This idea popped into my head a few days ago and I decided to write it as kind of a break from my Cirque story (But I've still been working on it so never fear!) This is set when Kurt first starts as Dalton and before he joins the Warblers because really, you can't just join the Warblers- you need the skillz! So I imagined that they have an audition process similar to the one I had to go through to join the Encore group at my school, which is kind of an elite group of chorus members. I had to sing a major, minor, and chromatic scale, sight read, perform tonal memory (Which I rock at, btw XD) and sing a solo (I sang Caro Mio Ben, an Italian piece ^_^) I got in, mostly because I'm a first soprano and can go to at least a high G on my good days XD. I figured that Kurt didn't need help in the tonal memory department, or sight reading, and heaven knows he doesn't need help with a solo XD but maybe he didn't know scales, so maybe he asked Blaine to help him out?
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. It's cute, it's fluffy, and it's Klaine. Need there be anything else?
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.
The practice room was absolutely silent, void of the sound of lilting melodies, light banter, warming harmonies, and patter of dancing feet that it usually heard on busier days of the week. But it was Friday and the room was empty and quiet. The warm sunlight brightened the floors and the walls and glistened off of the baby grand piano that sat in the right-hand corner of the room, used only for practice purposes and the occasional Warbler piano battle where those who were trained in the way of the ivory keys duked it out with compositions from Mozart to arrangements of Bruno Mars and even some of the musicians' own compositions. These events were few though during competition season, but are always an easy way to blow off steam during stressful sessions.
The door into the musical room opened with only the slightest of squeaks, revealing one Kurt Hummel, timidly walking in with his messenger back slung over his chest, one hand gripping the strap like a lifeline. He looked around the room, gauging its atmosphere. It seemed nice enough, not like one of those choir rooms that was all work and no play, and they even had a poster from Wicked on the wall, which gave them extra points of awesome. Kurt let the door close behind him, its contact with the doorframe creating a soft echo in the room, most of the sound waves absorbed by the navy and red cloth panels on the walls and acoustic ceiling tiles. He wandered over to the piano, black and shiny and ever so welcoming.
The keys smiled up at him. Kurt placed on finger down on a very low G, the sound ominous and foreboding at it reverberated in the room. Kurt made a major chord, then a minor one. He knew his way around a piano; he has never missed a lesson after all. His bag made a 'thump' on the floor as he scooted out the piano bench. Now, what to do?
Before he could play anything however, a voice behind him spoke. It was lower than his, but warm and kind. It was the voice that gave him courage.
"I see you've met Big Bertha," Blaine said with a chuckle, walking towards Kurt and standing just to his left. Kurt looked over at him and gave an inquisitive look.
"Big Bertha?" he asked, skeptical. "What an eloquent name for such an instrument." Blaine shrugged and placed his hands in the pockets of his slacks.
"I don't know who named her," he said. "She had that name when I first started here. Maybe it's tradition." Kurt chuckled.
"Yeah, it seems like it's all about tradition here." Blaine nodded in agreement and trailed his eyes over the keys on the piano.
"Well, we're here to teach you scales so let's get to it," he said, nudging Kurt to scoot over on the bench. Kurt felt a blush creep up his neck as he felt Blaine's leg brush against his and held his hands tightly in his lap. Blaine held down a few keys before deciding on s specific starter note.
"I think you'd start on this note," he said, pressing down a G below middle C. "But I'm probably wrong. The main thing here though is to teach you the basic scales to try out for the Warblers." Blaine walked his fingers up the keyboard, playing a g-major scale up and back down again. Kurt watched as those fingers came closer to him and then receded back to their original position.
"It's not hard," Blaine explained. "You've seen the Sound of Music, right?" Kurt shot him a look that said 'how dare you ask such a moronic question like that?' Blaine cleared his throat. "Right, of course you have. Well, it's just like that song 'Do, a deer a female deer,'" He sang, playing the notes as he did. "Except you use numbers and just go up each step. One, two, three, four, five six, sev- because it's to much work to actually say seven- and then one again because it's an octave. Then you just go back down. Now you try," he commanded Kurt. Kurt took a deep breath and hummed the starting note as Blaine played it.
