Falling Lessons

“How was your date with Shane?” The familiar voice of my professor echoed around the studio, scattering my thoughts once again.
I turned around to face him out of courtesy and habit, “it wasn’t a date…” I explained, choosing my words carefully, “he was just giving me an intro to Jazz. Mrs. James’ orders.”

He chuckled then, seeming to find my response relatively amusing.
“It’s only been a week, and you’re talking like one of them already,”
“How so?” I asked, curious.
“Your sudden use of abbreviations,” He teased, “spectacular isn’t it? How fast love progresses…”
“I beg your pardon?” I gasped, shocked.

Did he just imply that I’m …???!!?

Instead of answering however, he just cleared his throat, “Let’s hear the Mozart.” He said, serious now. I obliged.
Completely contrasting to the previous week’s lesson, I concentrated hard this time, giving each and every note in the piece my full attention, regardless of whether it was a semibreve or a semiquaver. They were all important, each and every one of them. Just like people, its how life should be.
Before I knew it, I had reached the final chord, but instead of finishing off the piece like I usually would, I paused, letting the harmonies ring out and echo around the room. It thrilled me how the last chord was such a perfect ending to the piece.
When it eventually died away, Mr. Reid cleared his throat again.
“Interesting…” he paused again, as if about to say something important, then changing his mind at the last minute.
“And the Chopin?”

My worst one… I couldn’t help thinking,

Sighing quietly, I sat up straighter and began the piece. I took a deep breath before starting knowing it was going to take a lot more effort than the Mozart. But after the first note, I suddenly knew, that I had never played this piece as well before in my life. I was actually telling a story this time. Yet what was most surprising was this sense of relief I felt, which seemed to soothe all the tension I was feeling before. Relief at discovering how much I actually loved to play this piece, regardless of how bad I was at it.
“Well well…” Mr Reid said, interrupting my outpour of emotions into the music, “the robot has finally decided to show her emotions!” He laughed quietly to himself in wonder.
“This…” He paused, choosing his words slowly, “this is how music should always be like, enjoyable for both performer and audience.”
I nodded, actually understanding for the first time.

The lesson continued with him listening thoughtfully to small extracts of my repertoire in complete silence, only speaking when he’d heard enough of the piece. For once, the talkative professor was silent.

Had only one day with Shane really made that much difference to my playing? I couldn’t help wondering,

Finishing the last piece, I placed my hands quietly in my lap, waiting for his comments.
Mr. Reid frowned, seeming to be lost in his own thoughts for once.
Then suddenly, his head snapped back up, as if he was having an epiphany or some sort. “What are you doing tomorrow?” He asked.
“Uh…” I tried to think back to what I’d written down in my diary earlier, “I think I’m meeting the rest of the combo, why?”

Was he going to schedule another lesson? I frowned at the thought.

“I was just going to advise you not to practice,” He smiled, “But it seems that it will no longer be a problem for you, Lisa.”
I laughed nervously,

was that a good thing?

“Right well, have fun tomorrow.” He stood up to escort me to the exit.
“See you next week sir,” I said, collecting my books to leave.

***

Well this is awkward,

I bent over the amp, fiddling with the knobs and buttons to make it look like I was actually doing something. So far, only Amelia and this other girl I didn’t recognise were the only other people in the room. There was a guy who’d come in earlier, but now seemed to have disappeared, probably gone to get his instrument or something. I had thought about offering a hand to the girls, but they were so… Loud and bubbly, just the thought of approaching them made me nervous.

“Lisa?” A deep male voice called out behind me, “You’re the new pianist right?”
I turned around to find a boy around my age holding a guitar-like instrument encased in black.

He must be the bass player, I found myself thinking,

“Um… Yeah I am…” I answered quietly, unsure of what to say next.
“You’re Shane’s girlfriend right?” He blurted out.
“What? No?!” I couldn't help but blurt back.

My pulse quickened, why would he think I’m Shane’s girlfriend? What had Shane been telling them?

“Oh.” He replied, almost as if he was slightly disappointed.
“Yeah…” I mumbled, feeling the awkwardness returning.

Where on earth was Shane anyway? I found myself thinking back to the conversation we’d had earlier in the day, He said he’d be here early to meet me…

“I’m Pete by the way,” the bass player said again, extending his hand.
I shook it, “Nice to meet you, Pete” I replied timidly
He began to introduce me to the girls, “that’s Amelia and Jane over there, making noise as usual.”
Ice broken now, I found myself relaxing, as I nodded in their direction.

