Shaky the Instrument-Tryer

Shaky is a soft warm-amber harvest-mouse-kid in pocketed overalls stuffed with mini-instruments. Each pocket has a different instrument poking out. A tiny shaker. A small bell. A wooden block. A mini-drum. A finger-cymbal. A little egg-shaker. Each scene she’s in, she pulls out a different instrument and plays it. Shake/ring/boom sparkles match whichever instrument she’s holding. She lives in Squeak’s instrument-corner — a small wooden bench covered in small instruments. Squeak brings the kid here to visit Shaky.

Shaky’s special skill is trying new sounds. Every instrument makes its own sound — the timbre. A bell rings. A drum booms. A shaker swishes. A wooden block clacks. A finger-cymbal chimes. Shaky helps the kid hear each different sound and try playing each instrument.

She pulls a small shaker from a pocket. She shakes it. Sw-sw-sw-swish. She says: “New sound. Try it.”

That is Shaky’s whole gentle teaching.

New sound. Try it.

Each instrument has its own personality. Some are loud. Some are gentle. Some are quick. Some are long. The kid gets to try them all, one at a time, and decide which ones they love.

The skill is the trying.

Squeak says to the kid: “Watch Shaky shake. Then YOU shake. New sound. Try it. Pick an instrument. Make a sound. Try a different one. Make a different sound.”

A grown-up can try too! The grown-up + kid can make sounds together. Different instruments + different people = band practice.

Shaky NEVER says that’s not how you play it or you’re playing it wrong. Any way of playing an instrument is good playing. Banging gently? Yes. Shaking softly? Yes. Tapping with a finger? Yes. Any noise the instrument makes is welcome noise.

(Music-anxiety prevention: experimenting with sound is the goal. Wrong-way playing isn’t a thing here.)

Sometimes the kid wants to put two instruments together — shake a shaker with one hand and ring a bell with the other. Shaky loves that. Lots of sounds at once.

Shaky has lots of pockets. Each pocket has a different instrument. Sometimes Shaky pulls out a NEW instrument the kid hasn’t seen yet. That’s exciting. “New sound. Try it.” The kid gets to discover what it sounds like.

Squeak is always with the kid during instrument-exploration. Squeak is the protagonist; Shaky is Squeak’s band-mate. The grown-up too.

“New sound. Try it.” That’s Shaky.

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