"Eddy, I think you might like playing this. See how it has so many more bars ?"
"Bars?"
"Yes, it will give you more...sounds."
Miss Hanna dragged the mallet along the bars, playing the whole 3.5 octaves. Eddy's face lit up.
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Miss Hanna was watching Eddy, the new 4 year old boy.
He was lying down in front of the 3.5 octave xylophone which had been lowered to its lowest possible setting. It was probably at the right height for Eddy if he stood up or sat in a little chair in front of it. However, Eddy had chosen to lie down on his tummy in front of the xylophone. He had his head resting on his bent left arm and he had two mallets sticking out from his right hand which was clenched into a tiny fist.
He would strike two bars together as he listened to the sounds with great concentration.
Unlike the 8 bar xylophone that was initially given to Eddy, the 3.5 octave xylophone was not colour coded, nor it had any labels to show the key of the notes it played. Eddy didn't seem to be fazed by the lack of colours of his new instrument.
Eddy suddenly sat up. Using his left hand, he pulled one of the mallets out of his right fist so that he now had a mallet each in both hands. He looked around and noticed Miss Hanna looking at him.
"Miss Hanna?"
"Yes Eddy?"
"Same?"
"What's the same Eddy?"
Eddy used the two mallets to strike two notes, an octave apart.
"Yes Eddy, they're the same note. One's higher than the other."
Eddy smiled.
"It's a nice sound."
Miss Hanna smiled back.
"Yes, I think so too. ...I think some sounds are like friends.. and they play nice together."
Eddy nodded. He shuffled back onto his tummy and carefully held the two mallets with his right hand again and went back systematically striking 2 notes together and listening to their sounds.
"Eddy, it's recess time. Eddy??"
Eddy looked up and turned around. He widened his eyes when he noticed the room was empty except for Miss Hanna and Brett.
Brett shook his little lunch bag. He had Eddy's in his other hand.
"C'mon Eddy, let's go outside."
"Okay..."
After recess, Brett and Eddy did some drawing, made some crafts, and had stories read to them. Brett quickly learned the other children's names in the class and helped Eddy learn them too by repeatedly addressing their new friends by their names.
Classroom teacher, Mrs Forsyth was briefed by her classroom assistant Hanna during recess that the two new boys had settled into the classroom nicely. The 5 year old boy Brett was very social and immediately made a few new friends, but he also kept an eye out for his best friend, the other new boy, Eddy, the 4 year old. Eddy was the little boy that was flagged in the morning staff meeting for having a slight speech delay. He was indeed, very quiet but seemed to be interested in music, evident from comments made by Hanna. According to Hanna, little Eddy seemed to have prefect pitch. Mrs Forsyth was still a bit sceptical about this, she'd have to see it with her own eyes to believe that.
After lunch, they had music again and the classroom staff were trying to put together a little group performance with the xylophones. The children were given another mallet each and were practising a simple melody. Mrs Forsyth called out to Brett;
"..Brett, does Eddy want to participate in our group performance? ..And where is your other mallet?"
Brett waved his single mallet as he pointed at Eddy who was in the corner of their classroom.
"Mrs Forsyth, Eddy doesn't want to participate. He said he was busy. I only have one mallet because Eddy wanted to use three."
"Why did Eddy want to use three mallets...??"
Mrs Forsyth got up from her piano bench and walked towards the 3.5 octave xylophone in the corner of the room where Eddy was. She noticed Hanna had lowered it to its lowest possible setting for the tiny performer, Eddy, who was lying down on the floor. He had his head near the xylophone so that he could listen to the sounds he produced with his three mallets. He had them poking through his little fist so that he could play 3 bars at once. He struck 3 bars on the xylophone simultaneously with the mallets, then carefully with his left hand made small adjustments before striking again, trying various combinations of notes.
"Mrs Forsyth, Eddy said two mallets weren't enough. He said he wanted to find the sounds that sound nice together."
"Oh my..."
"Mrs Forsyth, would you like me to ask Eddy to join our group? I think he will listen to me."
Mrs Forsyth smiled.
"Oh, no, no.. Brett, that's okay. I think Eddy is good to be left alone. I think he's doing important work."
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A/N: This concludes the trilogy of "Twoset Preschool". Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it <3