Chapter Twenty Three – Music Lessons

The music room was apart from the main classrooms. It was an older building with stairs. It was not possible to walk quietly across the room. If you walked slowly the wooden floor creaked, if more quickly each step returned a clonk. It seemed the room itself was keen to announce the arrival of each nervous student. There was an old, slightly battered looking upright piano tucked into a corner at the front of the room. Alongside was a guitar on a stand. Other instruments were hanging from hooks and sitting on shelves. They all had an appearance of being slightly past their prime. This was somehow inviting for the students. It was as if they were saying ‘come on, give us a go.’ Art sat at his desk. He was looking through some notes, occasionally looking up to smile at a student uncertain of where to sit. Art completely ignored Matt as he said he would. It was important, Art had explained, that there was no hint of friendship or favouritism. When all the students were seated Art stood up, held a finger to his lips and waited for silence. He smiled and nodded.

“Music starts with silence,” he said, “silence is the canvas we paint our music on and,” Art held his hands open and out wide, “music is the soundtrack to our lives.”

Art walked over to the piano at the side of the room and played two high notes, one after the other with a slight gap between them. Art played the two notes back and forth while looking at the class, eyebrows raised. “Is this enough of a tune for a song?” he asked. A few students giggled. It didn’t seem so.

“Let’s form groups, four groups. There are four rows, each row can be a group. Please get together around a desk, any desk at all. Chop, chop.”

The students looked at each other all wondering where to begin. “It’s okay to move the desks around. Everyone stand up, it’s easier that way.” There was a flurry of activity as the students rearranged themselves. Art clapped his hands and smiled at the class. “Excellent, that will do just fine. You have two minutes to learn each other’s names and one thing about each person in your group. There will be a test at the end of class and the ONLY thing you must know are the names of your group members. GO!”

There was an instant burble as everyone spoke at once. Matt wrote the names of his group on a piece of paper and put this in the middle of the desk. Matt suggested taking Lola on his bicycle as the thing they could know about him. The group laughed, they already knew this from maths class.

“Quiet please,” Art called out loudly. “Now the real work begins. I am going to play you a song and I want you to listen to it, talk about it and decide whether the melody I played at the start of the class is key. Or whether you could remove it and the song would be just as good. Here we go, the song is ‘For What It’s Worth’ by Buffalo Springfield. I will play it then we will go around the class and get your thoughts.” When the music stopped Art explained that there was no right or wrong, just opinions. After the discussion Art introduced a new song, this time a song Matt knew, Enola Gay.

“I want you to think about how this song makes you feel. Does it make you want to dance? Or does it make you want to lie down and cry?” The chatter within the groups was louder this time, the students’ confidence was growing. Besides this was fun. When the song ended Art asked, “Who felt like crying? Okay, no takers. Who felt like dancing?”

Most of the class put their hands up. Some of the girls giggled and looked at each other. Art pointed at them, walked over and stood in front of them with a big smile and his hands on his hips. He spoke slowly in a dramatic tone, “I saw this group jiggling in their seats. Didn’t I!”

The girls looked at each other grinning, not sure what to say. Art walked back to the front of the class then spun around with an outstretched arm and pointed finger. He swung his finger and gaze across the class making eye contact with each student. “Okay, everybody, stand up. Spread out, put your hands up in the air like this. Now DANCE.” Art played the song again and started dancing. Most of the students looked around. “Really, dance?” they were thinking. Some of the girls started tentatively dancing while looking at each other and giggling. Matt thought about the time he had spent dancing alone at home. He had started dancing by himself since he saw Art, Dylan and Jude dance. It had taken a while, but he now felt fine dancing on his own, but in class? He looked up and caught Art’s eye. Art smiled and gave Matt an encouraging lift of his head. Matt looked at the boy alongside him.
“Come on,” said Matt as he stepped into space in front of the desk and started to dance. Matt looked down, he didn’t want to make any eye contact. He closed his eyes and imagined that he was dancing alone at home with Lola jumping about.

As the song finished Art clapped his hands. “Well done, team, I am SO proud of you. Music is about feelings. It resonates with our feelings, sometimes triggers our feelings. Like wanting to dance for example. Please go back to your desks and write down the songs that you like and a few bullet points about what you like about them. In particular focus on how a song makes you feel. Is there an emotion that makes you want to play a song?”

As Matt left the classroom some of his group waved and smiled. Matt waved back, he would later find out that Art created new groups at each class. Matt would come to wonder whether the sole purpose of Art’s music class was to have fun and make friends.

When the school day came to a close and Matt walked through the school gates it occurred to him that not only had the day passed without incident, but the school experience had changed entirely in only one day.

