Litani returned the smile warmly, seeming to either read or forecast the jittery nature of the creature before her - it wasn't a divine insight, nor a preordained knowledge - she simply surmised how a mouse might respond to the discipline required to learn an instrument properly. Thus, 'proper' quickly disappeared from the day's menu. She took her hands off the strings and took a step back.
"Take the frame of the instrument and set it lightly against your shoulder, here," she said lightly, just briefly tapping the edge of the harp and then touching Souris' shoulder in the corresponding place, if permitted to do so. She intended that the Kelvic connect the two places. "Then you can reach better. See?" She waited for a moment to see if Souris would get herself settled, then said softly, "The strings that are farthest away give the deepest sounds, remember from before? And the ones closest to you are the light, tiny sounds. A song is a blend of those two things, and of all the sounds in the middle. Each string represents a slightly different sound. If you pluck them individually and listen very closely, you can hear the difference."
Litani went quiet then and let Souris experiment, gesturing with one long-fingered hand that she was at liberty to explore as she wished. Only one word of caution: "Be gentle with the strings, but play with them as you wish... They are very strong and they are tied very tightly, so you shouldn't worry about snapping one unless you were VERY harsh with it. We wouldn't want that. But you should be just fine." Kindly then, she smiled as she observed the Kelvic and a bit of warmth stole across her as she wondered how she, herself, had looked to her teacher when she'd taken the strings for the very first time.
"Take the frame of the instrument and set it lightly against your shoulder, here," she said lightly, just briefly tapping the edge of the harp and then touching Souris' shoulder in the corresponding place, if permitted to do so. She intended that the Kelvic connect the two places. "Then you can reach better. See?" She waited for a moment to see if Souris would get herself settled, then said softly, "The strings that are farthest away give the deepest sounds, remember from before? And the ones closest to you are the light, tiny sounds. A song is a blend of those two things, and of all the sounds in the middle. Each string represents a slightly different sound. If you pluck them individually and listen very closely, you can hear the difference."
Litani went quiet then and let Souris experiment, gesturing with one long-fingered hand that she was at liberty to explore as she wished. Only one word of caution: "Be gentle with the strings, but play with them as you wish... They are very strong and they are tied very tightly, so you shouldn't worry about snapping one unless you were VERY harsh with it. We wouldn't want that. But you should be just fine." Kindly then, she smiled as she observed the Kelvic and a bit of warmth stole across her as she wondered how she, herself, had looked to her teacher when she'd taken the strings for the very first time.
