milliways_bar | (no subject)

A little person peeps over the table, listening to the music.

Jools looks down, startled. It takes him a few moments to realise that this one is not an elf. Just a very young person.

"Do you play?" he asks casually, offering over his guitar.

"Er, I think there's a risk he might break it." Guppy says, coming up behind his son. "Hey Jools. Alex, we must play gently."

He crouches down and shows Alex how to pluck the string. The toddler tries.

It goes 'twuuuuuung'!

Liking the noise, Alex grins at Jools.

"That's right, good job."

The Guitar isn't exactly in any sort of great condition to begin with, and looks like it's already been mended a few times before.

Jools points at the fretboard. "You hold down the strings here to make chords," he explains.

Jools is imparting knowledge. This could get interesting.

"Cors." Alex says, moving along and putting his hand on the strings.

Nothing happens. He looks to Jools for further instructions.

"No, like this..."

He twists slightly to be able to reach the fretboard. Pressing down a few strings, he plucks them each individually. Guppy may recognise the opening bars to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.

Well, sort of.

"Eee!" Alex says, excitedly. He moves back to the big end of the guitar and plucks the same string he had before. Twuuuunnnng.

Jools is grinning widely by this point. The little person is happy, so he's happy.

"Do this one," he suggests, pointing at the A string.

Alex reaches over.

Twaaaaaaaaang!

"Ooh!"

Twaaaaaaaaang!

The different strings make different noises!

Jools changes his fingering on the fretboard. He plucks the high E string, and then slides his hand up the neck, so the sound gets lower in pitch.

"You try," he says, moving his hand back closer to the body. "Just like that."

Hm, doing this with both hands at once could be tricky.

Alex manages to pluck the E (Piiiing!) but not while holding the fretboard.

Guppy watches, curious. Maybe Jools could teach music?

Jools is, as it turns out, completely oblivious to Guppy right now. He's having just a little too much fun with Alex at the moment.

"No," he says, shaking his head. "Press this down, here." He demonstrates to Alex by pressing down the string and letting it go a few times, letting it make small plink! sounds as the steel string is released from the fret.

"Just like that."

Maybe teach music to toddlers then.

Alex presses down on all the strings with the palm of his little hand, then lets go. It doesn't really do anything.

"Nope," he says patiently. "Took me a while, too." Granted, his fingers are completely calloused over from playing for so long. "Go like this..."

He presses down the high E string again, and plucks it over the fretboard, so Alex can see that it's the same string being plucked.

Alex has a go holding and plucking the fretboard. He can't hold down the strings very easily, so it sort of comes out as 'Ptttttt' this time.

Guppy gets out his phone to take a picture of the cuteness.

"Hey, you're getting it!" Jools says, excited. He's never had the chance to actually show anyone else this stuff, and he does not seem to care that the person he's showing now is just a toddler.

"Do this one," he says, holding down and plucking the D string. It's thicker, so it might be easier for Alex to hold down.

In theory.

Alex has a go, placing his palm on the string (his fingers aren't strong enough) and then plucking the D. It's still a bit Ptttt rather than Twaaang, but closer.

"Eee!" he squeals excitedly again, taking his hands off the guitar in order to flap them like a bird taking off.

This is fun!

"Watdat?" he asks Jools, pointing at the guitar.

Jools is a little confused, and he looks over his guitar, expecting to find something on it.

"What?" he asks, turning it over slightly.

"It's a guitar, Alex." Guppy says.

"Git-ta."

Jools gives up on his search to find anything on his guitar.

And wait for it...

"You never seen a guitar before?" he asks after a few moments.

"Daddy gitta." Alex says.

"I've got one." Guppy translates. "But Alex is still learning lots of words so maybe he didn't know what it was called. When he asks 'Watdat', he means 'What's that?'."

"I didn't know you play too," Jools says. "We could have a jam session."

"I don't have it with me, and not very well." Guppy says. "My parents used to forbid it so I didn't learn the skills when I was younger. I'm going to let Alex play whatever instrument he wants though, so long as we can afford it."

"Yeah, my mum didn't want me playing this, either," Jools says, tipping the guitar slightly. "Only, I don't know why. I found it in the basement, and it wasn't being used by anybody."

"Mine was stuck in the attic." Guppy says. "I retrieved it a little while ago after leaving home."