Marks of Remarks

A while ago though, I told Sienna, casually, "with your music, you have to chew on it and swallow it. Then you when you play, you spit it out in one piece." I didn't expect her to take it seriously. Last night on the piano, she jokingly grabbed her hands in the air and above the music sheet, line by line and made the gestures of putting it in her mouth and swallowing. Then she went in for a few minutes' of playing complete a whole piece. I was very impressed.

Also when she was not in the best mood, she would keep saying, "I CANNOT do it… I CANNOT do it…" I suggested, casually again, maybe she could make a small change of words. What about saying "I CAN do it! I CAN do it!"? That’s exactly what she says now when she gets ready to do a perfect piece. And that of course changed her whole attitude for the better.

My remarks did make some marks on her. She used them quite literally to find her required concentration.