Caramak walks down the curving staircase from the balcony hallway.

Kaeryn looks up from a stack of hides, blinking slowly, eyes trying to focus. "Caramak, sir, is that you?" She has been studying the hides a little too long....

Teraille walks out into the ballroom.

Caramak pauses at the question and theatrically looks down, inspecting himself. "Well, I /think/ it's me. I'd be most disturbed to find I wasn't. And I recognize myself."

Teraille comes out of the office and sighs briefly. "Hey, Mak," she greets, her expression brightening slightly. "Kaeryn." She glances back at Mak. "I was about to try some junk in the rehearsal hall. You want to come with?" She glances at Kaer. "You, too?" she offers. "Trio?"

Kaer blushes, "I'm sorry, Caramak, I've been staring at these for so long, that my eyes were having a little trouble focusing on anything other than them," she motions at the hides she has spread on the floor of the ballroom. "I suppose I could, Teraille," Kaer says with an effort to smile, "I need a break from this work..."

Katariina walks down the curving staircase from the balcony hallway.

Kaeryn sighs and begins to collect her things to bring them back to the vault. "I /have/ to get this done," she says with a sour look in Teraille's direction, "but I suppose a little practice wouldn't hurt. I'll be right there..."

Caramak spares a brief glance between Teraille and Kaeryn, and elects to take the cheerful course. A brilliant smile takes over his face, as he agrees, "Sounds great! I need the chance to work in a group, too...How structured are you going to want to make this, Teraille? What're you working on?"

Teraille peers at Mak. "Um," she says a bit sheepishly. "Dulcimer?"

Katariina glances up, surprised slightly at all the people. "Hello, everyone," she says softly, not her usual cheerful self.

Jiiu casually strolls down from the stairs, eyeing some people she'd never seen before and smiling as she notices Kaeryn and Azalea - the latter gifted with a stifled giggle. "Hey, e'erybody..."

Tegran enters with Arialla, his eyes widening, "This /is/ quite a site, Ari." he says, heading toward his usual waiting spot by the banister of the stairs and leans on it.

Arialla grins at all the gathered harpers, nodding to Master Caramak as she enters, her gitar bouncing lightly on her hip. "Evening all. Guess this was the right time to come back to Ista for supplies, eh?"

Kaeryn idly runs her fingers through her hair as she stands and waits, eyes downcast at the floor. She shuffles her feet, fingering the pouch in her hands.

Azalea sees Jiiu's giggle and remembers a little sheepishly a certain ferret incident from a while back. "Hi," she says, as greetings seem to drift about the Hall. "Something going on? The whole Hall is practically here!"

Caramak ahhhs. "Unstructured, then? So much the better." He glance around at the quickly assembling crowd. "Oh, my. This is getting...well, large." Back to Teraille. "More the merrier?"

Nherys looks around at all these people, then bounces over to stand beside Master Caramak and tugs on his sleeve. She whispers something at him, then holds out her tin whitle to him.

Teraille grins over at Arialla. "We seem to have congregated," she observes. "Rather impressively, at that... You guys want to join us in some music-making?" She glances over at the children coming in. "Do you need any help?" she wonders. She winks at Mak. "Always," she agrees.

Torey slips in, just wandering around, per usual, typical Torey. She shakes her head, smiles sweet and answers with a grin. "No, not really."

Harmony twitters and chirples as he swings about the ballroom. See? He's here to represent his humanpet, Helyne, who's been hauled away by this big dragon that wouldn't let her go and now she's trapped and can't get out. Terrible, eh?

Arialla grins broadly over at Teraille. "And what a gathering too. I've been spoiled at the Hall here. Kestria and I can only make so much music at one time." She grins and pulls her gitar around to infront of her and checks the tuning.

Jiiu blinks also as she teams up with Azalea, chuckling softly as the other remembers this event. "Ah, I remember you....and I think, so does my ferret. Azalea, is it?" Whispering, "Any idea what's going on?"

Kaer looks around at the growing group of people and steps back against the wall. Her wall. Well, it will be once the mural is up, so why not claim it now. She gives Jiiu a smile, thin as it may be and waves, "Hello Jiiu," she says softly.

