WHAT IS SUZUKI?
"Musical ability is not an inborn talent but an ability that can be developed. Any child who is properly trained can develop musical ability just as all children develop the ability to speak their mother tongue. The potential of every child is unlimited" -Shinichi Suzuki
Over fifty years ago, Japanese violinist, educator, and philosopher Shinichi Suzuki came to the realization that children all over the world learned to speak their native language relatively easily through observation, parental encouragement, and constant repetition. Suzuki believed that musical skills could be acquired in much the same way that language was learned, and he began teaching using these basic principles to create the "mother-tongue approach" to learning music.
Some of the basic traits of the Suzuki philosophy include:
- Parental involvement - Parents are incredibly important to the Suzuki approach. They attend all lessons with the child, help create and maintain a positive learning environment for the child, and assist with practicing at home during the week.
- Listening - Children learn to speak by listening to and imitating the language they hear around them. The Suzuki philosophy emphasizes the importance of daily listening to recordings of the Suzuki pieces. These recordings of professional artists help instill the value of a beautiful tone and good musicianship to students from the beginning of their musical studies.
- Learning with other children - In addition to individual lessons, Suzuki students also participate in group classes. Because all Suzuki students learn the same pieces, group classes are motivating for students, and enable them to play together, therefore developing valuable ensemble skills.
- Unified, graded repertoire - Each piece in the Suzuki repertoire was carefully chosen to serve as a stepping stone toward technical, musical, and stylistic development. Just as children learn and use language to communicate, pieces in the Suzuki repertoire present technical challenges that are learned within the context of the music.
- Repetition - Repetition is essential when learning to play a musical instrument. Rather than learning pieces of music and discarding them, pieces are constantly reviewed and added to students' repertoire with the idea that the pieces are in a constant state of refinement.
- Delayed reading - Children learn to read and write long after they learn to speak. As such, reading music is delayed in the Suzuki approach until students acquire good aural, technical, and musical skills.
For more information please visit the Suzuki Association of the Americas website.
Over fifty years ago, Japanese violinist, educator, and philosopher Shinichi Suzuki came to the realization that children all over the world learned to speak their native language relatively easily through observation, parental encouragement, and constant repetition. Suzuki believed that musical skills could be acquired in much the same way that language was learned, and he began teaching using these basic principles to create the "mother-tongue approach" to learning music.
Some of the basic traits of the Suzuki philosophy include:
- Parental involvement - Parents are incredibly important to the Suzuki approach. They attend all lessons with the child, help create and maintain a positive learning environment for the child, and assist with practicing at home during the week.
- Listening - Children learn to speak by listening to and imitating the language they hear around them. The Suzuki philosophy emphasizes the importance of daily listening to recordings of the Suzuki pieces. These recordings of professional artists help instill the value of a beautiful tone and good musicianship to students from the beginning of their musical studies.
- Learning with other children - In addition to individual lessons, Suzuki students also participate in group classes. Because all Suzuki students learn the same pieces, group classes are motivating for students, and enable them to play together, therefore developing valuable ensemble skills.
- Unified, graded repertoire - Each piece in the Suzuki repertoire was carefully chosen to serve as a stepping stone toward technical, musical, and stylistic development. Just as children learn and use language to communicate, pieces in the Suzuki repertoire present technical challenges that are learned within the context of the music.
- Repetition - Repetition is essential when learning to play a musical instrument. Rather than learning pieces of music and discarding them, pieces are constantly reviewed and added to students' repertoire with the idea that the pieces are in a constant state of refinement.
- Delayed reading - Children learn to read and write long after they learn to speak. As such, reading music is delayed in the Suzuki approach until students acquire good aural, technical, and musical skills.
For more information please visit the Suzuki Association of the Americas website.