CHAPTER SIX "Do Re Mi " Oh Me, Oh My !

Since Frederick Sewell had blissfully slept in this morning, leaving all the school preparations to his wife, Elizabeth, he felt duty-bound to volunteer his time to pick up Freddie from school this afternoon.
Besides, he had another motive for wanting to do this.  He wanted to talk to Freddy's teacher.  Since
Mrs. Lamper's husband taught singing lessons, Frederick wanted to get some information about these lessons.  Being an actor, he had often missed out on being cast in parts where singing was required.
You see, Frederick was not a very good singer, and he thought maybe Edward Lamper could help him improve.

When Frederick arrived at school  Freddy stood waiting with Mrs. Lamper.  Evidently Frederick was a bit late, as usual. When he asked Mrs. Lamper about the singing lessons,  she was surprised that this was his concern.  Most parents wanted to know how their child had done that day.  She suggested that
he should talk directly to Edward to get all the accurate information.

"Say, Edward is home and available right now.  If you want to walk over there, it would be a perfect time to catch him.  And you could help me out, too.  If our girls could walk with you, it would be a great help.  Their brother usually walks them home, but I need him here to help me hang some shelves."

Well, Frederick could do little else but offer to help.  So off he went accompanied by his little party of students.

Edward was at home when they reached the Lamper's house, and was just finishing a lesson with one of his students.  As this student left, Edward greeted the children and thanked Frederick for walking them home.

Frederick said, "No problem, I wanted to talk to you anyway, and inquire about talking singing lessons."
Edward seemed more than pleased to talk with Frederick about lessons.  "I would be more than happy to have another student.  Why don't you come in and let's have you try a little vocalizing to see if you might benefit from lessons."

So the girls and Freddy ran upstairs to play, and the men went to Edward's music studio.

"Let's try some scales first"
Edward played some notes on the piano and sang the scale for Frederick to copy, "Do re mi fa sol la ti do."  Then he repeated the scales again starting one note higher.
"  Now, Frederick, you sing the scales as I play the notes on the piano."

So Frederick sang, "Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti OH NO!"  Frederick's voice cracked on the high note

Upstairs the children were sitting around the floor vent watching and listening.  You see this old house had heat vents in the ceilings of the downstairs rooms so that heat could rise to the rooms upstairs.
These gave the children a perfect spot to watch and listen to the lesson going on downstairs.

When  Frederick's voice cracked on the high note, the children started giggling.

Downstairs, Edward said,  "Er let's try that again. Try breathing deeper breaths."  

So Frederick sang,  "Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti OH NO even worse."  His voice cracked again.

Again they heard stifled giggles from upstairs.

"Kids, get away from that vent right now!"  Edward knew just what the kids were doing.

"All right,"  said Edward.  "Now that the kids can't interrupt us.  Let's try the scales one more time."
This time he played the piano along with Frederick's singing.

Frederick coughed and clear his throat.  He gave it a valiant effort. "Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do."
But this time with the piano, Frederick was terribly flat on every note.  And, as he finished, the
dog started to  howl.  When the dog started to howl the children really lost it.  Hysterical laughter came from upstairs!

Edward and Frederick stopped.  There was an embarrassing silence.

Frederick said,   " Freddy and I must go.  I know Elizabeth is waiting supper. Freddy!  It's time to go!" Frederick yelled upstairs.

Edward, too, looked embarrassed.  "  You know, Frederick  what the newest trend in acting is.
The new musical on Broadway is "Hamilton".  It is sold out for months, and it is a Rap Musical.
Er uh,  you might want to consider taking Rap lesson from our sons."

"Thanks,"  said Frederick, hurrying Freddy along to the door,  I might consider it.  Come along, Freddy, Mother is waiting."  And they hurried out.


Rodgers and Hammerstein said this about the Do Re Mi scale, "When you know the notes to sing,
you can sing most anything."  If they heard Frederick sing the scales, they might have to reconsider.