Dione slips in after Torey, she got a song from the lesson on marks now this looks like it might be exciting. Tugging on Toreys sleave she points at the harpers < look music >

Arialla nudges Tegran and oggles at all the new appies in the room. "Shards.. I haven't been gone that long.. have I?"

Jiiu watches Azalea depart and then teams up with Kaeryn, smiling enthusiastically. "Kaeryn!" Frown. "Why so glum?"

Teraille holds up her hand and hops rather dramatically up onto a bench. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" Her voice is a rich bellow, harper-trained lungs at their best.

Tegran grins toward Arialla, chuckling, "You know how often Ah hafta say that?"

Jiiu blinks momentarily as Teraille yells rather /loudly/, biting the surprise back with a strangled smile.

Torey grins down at Dione and gives a nod, half of one, though she stops half said word as Teraille talks, and shrug is returned to the younger girl instead.

Nherys eeps at Teraille's bellow, then turns back to Caramak expectantly.

Caramak glances down at Nherys with a furrowed brow for a moment, then nods. "Sure. No problem...Rehearsal hall's big enough to hold us all." He deadpans a very quick wink before turning his attention to Teraille. Her idea, seh can organize...good deal for him.

Kaeryn looks up at Teraille, startled. She stands still, quiet, and doing her best not to bring attention to herself. She studies Tera with dull eyes, waiting to see what is going to happen.

Katariina walks up the curving staircase to the balcony hallway.

Nherys grins her thanks up at Caramak, then moves over to Kaeryn.

Tegran sighs as he looks around, slipping Arialla a long hug as he moves towards the door, "Shards, Y'can never be able to talk to Jerran when ya need him, eh? Ahh, get leave from him soon, though. Miss ya, Ari." he says as he slips out slowly, his arm leaving her waist.

Teraille smiles sweetly out at the group. "And apprentices," she adds, almost as an afterthought. "Shall we make some music?" She glances from person to person, her smile bright. "What say you we move into the rehearsal hall, then we can pull together a melody.... Mak, you'll be willing to start something, right? Just chime in when you have a feel for what's happening, and listen to everyone around you to pick up clue as to what's coming next. It's hardest in a big group like this, but we are Harpers! And we can /do/ this!" She sweeps her hands in an inviting gesture to the rehearsal hall.

Arialla tilts her head, listening to what Teraille has to say, a warm smile on her lips as she leans up against the wall. She blinks over at Tegran as he leaves, a sad look in her eyes. "Take care, Tegran. Don't stay away so long."

Torey blinks and then skips along after Little. Maybe she can get away with sneaking in.

Caramak gives a little salute in answer to Teraille's question about starting a melody, but doesn't interrupt. When she's finished, he grins and heads into the hall, rather than cluttering the air with chatter that most folks wsill miss anyway.

Kaeryn shuffles in and waits to see where everyone is headed before finding a place to stand. She gets her flute from her bag and assembles it, turning it over in her fingers as she checks it for problems.

Cyra suddenly appears and trills a cheery musical greeting.

Arialla lightly runs her fingers over the strings of her gitar, frowning slight at the dischordant sound they make. "Betweening is soooo bad for instruments. I should leave one here." She mutters to herself as she sets about tuning the instrument.

Teraille settles herself on a tier, tapping her dulcimer strings lightly with the hammer to test their tuning. She looks up at Mak expectantly.

Arialla nodding to herself, gitar finally in tune, she looks up to her mentor and waits for him to begin the proceedings.

Torey has a little flute, one she's played already today, though so far she keeps it hidden away, for this shall be quite fun to watch and listen to.

Nherys puts her tinwhistle to her lips and does a quick scale, then nods, still sounds fine.

Dione looks at all the instruments making noise, she could do that too

Caramak unslings his gitar and settles in for a quick tuning session. The B string seems to have loosened nearly to a Bb, which draws a critical inspection of the tuning peg, but he deems it good enough for one performance. His eyes flicker up. "Let's start in a nicely challenging key. How's, oh...Let's go with D flat minor." He beams. "I'm feeling malicious." He strums the tonic chord, arather mournful sound, and lanunches into a melody of a medium tempo and a sorrowful cast. It is simple, for the moment -- the key is challenge enough. After thirty two bars, it repeats, and he looks up from the instrument in open invitation.