Matt and Jed decided to collect Lola and take her for a walk for what, on only their second day, was becoming a routine. The lure of homemade biscuits meant walking to Jed’s house was an uncontested option. This time though Jed’s mum not only had biscuits for the boys but a small treat for Lola. “Oh, so you like me now?” joked Jed’s mum to Lola. “You are just like a teenager! A little bit of food and you’re my best friend.”

Matt did not stay long, he was hoping to loop home via the river and let Lola swim. He was crossing a park when he heard a whistle.

“Oi!” called a loud voice. It was Fuzz and a little girl. Fuzz stood up, waved and while holding the girl’s hand started walking toward Matt and Lola. Lola began wagging her tail and pulling on her leash.

“Hey, Matt. Remember me?” asked Fuzz. Matt nodded.

“Matt meet Lucy and…?”

“Lola,” replied Matt.

Lucy held onto Fuzz’s leg and looked at Matt while she pushed a finger into a corner of her mouth. “Can I pet your dog?” she asked.

Matt sat down and firmly held Lola’s collar. “Yep, but she likes to lick.”

“Perfect,” said Fuzz, “we like being licked.” Fuzz sat down, put Lucy on his lap and held his hand out to Lola. Matt slowly let Lola forward so Fuzz could pat her. Lola wriggled and pulled to get closer to Lucy. Fuzz put Lucy’s hand in his and reached out to Lola. Lucy squealed with delight and pulled her hand back when Lola licked it. After watching Fuzz rub Lola, Lucy reached out again and let Lola lick her hand.

“What do you reckon, Lucy? Would you like a dog?”

Lucy smiled and squirmed. “Yes,” she said.

“One day we’ll get a dog,” said Fuzz, “maybe one just like Lola.” They sat in comfortable silence while Lola rolled around playing with whoever touched her. Lola was very gentle with Lucy. Lola rolled onto her back and started to chew on Fuzz’s trousers. “Well, maybe we’ll look for a dog that doesn’t eat our clothes.”

Lucy laughed and reached out to touch Lola’s paw. Fuzz gave Lola one last rub. “Thank you, Matt and Lola. We need to keep moving, but I hope we bump into you guys again.” Fuzz scooped up Lucy with one arm and patted Matt on the back with the other as he turned to walk away.

Matt checked the time on his phone and decided to head home via Art’s house. As he opened the gate Art called through a window, “Welcome, welcome, we were just about to have some afternoon tea. Perfect timing.”

Dylan and Jude were on the couch. Jude was half laying on Dylan, who had his arms wrapped around her. Dylan lifted one arm and waved to Matt. “Indeed, we were just about to have afternoon tea.” They all laughed. Whenever anyone arrived they were just about to have morning tea, afternoon tea, a drink or something. It was a game Art loved to play.

Art waved his arms above his head until everyone was looking. “Attention everybody. Today is a momentous day indeed. Today, Matt danced in class. He danced magnificently and at the very front. I AM PROUD of you, Matt.” Matt blushed and looked down as Art strode over and wrapped his arms around him. When Art let go Jude stepped in and hugged Matt. 

“All the best boys dance, Matt,” she said.

By this time Dylan had walked over, he put an arm over Matt’s shoulder and turned to face Art and Jude. “Also, Matt got into a dust-up on his VERY FIRST DAY at college.” Dylan looked down at Matt. “Art told me, so I rang Jed. Good on you, no unnecessary biffo. Gary will be very pleased, I’m pleased too.”

Jude tipped her head to the side and gave Dylan a wry look. “What!” said Dylan smiling, before adding, “and Jude, of course, is over the moon.” Jude waved her hand back and forth in front of her as if she was slapping Dylan.

“But,” Art interjected with his eyebrows raised and head tipped to one side. “We are most pleased about the dancing.” Art waved toward the table. “Everyone sit up please, food is on the way. Now, this is a bit special, fruit cake.”

“Fart cake,” exclaimed Dylan. “Eat up, Matt, you are going to be so popular at school.”

“Not with the girls though,” cautioned Jude.

“Possibly yes,” said Art, “we are talking thirteen-year-olds after all!”

Dylan tapped the table to get Matt’s attention. “Matt, you can give us the results next week.”

“I’m a bit worried I’m going to get the results in music class,” lamented Art.

Dylan held up his finger. “Matt, while I have your attention. Gary asked me to catch up with you and Nikau to take him through some basics and suss him out a bit. Find a time that suits the two of you and let me know. Jed can join in if he wants.”

The banter and laughter continued, Jude gave Lola a cuddle and small piece of cake while Tac sat cautiously on the deck, keeping a constant eye on Lola. When it came time to go Art handed Matt a small piece of cake, wrapped and ready for school the next day. Art winked at Matt. “Eat it after music, but just before maths.”

As Matt opened the door to leave Dylan called out, “Hey, Matt. Bring all your maths and science schoolwork back on the weekend. I will see if I can help at all.”

Matt nodded and waved. “See ya.”

