My Lie in October

Chapter 15

The day finally came. The plan for Sakura and Kousei was to practice for a while after school, go home and get ready, then meet up with the others at the festival. Right now they are practicing after school.

"You need to hold on strong to that triplet rhythm! It's going to mess up the whole piece if you don't get it together!"

"It's hard since it was sixteenths in the previous measure! Plus, you're playing a different rhythm on top of me! It's more important that the clarinet is heard, anyways."

"This is more of a duet rather than a solo. Brahms made it this way on purpose. We both have to ring out." Sakura took a sip of water and continued. "Tell you what. Let's take it performance tempo. That way you will feel the beat on the half note instead of the eighth notes like you're doing now. Instead of getting nit picky at a slow tempo, it will be much easier to feel the beat on the half notes if we're going fast.

"I'd probably have to practice that a bit more to get it up to speed before we attempt it. But I'll have it ready next week for sure."

Sakura smiled. "Sounds good!" She started to put away her clarinet. "Want to work a bit on the Seitz?"

Kousei relaxed a bit. "Definitely. But only for a bit. We have to go home and get ready for the festival soon or we'll be late."

Sakura nodded in understanding as she got out her viola. After a few adjustments and a hair flip to get the shoulder rest comfortable, she nodded again. "Remember to start slow."

Kousei was still bitter about how she wanted to change lots of things about the music. Starting slow, going faster than indicated for fast parts, even changing the chords in the middle of the piece. How she was going to convince the judges about these changes was beyond Kousei's comprehension.

They played through the piece once, mentioned a few things they could do better, and tried one hard part again.

While cleaning up and getting ready to leave, Sakura said, "I really need to practice one of my organ pieces right now since no one else is in the practice room. I should be done in time for you to pick me up."

Kousei nodded. "Sounds good. Text me about what time I should come pick you up." To Kousei's surprise, he wasn't flustered or blushing or anything of the sort. Sakura was the kind of girl he could be normal around, which he liked.

Sakura smiled warmly. "Thanks so much! I'll try to hurry." As Kousei was leaving, she said, "See you soon!" with a blush on her face.

Ha, you thought the date was gonna be in this chapter! Next one, I promise. Exciting stuff up ahead.