Music!

[felisblanco]

After reading Queenfanfiction's In Search Of A Word: A Symphony Of First Times (Sherlock/John and it's amazing. Go read! There's even a YouTube playlist.) I kinda want to write a Door's timestamp with Jensen wanting to learn to play the violin. And either be amazing at it or, even better, totally rubbish, I can't really decide which would be more

Comments

[felisblanco]

Ooh, that is an interesting thought. It probably would change things, yes. I kinda imagine it would be more like playing a whole symphony orchestra though. Like the same way he sometimes - usually for Jared - allows himself to be everything he is, no holding back, opening up his soul to the world, if he did that with music instead of just emotions... It would be like the most magnificent symphonic music, made up of all the instruments in the world. Loud enough to pop your ear drums I imagine. Add singing and he'd probably break every piece of glass in the whole state of New York. lol

IT's a funny thought though, playing the violin like a piano. Since pianos have set keys (of course influenced by how you play them as well as how you use the pedals but still) where as with the violin it's dependent on so many different things, the bow, the placing of fingers, how you press on the strings, how you move the bow... etc. It would need a completely different way of thinking, I'd imagine. But I never really see Jensen as thinking much of what he's doing. The music rather possesses him than it's him actually deciding how to play it. Which is why I can't decide whether the same thing would happen with different instruments or if he would find himself challenged by the different methods needed in playing them.

Now I really want to write it, too. Damn. lol

[allback2mine]

Ooh, I love the idea of all the instruments in the world as one orchestra. Am I remembering correctly: are there times in the stories when people can hear other instruments as well when Jensen plays? I suppose that's just a glimpse though, when he just lets go a little bit. Probably just as well: New York needs at least some of its glass to remain intact :)

I think you're right, it would need a completely different way of thinking. And he can adapt like that, can't he? I'm thinking of when he finds he understands the internet better by thinking of it as music (god, I'm such a geek for your story! Sorry). The different physicality of the violin is nice too, as you say, the movement of the bow, the exact pressure and manipulation of the strings. I learned to play the saxophone at school and I remember telling the teacher that I thought I was tone deaf and he said no, you can't be tone deaf and play a wooodwind instrument because your breath is shaping the note. I always liked that, the idea that you can breathe in tune.

[felisblanco]

Oh yes, there is. Probably why he mostly sticks to solo piano pieces rather than playing concertos etc because even if he manages to suppress the magic it's harder to suppress the music itself. The other instruments just insist on joining in, "It says so right there! Violin, cello, flute... We're supposed to be in this!" lol

Your breath is shaping the note. I love that.

I really wish I'd learned to play an instrument. Even if I was interested my sister's (very loud) French horn rather put a damper on my enthusiasm. Especially since she'd practice at all hours of the day. lol But yes, my grandfather kept offering to pay for piano lessons but by that time I was in junior college and never seemed to have time for anything so... I did inherit his piano though. My daughter will most likely start lessons in the fall.

[allback2mine]

Lol, you can't argue with that: if they're supposed to be there, how can Jensen refuse?

Maybe you could still learn. I'm pretty sure the apple website has lessons you can download. It's wonderful that your daughter might start learning, it does seem to stick better if you learn when you're young. I wish I'd kept playing the saxophone. I haven't owned one for years. I live in a flat though, and I like my neighbours, so maybe the saxophone isn't the best instrument... :)

I can't remember if I commented, but I really enjoyed your last Doors story. I loved Jared slowly realising the error of his ways, and the way Jensen just basks in his attention. It was lovely.

[felisblanco]

Aww, thank you. I had that whole scene of Jared screwing up the proposal written in at least three different versions probably two years ago. Was nice to finally get it fleshed out and turned into something actually romantic and not just awkward. lol

Again, it's more lack of time than anything. But once we've had the piano tuned I might try to play, if only some simple one-hand melodies. :) I'm very sick of my neighbours (they fight and yell at each other all the time) so I'm quite looking forward to tormenting them with bad piano music. lol

[allback2mine]

That long ago? Wow! I thought it was great. Romantically awkward and awkwardly romantic, just right. I don't know why, but I like knowing that authors have bits and pieces lying about that they keep back and work on for a long time. Like, there's more of the story that exists but we (the readers) don't have access to it yet.

Of course yes, it is time-consuming. Hadn't thought of that. Once it's tuned and your daughter's starting to play you probably won't be able to stop yourself from having a go, though :)

Play loudly, annoy your neighbours! My upstairs neighbour seems shy and is very quiet. Once in a while I hear his footsteps and that's all, except once at Christmas he came back very late and I think he was drunk because I could hear him singing. It was actually rather endearing.

[hold_onhope]

I was going to make my own comment thread, but I feel like jumping in here because allback2mine, you're definitely not the only one who's a complete geek for this story. ;D

I don't know if I've ever thought about Jensen playing a different instrument, but I've thought about him singing. Or to be fair, I've thought about Jared singing terribly off-key and Jensen just sort of smiling indulgently because it's Jared's music and that makes it beautiful, regardless of whether or not he can carry a tune in a bucket. XD Anyway, I'm a singer, I try to think about the way I use my "instrument." For me it's about half just "feeling" the music and half actually working at the mechanics of breathing and shaping the palate and things like that. So, I don't know about Jensen being the most beautiful singer in the world, but I would imagine that the part of him that just "feels" music would be strong enough that he'd be able to sing in nearly perfect pitch. Pitch is just different from tone and technique, that's all.

Aaaanyway, regarding the violin thing. I would love to see him all frustrated, mostly because I love frustrated Jensen and Jared trying to deal with him, ha. ♥ Like you said, there's completely different technique to playing the violin, but it's still similar to the piano in that it's a string instrument. I imagine he'd have a harder time learning to play a horn than a violin, but. He's pretty smart, and having gone to Juilliard I'm sure he knows a ton about musical theory and what makes a string instrument work. I think he'd try to just feel the music but the violin would make it sound all wrong because he's thinking about it like it's a piano. I mean, he worked out how to use computers and the internet because he equated it to music, so that does kind of make it sound like he'd be able to figure out a violin pretty quickly... but at the same time, computers are less about technique. It's all numbers and algorithms, and essentially, so is music. Especially strings - all that 12-tone stuff. Numbers = notes; algorhithms = how you put the notes together and what they sound like in relation to each other. I mean, the same song played on a piano sounds slightly different depending on who's playing it, even though the notes are all the same, because technique is different; if you type in the right codes to a computer, it's going to perform the same way regardless of who types them. So, Jensen's problem with the violin could be that he strips it down to just music, the natural flow that he lets the piano shape, but his body doesn't know how the violin shapes it. Doesn't know the technique. And once he listens to the violin the same way he listens to the piano, then maybe he'd get it. (And of course go running home to his piano bench once he's done with the violin. *g*)

SORRY, that got long! (I'm procrastinating from writing a paper and Doors is much more fun to think about!) Just me rambling; obviously you know more about Jensen and his music, Felis. I just like to speculate. :)