“So how did you meet Shane?” Pete turned around to face me, “If you don’t mind me asking,”
“Oh um… I think he was just in my physics class back a couple of years ago,” I said in what I hoped was a casual reply, “He’s pretty good in physics.”
“Yeah. He’s a smart cookie, that one.”

Before I could reply to that comment, the door swung open again, revealing another guy holding drumsticks and a bag.
“Shane’s coming.” He said to us, before darting towards the kit to test the instruments.
“That’s Tommy.” Pete explained, reading my mind. “And since he’s the drummer, we kinda nicknamed him Tom-tom.”

I was going to ask what “tom-toms” were, even though I had a pretty good idea, when the door opened one last time, and Shane rushed in, hair messed up, with his guitar slung over one shoulder.

“Sorry I’m late.” He said, breathless.
“Need a hand?” I found myself asking, walking towards him to take his guitar.
“Thanks.” He smiled.

Amelia, now having noticed me sitting next to the guys in the rhythm section, shrieked with delight and leaped across the room to hug me.
“I knew it!” She declared, “I KNEW you wouldn’t be able to say no!”
Not knowing what to say, I just laughed along with the rest of the combo, at Amelia’s excitement.
“JANE!” she continued to shriek, “Come here! Meet Lisa! She’s the one I told you about!”
I laughed again as Jane skipped over happily. “Nice to meet you, Jane”
“You too, Lisa” she grinned.
Serious now, Amelia stood up to face the rest of the combo, all of whom were fiddling slightly with their instruments.
“We have a gig tomorrow.” She announced.
I almost fell off my stool.

Tomorrow?!?!

Shane, as if sensing my distress, leaned over to whisper in my ear, “You don’t have to improvise if you’re not up to it.”
I was about to nod gratefully, when Amelia cut in, “I heard that! You have no choice Lisa, sorry. We have to flaunt our new pianist.”
I shrunk back a little at the horror of what would be happening tomorrow night.
“Amelia…” I said nervously, “I’m not sure I’m ready to fail in front of the public just yet,”
The combo laughed again, glad I had some humour inside me after all, despite the seriousness of the situation.
“You won’t fail!” Amelia assured me, “Not after you hear what Shane’s been saying about you.”
“Wait what?” I turned around to face him, “you’ve been talking about me?” I raised an eyebrow in surprise as his entire face flushed for the first time.
“Anyway,” Amelia was saying, “So meet at five. Set up and Sound check?”
The three guys nodded agreeing, as if the surprise gig was something they received at every rehearsal. I mean who knew? Maybe it was something which happened twice a week.
“What are we playing?” I asked, suddenly worried I wouldn’t be able to learn the accompaniments in time,
She laughed then, “Hahaha… Who needs pieces when can just improvise the whole time?”
“Are you serious??!?” I exclaimed, jaw dropping.
Imagine how stressful that would be! Not having a plan!
“I’m joking.” Amelia assured me again, “We’ll just do all the pieces you went over with for Shane. Less stress for you, yeah?”
“Thank-you” I smiled back.
“Right then… let’s jam!” She declared.
Immediately everyone jumped up and rushed to get their instruments.

Having only played in small chamber groups before, I wasn’t sure exactly how to react, but I figured it couldn’t be that different to playing classical, I was still accompanying after all…
It turned out that Jane was a classically trained trumpet player, therefore always producing a rich smooth tone whenever you brought up her instrument to play. It was so beautiful.
The ensemble awareness, as expected, was amazing. I just couldn’t help but smile each time I felt someone meet my eyes, and the whole combo would either pause, or move onto the next piece with brilliant accuracy.
Yet what I found most amusing was that everyone having their own instrument, made Amelia, having her three, seem like this crazy busy body running around changing from alto sax, to tenor, to flute, back to alto just so the audience wouldn’t become bored with our lack of soloing instruments.

Bass, guitar and drum solos were great, but our audience expected traditional jazz, in which brass and woodwind instruments were always a great feature. This put a lot of stress on Amelia, although she never seemed to mind.

When it came to my solo, I worried about not playing loud enough. Being too quiet was always an imperfection when it came to… life I suppose.
What made me almost gawp in wonder was all that that ensemble awareness we’d had before, came back. The whole combo quietened down for my solo.
It was just this sense of, unity I suppose, that made me really think…

I don’t have to be alone anymore… I’ve actually found people… I’ve actually found...

Friends.