i present to you all: "Lessons(?) From the Legends"
“Thank you all for attending this amazing guitar seminar,” comes Michelle’s message from the front of the classroom to the seated audience members—
“Please give a hand one last time for your beloved guitar teachers: Kaoru, Tae, Hina, Moca, and Sayo.” Applause swells up and bounces off the walls. “They’ll now be taking your questions.”
A first grader with pigtails raises her hand first. “How do I get good like Hina?”
Hina laughs. “What a cool little kid! Hmm… just play guitar a lot, you know? Then one day you’ll,” Hina starts air guitaring in support of her articulations, “Nyoom, pewm pewm, zap!”
Another small child with an afro raises her hand, but speaks before being called upon. “That doesn't make any sense, Ms. Hina..."
Sayo shakes her head. "Regardless of Hina’s verbiage, the truth of the matter remains. Practice and practice alone allows for your creativity to be fully expressed.”
O-Tae’s eyes brighten and she smirks, chest as strong as can be. “Here’s the best answer, kids. You have to do more than play your guitar… you have to make the right noises, too. It’s not nyoom, pewm pewm, zap. It’s more like this.” She takes a deep breath and clenches her fists.
Then, she drops down to the floor, and begins hopping while smacking. “If you play like a rabbit, you won’t miss a single note.”
“When will you two learn,” Moca says to Hina and the hopping O-Tae, “That it’s not about nyoom or rabbit sounds? It’s waaaaay more like bom bom.” Moca holds up an air guitar and with the least effort possible, strums it. “Don’t you hear that? Bom… bom…” Her words come as slow as her strums. “Bom.”
Michelle interrupts, “Okay, kids, it looks like this seminar is coming to its close,” More like its demise, Michelle thinks to herself, “So if you’ll all stand up and line up at the door to leave—”
“Ah, what a tragedy. It would seem that although some of CiRCLE’s bands have legendary musicians, they have but one among them who comes gifted with the ability to impart.” Kaoru strolls to the very center of the classroom and gestures with strength.
“In becoming a legend, it is not you who must play, but it is the guitar… who plays you. Listen to its song, for it has sung it since its formation in the womb—that is, as it was once part of a bark’s tree. As the great bard once said, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’", she stops to gaze deeply at a child before continuing,
"So you too, children, must allow your guitar to draw a romantically grandiose poem of your very essence. Ask your instrument to reveal how you have bewitched it, and you will find the music sheet to the greatest composition of your soul; teach it to your hands, and you shall know greatness.”
“Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Cool. Thanks, Ms. Kaoru,” says the pig-tailed girl.
With Michelle’s help, all of the kids stand up in tandem, walking out of classroom. To some degree or another, they are all marveling at the wisdom in Kaoru’s speech.
Afterwards, Sayo comes over to Kaoru. "What you said resonated with the children. What was your meaning?"
"My meaning, was... exactly as it appeared to be, and..." Kaoru strokes her chin for a moment. "Thus shall it always remain."
Sayo stares in awe.
...Well, maybe not in awe, but she's definitely staring.