"One, two three, four, five, six, sev, one, sev, six, five, four, three, two, one," Kurt sang as Blaine played up the scale with him and back down again. They did it quite a few times, omitting notes played on the piano as they went. It wasn't hard, really, but Kurt would be a liar if he said he wasn't enjoying this.
"Now, you have to sing a minor scale after your major one," Blaine said, playing down to an E. "So after you sing the major scale-" he did so, "-you go down 'sev, six, six, sev, one, two, three, four, five, six, five, four, three, two, one, sev, six, sev, one'." He sang the minor scale then invited Kurt to join him. Kurt sang it with ease and mentally patted himself on the back for his musical prowess. Blaine seemed to approve of Kurt's progress.
"After that you'll sing a chromatic scale, which should be easy but can be pretty difficult." Blaine made a face, remembering some awful memory having to do with said scale. "But I think the hardest thing is what you have to say. It goes as follows-" Blaine played the first note and progressed slowly up the chromatic scale, "-one, sharp, two,sharp, three, four- no sharp there-, sharp, five, sharp, six, sharp, sev, one." Kurt grimaced and crossed his arms. Blaine then played the scale back down.
"Going down is harder than going up because it's very easy to go flat. You also change what you say. Instead of saying sharp, you replace it with flat. One thing that will help as you're going down the chromatic scale is if you lift your head up as you go. It sounds stupid but it sure helped me a lot. It keeps you from dropping your notes."
"Okay," Kurt said, biting his lip. "Let's try this." He went up the scale just fine, only fumbling over the words a little bit. It was going down that was hard.
"Gah!" he exclaimed after Blaine played the ending note, which was not the note that Kurt had ended on. "Why do I have to sing these?"
"To prove you aren't tone deaf," Blaine said with a smile. "Hey, at least you're good at tonal memory and okay at sight reading. You'll do fine if you mess up a little on the scales." Kurt huffed and played the starting note himself.
"Again."
After a few more attempts, both Blaine and Kurt definitely noticed some improvement. Kurt finally landed on the right ending note for the chromatic and cheered with a resounding "hah!" Blaine had then made him sing all the scales in order, which Kurt did impeccably well.
"Well, I guess you're good to go," Blaine said, patting Kurt on the thigh. "You're going to do great. It's cake getting into the Warblers!" Kurt laughed and nodded, shifting a little in his seat.
"Thanks for being a great teacher," he said, smiling at Blaine. Blaine flashed a charming smile back and stood up.
"Thank you for being a great student," he said, bowing. Kurt rolled his eyes, tried to hide the blush rushing rapidly up his face, and pulled the lid down onto the keys, hiding them from sight. He slid off the bench and picked up his bag. Blaine shoved his hands back into his pockets and looked out the window. It was nearing the late afternoon, the sun hiding behind the trees in the courtyard. It caused the leaves on the trees to glow with shades of green and gold. "Well, I suppose I'll see you on Monday?" Kurt looked down disappointedly, forgetting that it was Friday and he wouldn't see Blaine again until Monday.
"Yeah," he said, not looking at Blaine. Blaine furrowed his brow and rocked on his heels.
"Hey, uh," he started. Kurt looked up and gazed at him with bright blue eyes. "Would you like to get some coffee before you leave?" A smile crept across Kurt's pink lips, his grip on his messenger back tightened. His heart gave a cheery thump in his chest.
"Sure," he said, trying not to sound terribly eager. "I'm pretty famished." Blaine chuckled and started towards the door, Kurt in tow. He opened the door and motioned his hand to the doorframe.
"After you, sir," Blaine said. Kurt couldn't help but blush and giggle a little.
"Thank you kind gentleman," he said, walking through the door. Blaine softly closed the practice room door behind him before jogging to catch up with Kurt. As they walked away from the room, Big Bertha glinted in the afternoon sunlight, almost as if she knew something that they didn't yet.