D flat minor, how appropriate. Kaer brings her flute to her lips and joins 'Mak, the notes low and full. The sound coming from her instrument mirror the look in her eyes. The glassy notes are full of emotion, following the lead of the guitar as it repeats it's 'death march'

Teraille casts Mak an evil glare, then smiles lightly at Kaeryn as she moves her hammers to tap lightly against the strings. Her countermelody is soft, but quite refusing to fall into Mak's trap as she chimes one string lightly, then another. Soft notes sprinkle through the piece with soft resonating chimes, matching themselves to Kaeryn's melody by -- ha! -- completing her major third.

Arialla bites her lower lip and then grins at the challenge of the chosen key. She listens to Mak, Kaer and Teraille and then moves her fingers over the strings of her gitar, plucking out a line that weaves in and out of the melody that Mak is weaving and the countermelody that Teraille is hammering out. A few fluid strums followed by staccato plucked notes, rotating as the theme rolls through it's cylce.

Nherys purses her lips, looking momentarily older, then carefully plays, getting stronger as she gains confidence. The notes weave in and out of those played by the others, higher and poignant, put with a hint of hope.

Caramak lets his melody drop away and turns instead to chords. At first, only the chords, stark and static, roll from his gitar. After a few bars, however, he lets small melodic fills provide a smooth transition from one chord to the next. Down to the bottom of his intrument he goes, adding something of a supportive bass line to counterbalance the somewhat topheavy ensemble.

Deeper and darker goes the harmony that Kaer plays on her flute. Her eyes flicker from Mak to Tera for a moment, a slight pause in her playing. The dark notes of the alto flute move slowly around the guitar, creating a countermelody that is quite gloomy. Down the scale with the notes and then back up in minor thirds, contrasting with Teraille's major thirds.

Teraille relentlessly refuses to do the minor key. /Not/ going to happen. Her hammers dart from one string to another, quickening to fill a rather odd space in the music, weaving a startling counterpoint in a bright major. At times, the rapid ploinks of hammer on string create dissonance, as her key conflicts with another, but that's all part of the game. Good versus evil, joy versus sorrow. Teraille versus everyone else. If the dissonance bothers them, /they/ can change key. She ain't gonna.

Arialla listens intently, her eyes bright as her fingers move over the strings of her gitar. She nods in time to the music and shifts her chording to fill in the middle octaves, balancing off of Mak's supportive base. She continues in her varied playing, struming followed by more intricate finger picking. She grins over at Teraille and the dissonant clash of the hammer dulcimer. Feeling her oats, she switches between the minor key and the major, first supporting Mak and then Teraille.

Nherys follows Teraille's lead, trying her best to keep a happy tone to her playing. She twists the notes in and around all the others, soothing the dissonant notes as much as she can. She turns thoughtful though, and you wonder how happy the tunes in her head /really/ are.

Dione sits there in awe watching the harpers play. Watching all the different instruments her mind starts working, maybe she can learn to play one so when she wants people attention she doesn't have to tap them.

Torey keeps her brown eyes glued on the harpers, fingers tight around little flute in her pocket as she wows silently. Quietly she sits, listening.

They want major, they can have it. Caramak's bass line resolves to a surprising third, and begins to play from that. Suddenly, the support is playing E major -- a key not so different from Db minor in makeup, but quite far removed in tone. As he shifts to this new key, the motion in his line abruptly doubles in speed, adding a bright sense of urgency to the key change. If Db minor is the key of death, E major is the smiley face key for the gitar, and Mak takes full advantage of its relative ease, testing his technical skill in quick arpeggios the length of the instrument.

Major? Major is entirely too happy, and who needs happy? Not Kaeryn, not now. Despite Mak's change of keys, sorrow is what /her/ notes are all about as she slips from going up and down the scale in minor thirds to playing dimished triads. Try to make /that/ sound happy! Just for fun, she adds in a few trills here and there, playing as low as her instrument will allow.

Teraille peers over at Kaeryn. Well, /Mak/ loves her. And Nherys. She's in her element now. Who cares about speed? Her hands duck and dart, rippling up her E string in a series of short stacatto notes before launching into a rather familiar old melody in E major.... at doubled speed. Will anyone recognize it? Who can tell?

Torey finds herself humming, and with rather a sheepish, though not terribly worried glance about, she continues.

