Immaculate

David

"Miss Sorenson, if you are to attempt Level One at the end of the year, you are going to have to get used to persons other than myself and Dr Green listening to you," Mr Blackbourne said and I sighed, once again he had picked up on what I was thinking straight away.

I drew the bow across the strings and murdered my scales. I actually saw Mr Blackbourne wince and Dr Green moved to lean his head on his hand, covering the ear closest to me. I huffed out my breath, lowered my bow and closed my eyes. I centred myself and then lifting my bow, took a deep breath and tried again. I only faltered once this time and I recieved his millimetre smile.

"Better," he said and nodded. "Again, please."

He made me go over and over them, correcting my stance using the tip of his own bow, and making alterations to my breathing and fingering. He stayed with me for the first several scales and then he moved over to Tom and looked over his shoulder at the sheet music, not making contact at all.

My fingers were starting to cramp and I flexed them out.

"OK, time to change over," he said and I looked over in surprise. "Mr Drew, play me your exam piece, please. Miss Sorenson, take the pencil and go through what Mr Drew has done, if you see any mistakes, correct them lightly above."

I set my violin back into the case and changed places with Tom who looked relieved to be getting up.

I started to go through the piece of music, I was only just learning myself how to read music and all I could really do was check his notes were correct.

I found no mistakes that I could see and I went over it again, relaxing completely when the music that Tom played flowed beautifully. I gave up as I reached the end the second time and just sat there looking down at the sheet, letting his notes flow over me.

He ended and I bit my lip, he was a very accomplished violinist and I could see that he thoroughly enjoyed playing. It reminded me of what he had said about playing the fiddle with his grandfather, it was obvious he had been playing a long time.

"What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin?" I asked. Mr Blackbourne opened his mouth but Tom started to answer me before he could speak.

"Nothing," Tom said and turned to face me. "A violin and a fiddle are the same instrument. Just two different styles, when I play Classical like that, then I'm playing a violin, when I saw on the strings I'm playing a fiddle," he said and his whole face lit up with enthusiasm, enthusiasm that was catching.

"Show me please," I asked him and dimples showed in his cheeks as he grinned widely. He brought the violin to his chin, his whole stance change and he launched into an energetic piece of music that had my foot tapping and a grin on my face. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and then, foot tapping, Mr Blackbourne started up with Tom. I saw Tom look at him in surprise, his fingers and bow moving over the strings, not even breaking time, and then he was grinning even wider and turned to face him and they were so in time with each other that I could only sit and stare in utter awe. I watched as Mr Blackbourne sped up and Tom matched him, they reached the end of the music and Mr Blackbourne moved seamlessly into another piece that had Tom foot tapping in agreement, he counted in four and then they were playing off each other, one stopping and the other starting as if they had played the piece a thousand times before with each other.

They reached an end and I saw both bows had several strings that had broken, Tom was out of breath and laughing happily. I was clapping along with Dr Green who had given up marking in favour of watching them. I looked over at Mr Blackbourne and was a little taken aback to see the full smile he gave Tom.