Chapter Fifteen
Rowlf thoughtfully watched the vacant piano. “Hey Robin,” he said, “Wanna learn?”
Robin looked up at him. “Learn what?” he asked.
Rowlf tipped his head towards the piano. “Learn,” he said significantly.
Robin looked at the piano. He slowly turned back to Rowlf. His eyes began to light up, and he smiled.
Rowlf smiled back. He turned to the piano. “Come on,” he said with a wave of his colorful cast.
Robin followed and watched excitedly as Rowlf opened the piano bench, revealing many strange books, each about a half-inch thick.
“Can you read sheet music?” Rowlf asked, looking through the books.
“No,” Robin said apprehensively. “I just learned how to read English.”
From under the other books, Rowlf pulled out a considerably thinner one that had once been brightly colored, but had since faded. “Then we’ll start with this one,” he said.
He closed the bench, sat down on it, gently set the book on the piano, and gestured for Robin to sit in his lap, guessing that the added height would help the small frog to reach the keys.
Rowlf tenderly opened the fragile book and affectionately turned the well-worn pages. “Been a while,” he murmured under his breath. He found the page he was looking for, set it down, and thoughtfully laid his sunny-side-up eyes on the keys. “Hm,” he said. “I may need your help hitting the keys.”
“Okay!” Robin looked at his hands. “How?”
Rowlf gently held Robin’s wrists. “I’ll point, how about that?” He decided not to mention that he had originally been speaking to the book. After all, he needed Robin’s help, too.
“Okay!” the young frog said.
Rowlf looked at the keys and thought. “Where to start,” he murmured.
Robin smiled up at him. “Let’s start at the very beginning,” he sang. “A very good place to start…”
Rowlf smiled. “When you read, you begin with-“
“A-B-C!”
“When you sing, you begin with-“ he lifted Robin’s hand to press Middle C, slowing the tempo. “Do…” He took Robin’s hand to the next note, “Re…” and then to the note after. “Mi…”
Robin carefully pressed each note again. “Do… Re… Mi…”
They sang and pressed the notes together. “The first three notes just happen to be, do… re… mi…”
“Do… re… mi…” Robin repeated.
Rowlf slowly guided their hands up the keys. “Do… re… mi… fa… so… la… ti… do!” He brought their hands back to Middle C. “Do…”
Robin sang, “A deer, a female deer.”
Rowlf brought them to the next note. “Re…”
“A drop of golden sun…”
“…Mi…”
“A name, I call myself.”
“…Fa…”
“A long long way to run!”
“…So…”
“A needle pulling thread…”
“…La…”
“A note to follow so…”
“…Ti…”
“A drink with jam and bread!”
Then they sang together, “That will bring us back to do!”
Robin played the line of notes on his own. “Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do!”
With his left paw, Rowlf gently played a chord to end the song. “Very good,” he said. “Now that’s fine for singing. But usually, we call notes by letters. For instance, that first do. Play that for me.”
Robin pressed the key down and listened to the note.
“We call that C,” Rowlf said. “Now that just happens to be Middle C. See how it’s in the middle of the piano?”
Robin looked from side to side and nodded.
“Now hit the other do,” Rowlf said.
He did.
“Now see that’s a C, too,” Rowlf said, “Except it’s not Middle C, because it’s not the middle of the piano. Make sense?”
Robin frowned. “Why is it called C?” he asked.
“Because this note…” Rowlf guided Robins hand to a key two to the left of Middle C. “Is A…” He brought Robin’s hand to the intermediate note. “And that’s B.”
“What about the little black keys?” Robin asked.
“Those are flats and sharps. We’ll get to those. But the main notes are the white ones. Look at this.” Rowlf led Robin’s hand along the keys, letting him press each one. “A… B… C… D… E… F… G… and then back to A. And from here-“ He pointed to the first A. “To here-“ He pointed to the second A. “Is eight notes. That’s called an octave.”
Robin’s face lit up. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “So THAT’S what an octave is!”
Rowlf grinned his signature broad grin. “Yeah, that’s an octave!” he said. “Now let’s take a look at this music here. See all these lines on the page?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That’s to see what note to play.”
“How can you tell?”
“Well, by what line or space it’s on. See each line or space is for a different letter. This is an old book; I’ve got it all written in on the side here.” Sure enough, there in faded pencil and carefully crunched writing were the letters C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, and F, bottom to top beside a set of lines.
“Oh,” Robin said. He studied the lines and studied the keys. “So where would this one be?” He played a note.
“That’s an E,” Rowlf said, and he pointed, cautiously touching his finger to the page. “That line.”
“What about this one?”
“That’s G- that line there.” He lifted his finger and gently placed it one line higher, refusing to rub these pages, lest the ink smear or the page be worn any further than necessary.
“And this one?”
They went on for a long while, pausing only for a snack, at which point all three occupants of the house agreed that it was nice to hear the piano.
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