Chapter 21

    While Maggie and Paul were talking Deirdre had by no means been playing. Paul's chords were fascinating, but not as fascinating as the conversation. And she knew Mrs. Grayson, who was known among her students as "Old Knuckle Rapper", to name only one of her sobriquets. And now she was also wise enough to understand that her lesson was over, and further she intuited that Paul had something to show Maggie equally as unique as what she had been learning. She got up from the bench, motioned Maggie to it, and sat down beside her mother. She gave her a friendly nudge. "Isn't he something? My God, music ideas I've never heard of, and religion class at the same time. This is going to be a wonderful year."
  
     But Paul turned to her anyway. "You both have to hear this, in order to understand the reasoning in my approach. After all, you've both realized  that you're in the business of resigning from you girlish dreams about marrying princes or exploring the jungles of Borneo, because you're realized your destiny is to become musicians. Or maybe music teachers. So you need to understand that if you are teaching a beginner you would never start out with him or her as I have with you. You guys have already had a lot poured into you, long before you ran across me, and you more or less responded accordingly. So now, with your glorious careers in mind, I have to teach how to start from scratch. Maggie, sit down and start pretending you know nothing about the keyboard. At the same time, forget you have fingers. Close your hands, but leave the thumbs free to perform as they've never performed before. Oh, and also answer the following question: has any teacher ever said that to you before? About the thumbs, I mean?"
  
     Maggie folded her fingers as she took over the bench. "No," she said. "Were they supposed to?" Once she was firmly seated she turned her hands so that her thumbs were vertical, and studied them in their isolation, wiggling them with grin on her face.
 
     "Yes. But people don't always do everything they're supposed to. Especially since the Renaissance. Now, find middle C with your right thumb."
 
     "You make me feel like a puppeteer."
 
     "A very good image. Puppeteers are good at making children laugh. And a puppeteer who can make music is doubly useful. Now, think of the C as One, and plunk and count, at least mentally, all the way up the octave. Just with your thumbs, remember. Your fingers might recall that they've been involved with scales before, and might rebel against being left out, so you may have to discipline their memory. Slowly, and thoughtfully, as if you'd never measured a scale this way before. If any question at all comes into your mind, ask it. You can stop playing, or you can plunk while you speak, In fact you can do whatever you want, except rattle away with all five fingers at once. Now, off you go."
 
     "Buy you said I could ask questions."
   
    "So I did. Ask away."
 
     "Were you playing just with your thumbs the first time we heard you?"
  
     "Oh, heavens, no. The thumbs can do a lot, but not that much. But I would never have been able to  manage all five fingers so adroitly- well, all ten fingers - if I hadn't been content to use just my thumbs when I was starting out to learn. I wasn't forbidden to use my fingers. That wouldn't have been very natural, and of course I like to try them out. But Maman insisted I had to know how to do as much as possible with my thumbs before she'd really teach me what the fingers were good for. The isolated thumbs are really a huge cornerstone of Grandpere's technique, besides being an enormous amount of fun because they're so basic to the challenge of measuring the keyboard inside your head. Now get going so you can see what I mean. Thumb on middle C, and play the first three notes. C, d, e; 1, 2, 3. Do, ray, me."
  
     Maggie started off, slowly. "Do I have to sing?"
   
    "No. not if you don't feel like singing. That's always up to you. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it gets in the way. Interferes with listening to the notes on the instrument. But you should pay some attention to the three names of the notes, especially the numbers. That's what you have to get lodged in your brain, the numbers."
  
     She continued to play back and forth, slowly, and then instinctively closed her eyes. She made a couple of mistakes at first, but quickly found the range. "How come only the first three notes?"
   
    "Now that's the best question of the day, so far. It's because the scale really has to be studied in its basic three parts. In fact we're not even going to go all the way to the top, like the scale books do. Music is three things: melody, harmony, and rhythm, and so the sooner we get to harmony, the better. We've done some of that, of course, but this time we'll look at an even more fundamental left hand.
Fundamental because it's only 1, 4, and 5, eventually, and also covers the entire octave. It also tests your abilities as an athlete. A musical athlete that is. I think I saw you score a basket on the school ground. I looked out the window for a moment, having heard some noise."
 
     "I did score two or three, yes. But not as many as I missed."
 
     "That's the difference between basketball and music. To get paid in basketball you only have score some of the time. But in music you're not allowed to miss the note, or even play the wrong note. But of course in music neither do you have an opposing player trying to interfere with your shot. All right, left thumb on little C. That's your 1. Then up to G, which will be your 5, then back down to your 1. That's the 1, 2, 3 for the left hand. 1, 5, 1. 1,5,1. That's it. Slow, and look at it an study it carefully. Think about it. This is something you want to take to your pillow, like when you were a child first learning your alphabet and your numbers. It might seem hard at first, because you've probably always played the interval with the thumb and another digit. But it comes, and you won't believe how much fun it is to do it with your eyes closed, later on. Like Blind Man's Bluff, only it sounds better. But don't close your eyes now. That's for later, after it gets boring to be looking all the time."
 
     Maggie snorted. "This isn't boring! I wish it were. I can't imagine doing two hands together for a year! My fingers are screaming at me because they want in!"
  
     "Are you fonder of scales than Deirdre?"
  
     "Probably. When she was talking about quitting I really didn't feel like that, although I did think I could run into trouble with them at some point. Sometimes they seem kind of stupid, not much related to real music. But they're in a book and I've never seen anything more interesting. And of course Mom encouraged me to be good at them because she knows she wasn't, and she thinks that's why she had trouble with advanced pieces like the Moonlight."
 
     "The reason she had trouble with the Moonlight is that her teacher put far too much reliance on those ridiculous scale studies. Just you wait until she starts learning what you're doing and will be doing."
   
    Maggie stopped playing and turned her eyes wide upon him. "You mean you could teach my Mom?"
  
     "I'm teaching you and she must be at least as musical as you are, don't you think?"
   
    "I know, but she's older than you!"
   
    "Gray hairs are no proof of wisdom.'"
   
    "She doesn't have gray hair!"
  
     "I've never seen her, but I believe you. And I'm only quoting from the Bible, for the benefit of Sadie. After all, we have to have some adult conversation around here." He winked at Sadie, who winked back, knowing that he was enjoying the juvenile conversation immensely.
   
    Paul kept Maggie at the shifting left hand for a little more, and then he said, "Well, you seem to have that pretty well under control, so let's get down to the whole ball of wax. You're a pianist, after all, not a rhythm guitarist. That means the left hand has to learn all the notes. Both thumbs on the C's.
Count up the scale to the top, then back down to the bottom. Look at first, then start playing blind, or pretend you're looking at a scale study. But play the pairs in sections. 1,2,3. Then 3,4,5.  Then 5,6,7,1. And of course reversed."