Be "Passionable!"

LA, the mom  of my student Hannah, was telling me the story of her daughter's private clarinet lesson teacher, who is of Asian descent.  These kind of stories warm my heart, because I am married to a man of Asian descent, and his little mom lived with us for a time.

Hannah's teacher, I'll call him "Mr. L",  had been working with her for a few weeks, and one day expressed his pleasure -- "You are gorgeous!  Gorgeous!"  Hannah was a bit concerned, and felt a little awkward, until he completed his thought, "You play just gorgeous!  Gorgeous!"  Ah.  Phew.  That was better.

Then, recently, she got that awkward feeling again.  When she walked into lessons, her teacher exclaimed, "You are very passionable today!"  Hannah was thinking to herself, "OK, now should I be concerned?" And again, he finished his thought..."Your headband and your shoes match each other!  You are so passionable!"  She realized he was trying to say "fashionable" and just thanked him and smiled.

I love that word, "Passionable!", Mr. L!  So, this is the word I use with my students when they are playing their piano pieces.  "If you don't remember anything else remember this:  Be passionable!"

T

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T.K. Goforth is a musician and author of the well-received book "Chord Piano is Fun!" She also writes a music blog called "Chord Piano Chick's Mostly Musical Musings.