Letters from the Kingdom of Tune. #19: Akim: Let's try together to search the Internet about the Piper.
Hello!
Akim is writing to you. I am a friend of Mouse King.
Do you recall that story when I saved him from hunger and thirst?
Here on my computer, I’ve opened for you a photo from that memorable day. I hope you have read Queen Tonic's letter about the Primary Chords of the Kingdom of Tune and remember my story:
Today Mouse urgently contacted me and said that he just recognized the name of the enemy who had caused him to be in trouble.
I really wanted to hear this name as soon as possible, but Mouse King suddenly shouted into the phone that he could not speak: something had happened again in the Kingdom.
I was a little upset, but decided that I shouldn't be so impatient. Just when I put my phone on the table, I received a text message: "Write the story of our first meeting and friendship to the children while I am busy, please!"
And here I am writing to you and remembering those days when I thought that the mouse was just a little animal that I saved from death. I found him on the sand and stones and brought him home until spring.
One day when he spoke to me, I realized the fact that not a simple, but a fabulous Mouse had come into my home.
I gave him a piece of cheese, and he said: "Thank you!" Can you imagine? I almost fainted!
I then said to him: “If you know how to talk, can you tell me how you got into trouble? What happened that you almost died? "
At first, my new friend was very reserved. I would even say he pouted. It was very unpleasant for him to go through his painful memories.
You can't imagine how much persuasion and cheese it cost me so that Mouse gradually wanted to tell his story.
As it turned out, in his story, he did not look like such a hero. But I told him that it was very important not to be afraid to admit your failures and to truly see yourself from the outside.
We all make mistakes. If you do not learn to recognize where you are a hero and where you are not very good, then you will never learn anything new.
At first, Mouse said: “I don’t remember anything!” and “I myself don’t know how this could have happened . . .” and “Let's talk about something pleasant. Do you still have some cheese left?"
I had to put my foot down and say: "There is no cheese until you tell me how you got lost and got into trouble!"
I really wanted to not only understand, but also try to tell others how to avoid dangers and not get lost.
Gradually Mouse stopped being afraid of my condemnation and told his story.
What I heard was incredible!
It was a bummer. It turned out that Mouse not only got lost in space -- he had been lost in time!
He had lived 1000 years ago and studied music with a medieval recluse, a monk named Guido.
When he said that name, I had to stop him for a moment and ask:
“WHO IS GUIDO?”
"This is the person who figured out how to write down music!" he replied proudly. “He lived in Italy, in the city of Arezzo; therefore, he is called Guido of Arezzo.”
I had never heard this name before. It was uncomfortable for me to ask further questions, so I took the first opportunity and rushed to study this issue.
And the more I read and learned, the more I was surprised. I became very annoyed that I had not known anything about Guido before. I wanted to ask adults:
Why are you not telling children about Guido of Arezzo in kindergarten and school?
Why don't we study his biography in school and why don't you teach us how notes were created?
Why do we never celebrate any dates associated with Guido?
Music sounds everywhere, and whoever taught people how to record it is not as famous as the singers and musicians on TV? It is very strange.
At first I thought that Mouse had made everything up and no Guido had ever existed! It turned out that he lived 1000 years ago and people still use his invention.
But why don't children and many adults know about this?
I could not resist and asked Mouse all these questions.
He sadly replied: "Because I did not fulfill his instructions!"
"What?" I exclaimed.
“Guido once called me and told me under a great secret that the Composer had created all of us, our Earth and the Universe. The Composer had two students: he -- Guido -- and another student, who considered himself smarter than everyone else."
“I was a humble apprentice for my Master,” Guido told me before I was about to fly to the Kingdom of Tune. “He was a source of knowledge and light for me. He knew the answers to any question. I caught his every word. I was afraid to forget his lessons, so I wrote everything down.
“Another student called me ‘nobody,’ ‘a mediocrity,’ and liked to repeat that my place is among the gray, unremarkable mice.
“At this point Guido laughed and said: ‘Apparently, that's why you are my best friend!’ ”
“Why did he behave so impudently? Isn't that outrageous?" -- I could not restrain myself. Everything inside me was seething with indignation!
“Another student, The One Whose Name I Have Accidentally Forgotten . . .” answered Mouse slowly, (perhaps he was trying very hard to recall every word of Guido) “was bright, arrogant and mean. He believed that he had superiority over everyone, even over our Master. He loved to demonstrate his perfect ear, memory, grabbed everything on the fly, often very superficially.
“And then he began to misinterpret all the information. He was lying so recklessly that one day the Teacher got angry and kicked him out of the class. And The One Whose Name I Have Accidentally Forgotten became even angrier and more insidious.
“He hated the Master and decided to destroy everything that He had created. Of course, he also became an enemy of Guido. So, he promised to get to Guido's notes and destroy them."
Mouse scratched behind his ear and added: “That is why Guido, sending me to the Kingdom of Tune, asked me very urgently not to take my eyes off his treatises. And I did not fulfill his request . . . "
“When I flew to the Kingdom of Tune and gave the books to Uncle Tuning Fork, I still remembered Guido's instructions. Even when the struggle for power in the Kingdom began, I was sure that Noise was the very main enemy of the Great Composer.
“I was trying my best to help Uncle Tuning Fork bring order to the Kingdom when the sounds fell out of order. I went to the castle of Noise, and thanks to this, Tonic was saved. I was sure that I was doing everything right!
“But then something unspeakable happened -- I was distracted by some magical sounds. All I remember: many, many mice and a voice, the beautiful, mesmerizing sound of a flute. We followed this sound through forests and fields until I fell off a cliff into the water.
“I don't remember anything further. I woke up already in your home.”