The next morning Nikau was waiting with Kiana. “Hey, Nikau, good to see you got Kiana out of bed in time for school,” joked Matt.

Kiana rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said over Nikau’s laughter.

“Nikau,” started Matt, “wanna catch up with Dylan to do some karate stuff?”

“Yeah, course,” said Nikau as if this was the silliest question he’d ever heard.

“When?”

“After school at my house?” asked Matt.

Nikau held up his hand for a high five. “Sorted.”

The school day was very straightforward. He and Jed met with Ricky at lunchtime to do their sprinting drills. Matt could keep up with Ricky for the first few legs of the drill, but after that Ricky left him far behind. Ricky patted Matt on the back after the first set. “Don’t stress, Matt. I’m two years ahead of you on this.”

Matt nodded while breathing deeply, he was too puffed to talk. Jed though was struggling, he was making groaning noises and yelled, “Why, why, why,” during his last sprint. Ricky smiled and winked at Matt. They’d all been there.

It was clear on the walk home Nikau had no idea what karate training would involve. He seemed to think that they would be straight into some hardcore fighting with the skills being sprinkled in along the way. Matt and Jed kept quiet and listened to Nikau’s thoughts.

Dylan was sitting, waiting on the grass at the end of Matt’s driveway. He had somehow befriended the neighbour’s scatty cat. When the cat saw the boys approaching it crouched, before bounding off through the garden. Dylan slowly stood up and smiled. “Good afternoon, gentlemen.”

Lola barked when she heard footsteps on the driveway, this switched to yipping and whining when she saw Matt. Matt opened the gate and crouched down, letting her jump up to his chest. Lola ran forward and back, jumping and spinning as the boys made their way onto the back lawn. Dylan swung his arms around to warm them up. “I understand you boys have your sports clothes with you today. Is that right?”

“Yep,” they all chimed.

“Great, get changed quick smart and get back out here. Grab a quick drink if you need it. Don’t stop to talk, we’re training from now.” The boys hurried to the sleep-out to get changed. When they returned Dylan was properly warmed up and immediately took them through a high pace warm-up routine.

“Great guys. The first thing we are going to practice is launching. We’ll start with just our hands. I’ll start with Nikau. Matt and Jed you follow along.”

Dylan held his right hand by the side of his face. “Nikau, my hand is your target. Set up for a left jab. Get as far back as you can, but still reach my hand without moving your hips or feet. Try a few slow ones to get the distance and feel.”

“Okay,” Dylan continued, “this is the drill. Nikau and Matt have up to three seconds to strike after my count. You don’t have to strike straight away, the idea is to surprise us, to catch Jed and me napping. You are NOT allowed to feint. You only get one movement. If you feint or creep toward us then POW.” Dylan simulated slapping Nikau. “We get to slap you! I can’t wait personally.”

Nikau shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “Whaaat. Really?”

“Really, really,” replied Dylan, “you must learn to control your reflexes and use them to your advantage. The good news for you is if Jed or I move before you strike then you get to slap us!” The boys laughed cautiously.

“Ready? We will do five on each hand and swap until everybody has been with everybody with both hands. Remember you have up to three seconds after each count to launch. Keep a count of how many out of ten you land for each person. One,” called Dylan.

There was the sound of a gentle slap by Matt. “I can’t wait to go with Jed,” said Dylan.

Nikau laughed then focused on hitting Dylan with his second attempt, having missed on his first. When the drill was completed Dylan faced the boys.

“Hands up who hit someone ten out of ten.” Matt put his hand up and smiled at Jed.

“That’s okay, Jed,” said Dylan. “I promise you, if you practice this drill you’ll start nailing everybody. Did anyone get hit ten out of ten?”

All three boys put their hands up and laughed. Dylan had easily hit them all ten out of ten. “The general rule is if you can’t move your hand fast enough to avoid getting hit, then you certainly won’t be able to move your face fast enough. If someone beats you ten times in a row, don’t start a fight with them.” The boys laughed. As if they would start a fight with Dylan.

“You will learn to be quick, you will learn to launch without telling your opponent you’re about to launch. There are things you need to learn and drills you need to perfect. If you don’t hammer the drills you will not improve.”

Dylan looked at the boys while thinking. “Okay, let’s try some simple movement. It’s a similar drill, but this time you need to move your feet.” Again the boys could not touch Dylan or each other. However, Dylan did point out just how much better Matt was after only a short amount of training.

“So how often do you do your drills, Matt?”

“Twice a day,” Matt replied.

“And how often do you do hill sprints, or go for a training ride?’

“Six days a week,” said Matt.

Dylan nodded approvingly. “Good answer. That’s what it takes guys. If you want to learn karate with Gary and me, you need to match our effort with yours. It is as simple as that. Okay, let’s do a round of conditioning.”