“I hate that piece!” Patrick responded after hearing Simple Gifts, the next piece in his method book. “It’s all sweet and cheerful. Yuck!”
 
He had just finished learning two pieces from Diane Hidy’s set titled Mean Little Monsters, and he loved those. I wasn’t surprised that Simple Gifts didn’t appeal to him.
 
“What if we make it minor?” I asked, demonstrating the first line of the piece in the parallel minor key.
 
“Yeah!” he exclaimed. “We’ll call it Needful Things. It’ll be dark and depressing!”
 
Problem solved. Happy 7th grader.