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Thursday 9 May 2013

Music Out of the Pages: Learning to play



Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
As she pushed back the sleeping furs, she heard the sound of voices chanting. The rhythm was familiar. She smiledm identifying one of the long sagas. Apprentices were being taught the complicated timing by rote, just as she had taught the youngsters in Half-Circle Sea Hold when Petiron was sick, and later after he died. 

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
He'd tried it out. It was easy to play. In fact, it was almost impossible to play badly. It didn't seem to matter how he touched the strings- they still rang out the tune he had in mind. It was, in solid form, the kind of instrument you dream about when you first start to play- the one you can play without learning. He remembered when he'd first picked up a harp and struck the strings, confidently expecting the kind of lambent tones the old men coaxed from them. He'd got a dischord instead. But this was the instrument he'd dreamed of...

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