Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for November 14, 2013

If I was Phoebe’s parent I would say no Bath no dinner no bed till you practice. Either that or explain to us why you don’t love music any more and we won’t force you.

Also I wounder what a unicorn’s favorite game and game piece is?

Yep, I think Marigold is letting Phoebe “punish herself” so that she will learn a lesson the hard way… :-)

Doesn’t Phoebe now have respect for her piano teacher and "promised’ (sorta kinda) that she WOULD practice?

Aww, they could’ve been playing Zen: The Board Game!

XD yeah, I doubt Phoebe would’ve sat still for that

This story arc suffers from a logic error. If you enjoy playing the piano, you wouldn’t mind practice. If you do not enjoy playing, why take lessons?

Isn’t the after-dinner pre-bath window the time you’re suppose to be doing your school homework?

You take lessons because your parents force you to. I still hate anything to do with pianos after all these decades.

Maybe Schroeder can pay Phoebe a visit and talk her into practicing.

It looks like Sorry to me. And Marigold is particularly pretty today.

It’s not as simple as that. Playing piano is fun; it’s /practicing/ that is boring. Boring, boring, boring, boring! It’s much more fun to improvise, and to go off on an expedition looking for interesting new chords—but if you don’t do those stupid, boring scales and the other stupid, boring exercises, you’ll never be really good. I suppose it’s the same for dancers—all that barre work that isn’t interesting at all, when you want to be leaping or twirling.

I could never have been an outright virtuoso piano player; my reflexes are too slow. But there are a lot of musical things that I know now that I could have done—I’ve sung opera at a professional level, and I once, under pressure, composed an entire one-act operetta for children in one week. But no matter what I try to do musically, I could do it much better if I were even a third-rate piano player, instead of eighth-rate or so, as I am. I didn’t understand that when I was a kiddy-wink.

The pre-bath window?

It’s a Ouija Board…

“Pre-bath window.”

Something tells me that the word “Defenestration” is going to become very important in Phoebe’s near-future…