Life Made Anew

13: Prodigies

A/N I really would like to speed this up to when they graduate, but there's a lot I want to write in between too. I'll go at a decent pace. As usual.

Maki was still feeling a bit jealous of Kazama actually kissing Kamino, but she had her firsts with him, and he with her. She was happy, however, that Kamino would be off their backs. She deemed it necessary.

She went downstairs and saw a piano. She was ecstatic; she could show off her skills that Kazama had taught her to Kamino. Kazama was still talking to Kamino. Now was her chance.

She sat down in the bench and played a piece that Kazama had taught her last week. Kazama said that she was a natural and a quick learner. It took her a week to learn what took him 2-3 weeks. And she was about to play that piece.

Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy.

In all sense, it wasn't too hard of a piece. It only really gets hard toward the end, but the left hand runs were rather simple.

Maki learned the piece rather well a week and a half ago, and it took her only a few days after that to memorize.
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"Kazama, what's this time signature? Nine eight notes per measure?"

"Yes, this time signature, 9/8, is actually rather rare. Debussy just wanted to be progressive with this piece, so he used an uncommon time signature, and he did it beautifully."

Maki played the first few measures. "Ah! I know this piece! I didn't recognize the name, but the melody is familiar."

"Claire de Lune. If you mention that name, very few people would know it, but have them listen to it, and more people would know it."

Maki continued playing. "Such a beautiful song, yet these chords are rather weird. A lot of major seconds. It clashes a bit, but it doesn't sound bad."

Kazama was humming it a bit. "Debussy utilized seconds in this perfectly. The minor thirds are great too. He used minor thirds and still made the piece sound mostly in a major key."

A/N to those who don't know much about music, when I say it's in a major key, I mean that it sound a bit happier, but if it's minor, it sounds a bit more depressing. When I say things like minor thirds or major seconds, those indicate the distance between certain notes. You'll have to look that up for a better description.

Maki picked up the piece very quickly. It took a little over a week for her to learn it. Most of the time was spent on learning the left hand runs, but after a good ten to fifteen minutes per run, she had it down.

"You're a natural pianist, Maki. You may end up being better than me."

"I don't want to though. I don't want you to stop teaching me."

"I'll teach until I have nothing more to teach you. My skills go as far as 3 of Chopin's ballades. I'm stuck on his fourth and final one. If you ever get to the point where you can play his fourth ballade, you will have surpassed me."

"Why only his fourth one? Why not the pinnacle of other composer's pieces?"

He pondered it for a bit. He turned his back to her. "Chopin was a master pianist, one of the best. His composing style is highly regarded as one of the best, but being the best, in this case, means that he has one of the most difficult repertoires. His ballades are at the pinnacle of most, if not all, pianists repertoires. His fourth is regarded as one of the hardest piano solos.