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I was six years old sitting at the reception room waiting to be called for my first piano lesson and I was excited but mostly afraid.

The day before, my best friend Rocio, confided a conversation between her mother and other ladies from the neighborhood.The new piano teacher was very ugly and mean “like a witch.” After listening to this, I started to imagine all kind of excuses I can use to not go, and fell asleep in the process.

Finally I heard my name, a door opens and I see a lady walking to us. She introduces herself as Miss Bertha, the new piano teacher and I can’t believe my friend Rocio was so wrong; she is not ugly at all.

As she is greeting my mother, I notice her voice was soft and I am thinking, a “witch” does not have a voice like this.” With a big smile she asks me to follow her and I started to feel better.

Once at the piano, the first thing I learned was the proper way to sit and the position of my hands. But most important how to express myself, both playing and using my voice with the proper tone.

I also learned at the end of my piano lesson Miss Bertha was not a witch.

I still practice to this date Miss Bertha’s method to express myself; using the proper tone when talking and believe me it works.
It is in our nature to react defensive when someone talks to us with a loud or angry tone, from “I want a glass with water” to “You are wearing that?”

If you say the same things with a soft tone, people will react very different. The waitress will bring you the glass with water with no funny surprises inside and your wife will look better next time.

My personal quote for years has been:

“Using the proper tone to express ourselves, can be the difference between heaven and hell.”

By Mardo…

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 8:09 am and is filed under MARDO'S WORDS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.