1 DAY LATER
_____________
"Ok I think you've got a hang of the major scale so today we'll be expanding a bit." Wayne said.
He had taken his wife's place today as she was exasperated from Cruz playing scales all day and had to go to work.
"So what we call the black keys are usually refrenced as accidentals. Sharps and flats. Plus naturals however naturals cancel out sharps and flats effectively making them the white key." Wayne lectured.
"Now that we've recapped. Today we'll be going over the minor scale. Can you remember what the pattern of the minor scale?" Wayne asked perceptively trying to gauge his son's reaction.
"Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole." Cruz jolted.
"Good now go from the bottom of the piano to the top playing the minor scale of each key for 30 minutes." Wayne Instructed
"Ok!" Cruz said.
He then repeated the process he did yesterday. Cruzs fingers elevated ever so slightly and then lowered in altitude to press on the next key. 30 minutes passed by swiftly.
"Thats good its been about 30 minutes. Good job buddy. We'll be playing a game now. I'll call out a note and either major or minor and you must play that scale. We'll set the timer to 5 seconds to start." Wayne explained.
"If you can't play the scale within that amount then you lose." Wayne said.
"Do i get anything if i win?" Cruz asked.
"Hm lets see." He thought for a second.
"If you can get 30 in a row you get 30 minutes added to your bed time tonight. Sound good?" Wayne said impulsively knowing his wife was gonna kill him.
"Yayy. Okay!" Cruz said.
He was completely confident in his skill after all 5 seconds was a long time.
"You ready?" His father asked.
"Mhm" Cruz said putting his thumb on middle C in a ready position.
"Ok." Wayne said.
"A Minor." He said as he pressed the button on the timer simultaneously.
Cruz immediately found the keys and with a swiftness remembered the interval pattern for a minor scale and play the notes in quick succession just barely making it. It seemed as though this would be harder than expected.
Wayne noticing the expression on his sons face smirked. Even if Cruz was a veteran at taking L's quite a lot in his previous life hes basically started from scratch in this one. Learning how to take a loss was something that came with experience, insight, and also physiology of the brain. And he could put those memories to use however, it seemed he would need to face a lot more set backs in this life in order to be able to use those memories and insights to strengthen his mental fortitude. Because right now his expression was less than unsightly. However still adorable.
"B major." Wayne said trying hard to collect his composure. After all this was one of the only wins he had gotten over his trickster and mischievous son it was something he had to relish before he has to handle another parent that had their anger locked in on him and his wife because Cruz thought it would be funny to subtly teach the other kids curse words through the power of suggestion or the one time he called a kid a dipshit because the kid couldn't understand the book he was reading at the park. Kindergarten was gonna be a hell ride and both Celeste and Wayne knew that unless some grades were skipped and some teachers appeased their 4 year old would quickly be suspended or probably expelled.
Cruz played the notes before the time limit a little bit of stress shown on his face.
"G Major." Wayne said as his grin grew larger.
Cruz found the keys again.
This repeated until the 29th when Wayne said "F minor." Cruz found the notes and played them in quick succession.
"Alright buddy last one." Wayne said with a clear smirk on his face.
Cruz noticing this immediately got worried since he had only seen his father put this expression on a fee times and each time it ended in him being completely outsmarted and outwitted.
"F flat minor." Wayne said half smiling trying to keep his amusement in.
Cruz so far had little practice with accidentals so he quickly remembered a flat was a half step below. Trying to find F on the piano a second had already passed. When he found F however when he looked at what was a half step below he stopped and was perplexed. In this moment he was unconfident in himself. Was it really this simple? or is there more to it? 3 seconds had already passed. Upon noticing he had 2 seconds left he quickly found the first note then the second and the third and the fourth.
BRRRINNNGG!!
"Fuck!" Cruz yelled in frustration completely forgetting his father was in the room. Realizing his mistake he looked up only to see his father with the most shit eating grin on his face. Waiting for his father to react at his slip up the weirdest thing happened.
"BAHAHAHAH" Wayne had bursted out laughing.
"Watch… your… language." He choked out in between laughs.
Cruz in this moment was embarrassed.
After 10 more seconds of laughing to Cruz's embarrassment Wayne spoke.
"You were fully confident and you underestimated the challenge and when it really mattered you lost that confidence. That is the difference between confidence and arrogance. You weren't confident you were arrogant." Wayne said.
Cruz pondered before he understood what his father was saying. His father continued.
"A real musician would've played the notes no matter right or wrong with one hundred percent confidence. When you play do not pause because you make a mistake or you think you made a mistake simply continue. This is a common rule in Arts however remember, Cruz , in music there is no right or wrong note and thats what makes it so beautiful and unique. Only by being creative and keeping an open mind will you be able to truly set yourself at the top." Wayne said looking his son in the eye.
Cruz thought before putting everything he said 100% to the letter in his heart. He trusted and loved his father and he knew just how capable of a musician his father was when he heard him play although most of the time he couldn't hear due to being pre occupied with something else.
"Okay Daddy!" Cruz exclaimed making Wayne smile.
"You lost so normal bed time tonight." Wayne said smirking.
"You cheated!" Cruz accused.
"Sorry buddy no can do on that one. Your mother would kill me if you won." Wayne said muttering the last part under his breathe.
"Next we'll be hopping into a few improvisation basics. Improvisation is one of the key components to jazz. It requires experience, technique, and most of all creativity." Wayne sat down on the bench next to his son. He placed his hands on the piano keys.
Suddenly fingers started gliding on the key board. His left hand playing 7th chords and 9th chords while his right hand was improvising going up and down the keys. He gracefully played a scale. Then he started to play diatonically (outside the key/scale.) He would press on keys seemingly random however they would create a jazzy sound. He played a bluesy tune back to jazz he would play down the chromatic scale while his left hand would glide from triad to 7th chord. Cruz following his fathers hands very carefully saw common patterns in the intervals his Dad was playing but he couldn't recognize a lot of them.
After one to two minutes of playing Wayne finally stopped, playing an 11th chord to finish.
"That was all off the top of my head." Wayne said.
Cruz looking amazed had stars in his eyes making his father look even more proud even though he had barely played to his fullest extent.
"That was awesome! Can you teach me?" Cruz jolted.
"Of course buddy what do you think we've been doing." Wayne said.
"Ok!"
"So to start off we will be strictly playing inside the scale. However when you play outside the scale or key that means you are playing diatonically…" Wayne explained.
Their lesson lasted for 2 more hours with Cruz trying to figure out how to play on 2 hands which prompted his father to hand him a notebook with sheet music in it.
Celeste arrived home cutting their lesson to an end. Cruz spent the rest of the night watching cartoon network and playing with his parents. Eventually he had to go to bed though. Cruz tried to practice playing 2 different things simultaneously with his powers however it was just as hard as it was in real life to his dismay. It seemed like he would need to practice more. He didn't notice that before if he had tried to play simultaneously without having tried to improvise that day he would've miserably failed.