To be honest, I didn't really understand anything from Mouse's story. What flute? Whose voice? What happened to the books that needed to be protected? Who is the enemy?
“I was not remembering his name. I think, this is the main problem . . . ” I heard in response.
“And this is not only MY problem, but a real problem for all of us!" he added.
"As soon as we find the name, I will save everyone!" I answered arrogantly.
I already saw myself as such a knight in shining armor, who is ready to fight any enemy.
I was so carried away by imagining myself as a hero that I decided that one sword would not be enough to save the world from the Enemy. We need aviation. "We can bomb the Evil Apprentice from the plane!" I added.
"The main thing is to know your enemy by sight!" I just couldn't stop. My imagination drew one picture after another of the battle.
The mouse was watching me sadly and didn’t say a word.
"Or is it better to use tanks?" losing my former confidence, I asked my friend.
“Take your time, Akim.” Mouse told me sadly. “This enemy is not easy to find. Sometimes it hides inside you. Now Evil has spread everywhere like a virus: we must learn to find out where it is hiding. The most important thing for me to remember is what Guido of Arezzo told me and to restore what was in his books."
I wondered if the enemy is inside me? Well, I can be good -- and sometimes I am mischievous. Maybe this is what we are talking about? Maybe that's why people put on costumes of all sorts of monsters on Halloween in order to recognize the enemy in themselves?
Dear reader, what do you think it means: to be your own enemy?
This is a difficult question for me so far.
I think that in the future, friendship with Mouse will help me to understand this better.
"Don't you know how to find the enemy in yourself?" I asked Mouse.
"It's a difficult question, but we will learn how to do it using the language of music!" - he said. “Maybe I also have this enemy…” he added thoughtfully.
Then spring came and I sent my friend home.
Before I could look back, he became the King of All Mice and took over the Cloud Kingdom.
One day I got a computer in my house and took out a plastic mouse from a box. As soon as I touched it, I saw my friend on the monitor.
"Hello!" he said to me. “I've been thinking about you all the time. I was able to simulate the musical text using the lessons of my teacher Guido. Do you want to try learning how to read music?"
“Ha! Yes, I've always dreamed about it! Who doesn't dream of becoming a cool musician and being the center of attention of hundreds of grateful listeners?”
I immediately started daydreaming of myself as the star of the scene:
I was adored by the audience!
But Mouse said: “Guido taught me that before creating something of your own, you need to learn to read and write what others have created. If you do not do this, then you will walk in circles and take someone else's for yours.
And he sent me a keyboard program. “Keys are notes, and notes are keys. If you want to read notes well, you need to start with them!" Mouse wrote in one of his emails.
This is how I started my studies with the Soft Way to Mozart program. I really liked it and I learned a lot of interesting music pieces while having a lot of fun. It was so simple and exciting that I read many interesting pieces of music so easily. It turned out that playing by sheet music is a real pleasure!
"Do you see? It's so great to be able to read the musical thoughts of others!" said Cloud Mouse to me when I sent him a dozen of my video performances.
“When you’re well-read, you don’t produce any musical nonsense.”
Once he wrote to me: “Would you be interested? Should I personally introduce you to Queen Tonic and the other persons of the Kingdom of Tune? They will soon have a Ball dedicated to the salvation of Tonic and the Restoration of Harmony "
"Would I be interested? My goodness! Yes, I dreamed about it. After all, I have already read so much about Tonic and her Kingdom, as if I knew each character personally. And Mr. Oops was always present at my classes and was happy about my small and big victories. We have long been inseparable friends. Literally from my earliest childhood. It was he who taught me to believe in myself and never be afraid to make mistakes.”
So I showed up at the Royal Ball. Queen Tonic wrote about me in her letter.
Do you remember?
I made a tremendous success there! And Queen Tonic, Princess Subdominant, and everyone, everyone, everyone applauded me.
They asked me what kind of notes they saw on the computer monitor. I managed to tell them about the Mouse and about the computer program with which I had learned to read a musical text, but the ball was already over and the final cadence was announced.
"Well, how did they take you?" Mouse asked in his text message before I could come home and take off my smart frock coat.
"They were delighted with my performance!" I replied proudly.
"Did they ask you how you learned to play notes so well?" Mouse asked me.
"There was no time for that! The ball ended and the final cadence was about to start!" I reported. “Well, now everything is clear! They don't know yet . . . " Mouse wrote to me.
"They don't know what?" I asked him.
“I’ll send you one photo now. Look! " was the answer. And he sent me this:
In the photo I saw two little helpless mice shedding tears over the musical text because its format is the most difficult for beginners in the Soft Way to Mozart program.
I already know how to read such music notation, but I learned to understand it gradually, through many intermediate steps.
"If I started with such little icons, I would cry, too!" I wrote to Mouse.
And suddenly I received an answer from him that I did not expect: "Piper! I remembered the name of the second student of the Composer. "
Of course, I was glad that we finally knew the name of the enemy of the Composer and Guido, but I still could not grasp the connection between the crying mice and the story I’d heard a long time ago.
“Now is not the time to go into explanations,” Mouse wrote to me. Please, find everything you can about the Piper. He is also called the Pied Piper of Hamelin. And I have to prepare an emergency report for Queen Tonic.”
Well, my dear addressee. Let's try together to search the Internet about the Piper. Write to me, did you find anything?
Oh wait. Just got one message from Mouse. He asks us to learn the third circle of the Alphabet. He promises that it will be very useful for you and me in the fight against the Pied Piper -- the Piper.
Here's what he sent now:
Your friend Akim,
The Soft Way to Mozart Academy student
PS
Do you know that we have a room for you in our Kingdom? Come and claim it!
Choose your school year and click New Topic. It will be your place! Here is the link!
Lesson plans with more Royal activities are for:
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