Arialla blinks at Mak and the key change, pursing her lips and attempting to follow her mentor's lead and yet stay original. She grins and opts for subtle chording and synchopated strumming, leaving the intricate arpeggio's to the Master. She flashes a grin at Kaeryn who retains the minor key and then nods at Teraille's tune. She keeps the strumming going and begins to lightly thump the sounding board of her gitar in time to the music.

Dione just stares in awe and tugs on Torey's sleve, pointing out the ovious to her < music >

Torey nodnods and grins at Dione, leaning over to whisper "Isn't it great?"

Dione nods and glances at them again too, expecialy the way the young girl went < I want to learn >

Torey blinks, missing the young'an's fingers because of a quick glance towards the instruments again, searching out her favorite.

Caramak's fingers begin to truly fly over the instrument. Half to show off, half for the sake of his own practice, he presses himself to the edge of his skill -- which, in a gitar-friendly key like E, leaves considerably room. A small phrase, nearly disguised in the flurry of activity, picks out what could be the traditional answer in a gap Teraille's quoted melody leaves. In amidst Arialla's emphatic rhythmacizing, he finds answers to Kaeryn's fluttering dimished triads, anticipating some of her patterns, meeting her notes and resolving them. The flurry, however, is not destined to last long, and Caramak is soon forced to content himself with arpeggios at a moderate tempo or find his hands giving up on him.

Dione grins as she repeats herself so Torey can understand her < I want to learn > pointing to the instruments which can make so much noise.

What's this? A familiar tune? What is Teraille trying to do? Is she /trying/ to make Kaeryn follow? Well, that isn't going to happen, and that can easily be seen by the way her jaw is set. She continues with her diminished triads, creating a tune of her own, making the song sound quite lovely, and creepy, in it's own way. Kaer closes her eyes, deciding it is best to close her eyes and feel the music than to keep them open and glare. Traid, trill, downward scale. Triad up, notes dancing around Mak's, downward scale. Feel the pattern. Feel the rhythm. Feel the pain.

Teraille's eyes meet Kaeryn's in a distinct challenge. Hah. Watch this! She shifts each triad to major and shift it up along her dulcimer as soon as Kaeryn finishes, matching downward scale with upward as she abandons the traditional melody. The dulcimer may not to trills, but she can throw glisses in there, certainly. And she does.

Arialla widens her eyes in appreciation for Master Caramak's skill. She grins at Kaeryn's stubborness and nods at Teraille's additions. Maintaining her syncopated strumming and finger drumming she adds in another instrument, her voice. A warm contralto, she scats out a few notes in counter to her own syncopated rhythm, keeping her voice light and quick, no words, just BeeDah's Oooh's and humms.

Caramak attempts to find a trace of common ground. He strums out a major chord...and runs flatted notes against it in his melody. Fifths, thirds and sevenths all fall prey to this lowering of pitch, creating a soulful, bluesy melody without departing from the major basis. A chromatic run leads to a heavily bent note, toying between diminished and major noncommitally, then trips its way to a resolution dissonant in neither major nor minor.

Stubborness is it? or is it the true emotions of Kaeryn that are pouring out through her music? Maybe she just likes dissonance. Regardless, the notes of the alto flute continue to dart slowly through the melody that has been created, placing dark notes here and there, bringing sorrow to an otherwise happy song. What's this? A change of keys? Indeed, that is what it seems to be. The melody is in the key of E major, so how about we go with...c# minor, the relative minor key. See, she can work with others, but she won't change the feel of her notes.

Teraille's eyes flicker over to Caramak. Ah, she sees what's coming... Her hammers slow again, disregarding her competition with Kaeryn in exchange for the simple stacatto beats of hammer of string, pause, hammer on string. Her eyes flick over to Arialla, and her own voice lifts in a short, breathless, phrase, an open 'ahhhh' minus consonants. The voice falls into the piece like a sigh, then fades as her hands slow still more.

Arialla taps her foot along with her finger's tapping. She resolves her own chording, falling in with Mak's bluesy style, running a counter point to Kaeryn's C# minor. Her finger's dance over the strings as her voice runs down the scale and then back up again weaving in and out with Teraille's voice. She flashes Mak a bright smile as she feels the tune begining to draw to a close.

