A Place in Her Heart

I carried doubts about Sienna drastic improvements in her piano practice, after the nearly 3-monther interval. But it’s happening. She no longer struggles to read the notes right for a new piece. She plays it out as if it’s something she picked up from before. Fingers are straightened up properly. A couple of times later, she has the piece memorized already. All the efforts we made seemed to show the results over night.

There are also changes on my part. I have even less to say about how she should do the keyboard. I just sit back a few yards away on the couch and become the audience, or the cheerleader. I remind her of the notes the teacher wrote for her without knowing the meaning of the notes.

I have next to none musical knowledge or talent. All the way along, I told her to put her heart into the music. I don’t usually say something so abstract and hard to execute. However, that started to have an effect on her as well. She said to me, “As long as I put my heart in it, it's ok even if I make mistakes, right, Mommy?”

The skill of piano playing, or anything else, is a journey of no end. I help to find a place in her heart that will keep her going and make the journey a more pleasant one. How wonderful -- the place seems to be in sight.