbh how to play the piece, though he should still know of it. who knows if the other sqq would have taught this one ]

[pissandvinegar]

Yes, like that. Then lead it through here.

[ runs his fingers down the string's intended path, through the cord then around the tuning peg ]

[pissandvinegar]

[ he has nothing but time. grousing and scolding him as they go every time he uses too much force or not enough force, ]

[inexorableiron]

[this is why i did not become a BARD, fatherlord! fuck!]