Caramak directs the final slowing with the neck of his gitar. The necessity of keeping control of the instrument while doing so causes his own flamboyant playing to simplify somewhat. Into the familiar resolution, he slows the tempo dramatically, and finally closes with a deep bob of both his head and the gitar's neck. The chord is major, but before he cuts off entirely, he tosses off a last, almost arhythmic blues line and finally lets the chord rest.

Arialla beams at Caramak, Teraille and Kaeryn as the final notes all hang in the air. "Wow.." she says softly, a bright grin on her face.

Teraille's hammers hover for a moment above her strings, before a faint smile spreads across her face. "Nice," she says quietly. "Very nice." She lowers her hands, laying the hammers beside her.

Dione claps her hands together slightly not wanting to disturb anyone.

Kaer lets the note fade away and brings her flute down from her lips, eyes following it down. She wipes the headjoint with a cloth, determined not to look up until she gets a grip on herself again. Finally, she looks around the room, "That was nice," she says, to no one in particular.

Torey grins, and then slips to hands and knees, slipping out, for little should be getting back, for fear of extra chores. *shiver*

Caramak shakes out his left hand thoroughly. "Sometimes it's good to take ourselves into places we're not comfortable musically. That's the main reason I chose that key...Having limits gives you more direction within those limits...and then, of course, we have to push them to expand."

Arialla sighs regretfully and nods to Caramak and Teraille. "It was very challenging, Master Caramak." She rubs her hand a bit and flashes a grin at her mentor. "Unfortunately, there is a dragon with my name on it waiting to take me and some hides back to Keroon." She tucks a curl behind her ear and chuckles softly.

Teraille sticks her tongue out at Mak, looking decidedly unjourneymanlike. "Do you have /any/ idea how hard that is for an instrument that doesn't go outside a C major scale?" She grimaces down at her dulcimer.

"I thought the key was perfect, Caramak." Kaer says softly as she lifts her sparkless eyes to meet yours. "Quite fitting." She turns away and begins to put her flute away, shoulders slumped over in a very un-Kaeryn like posture.

Arialla puts her gitar in a cloth case, tying it shut. She shrugs into a wher-hide jacket and waves to everyone in the Hall. "It was amazing... and an honor as well. It'll give me something to take back to Kestria." She nods once again and then heads for the doors.

Caramak grins at Teraille, utterly unrepentant. "Indeed I do. And I thought you definitely did a good job of compensating. At least you had the third?" He pauses to wave to Arialla. "Say hello for me."

Teraille sighs. "Yeah. Joy." She mock-glares back at him. "I'm going to get you for that, you know." She gives a light wink; was that a promise or a threat?

Kaeryn turns, watching the couple talk and tease, her lips pulling downward in a frown. She shakes her head from side to side as she puts her flute in her bag, managing to dump all of her research out onto the floor into a heap of mixed papers. She drops to her knees to gather the things back up, sighing happily.

Caramak watches Kaeryn out of the corner of his eye, but continues to banter lightly. "Ah, but adversity is /such/ good practice. Did I ever tell you about the time I borrowed a gitar for a concert and found that /every/ tuning peg was so worn worn down, it slipped a minor third out of tune before the tune ended?"

Teraille tries -- almost successfully -- to smother a giggle. "You probably deserved it," she says mildly, her eyes sparkling. "Was that back in the days they still talk about at Fort, when young Caramak thought /nothing/ could beat him down as a musician?"

Just as Kaer reaches for her pencils, they roll out of her reach. She stacks the papers and hides up and puts them back in her bag before moving for the pencils. She collects them all and gets to her feet again, heading towards the ballroom, but not before turning to Teraille and Caramak, eyes full of sadness. "Thank you for the improv. I must go work some more," she whispers, not trusting her voice to speak any louder than that. With a wave, she wanders out.

Caramak's eyebrows lift in a haughty deadpan. "Young Caramak rose to the challenge, I'll have you know. Young Caramak also flame broiled the Journeyman who provided the gitar, despite the fact that the Journeyman in question was twice Caramak's age at the time...at least." He thrusts a thumb to his own chest. "Old, decrepit Caramak here still thinks there's very little that can beat him down musically."

Teraille's eyes sparkle with the challenge, lifting herself to her full height. "Oh, /really/?" she teases lightly. "And if I should /find/ something, what forfeit do I claim?"

Kaeryn walks, the usual spring gone from her step, to the Main Hall.

Back