Suzuki method

The Suzuki Method was conceived in the mid-20th century by Shinichi Suzuki, a Japanese violin salesman. As a poor violinist and a beginner at the German language who struggled to learn it, Suzuki noticed that children pick up their native language quickly, whereas adults consider even dialects "difficult" to learn but are spoken with ease by children at age five or six. He reasoned that if children have the skill to acquire their native language, they have the necessary ability to become proficient on a musical instrument. Suzuki decided to develop his teaching method (rather than become a professional violinist) after a conversation with Leonor Michaelis, who was Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Nagoya.[1]

Suzuki pioneered the idea that preschool age children could learn to play the violin if the learning steps were small enough and the instrument was scaled down to fit their body. He modeled his method, which he called "Talent Education" (才能教育, sainō kyōiku), after his theories of natural language acquisition. Suzuki believed that every child, if properly taught, was capable of a high level of musical achievement. He also made it clear that the goal of such musical education was to raise generations of children with "noble hearts"[2] (as opposed to creating famous musical prodigies).

The central belief of Suzuki, based on his language acquisition theories, is that all people can (and will) learn from their environment. The essential components of his method spring from the desire to create the "right environment" for learning music (he believed that this positive environment would also help to foster excellent character in every student). These components include:

• Saturation in the musical community.

This includes attending local classical music concerts, developing friendships with other music students, and listening to recordings of professional musicians in the home every day, starting before birth if possible.

• Deliberate avoidance of musical aptitude tests or auditions to begin music study.

Suzuki believed that teachers who test for musical aptitude before taking students, or who look only for "talented" students, are limiting themselves to people who have already started their music education. Just as every child is expected to learn their native language, Suzuki expected every child to be able to learn to play music.

• Emphasis on playing from a very young age.

Suzuki believed that children should typically start formal instruction between the ages of three and five years old. (See Technique).

• Using well-trained teachers.

Suzuki believed in training musicians not only to be better musicians, but also to be better teachers. Suzuki Associations worldwide offer ongoing teacher-training programs to prospective and continuing Suzuki teachers.

• In the beginning, learning music by ear is emphasized over reading written musical notation.

Suzuki observed that children speak before learning to read, and thought that children should also be able to play music before learning to read. To support learning by ear, students are expected to listen to recordings of the music they are learning daily.

• Memorization of all solo repertoire is expected.

The focus on memorization continues even after a student begins to use sheet music to learn new pieces.

• Music theory and note reading are left to the teacher.

The Suzuki method does not include a formal plan or prescribe specific materials for introducing music theory and reading, in part because Suzuki created the method in a culture where music literacy was routinely taught in schools.

• Regular playing in groups (including playing pieces in unison) is strongly encouraged.
• Retaining and reviewing every piece of music ever learned is also strongly encouraged.

This is intended to raise technical and musical ability. Review pieces, along with "preview" parts of music a student is yet to learn, are often used in place of the more traditional etude books. Traditional etudes and technical studies are not used in the beginning stages, which focus almost exclusively on a set of performance pieces.

• Frequent public performance makes performing feel like a natural and enjoyable part of being a musician.

The method discourages competitive attitudes between players, and advocates collaboration and mutual encouragement for those of every ability and level. However, this does not mean the elimination of auditions or evaluations of student performances. (This statement does not contradict the second bullet in this section: “Deliberate avoidance of musical aptitude tests or auditions to begin music study. ”, because that second bullet is saying all can start learning. Some will progress faster than others and this could be measured later with auditions.)

The parent of the young student is expected to supervise instrument practice every day, instead of leaving the child to practice alone between lessons, and to attend and take notes at every lesson so they can coach the student effectively. This element of the method is so prominent that a newspaper article once dubbed it "The Mom-Centric Method."[3]

Although Suzuki was a violinist, the method he founded is not a "school of violin playing" (like the French or the Russian schools of playing) whose students can be identified by the set of techniques they use to play the violin. However, some of the technical concepts Suzuki taught his own students, such as the development of "tonalization", were so essential to his way of teaching that they have been carried over into the entire method. Other non-instrument specific techniques are used to implement the basic elements of the philosophy in each discipline.

• Tonalization is a term coined by Suzuki, and is deliberately similar to the word "vocalization" (as it is used by singers when they talk about warming up their voices). Tonalization is defined as the student's ability to produce and recognize a beautiful, ringing tone quality on their instrument. While initially developed for violin education, the tonalization technique has been applied to other instruments such as the piano. Suzuki believed that a student must learn tonalization in order to properly reproduce and perform music (Lavie, Karen, New Zealand Suzuki Journal, 2005). Outside the Suzuki method, the term used is "tone production," and is part of Western music education stretching back to its beginning.
• Using sound recordings is another technique common to all the musical instruments taught in the Suzuki method. Thibeault's (2018) history of Suzuki's mediated pedagogy presents Suzuki as a technological innovator who created new ways of learning from sound recordings. Pre-recorded music is used to help students learn notes, phrasing, dynamics, rhythm, and beautiful tone quality by ear. Suzuki pointed out that great artists (such as Mozart) were surrounded with excellent performances from birth, and that the advent of recording technology made this aspect of their environment possible to achieve for large numbers of "ordinary" people whose parents were not themselves great musicians & music teachers like Mozart's father was. So-called "traditional" (that is, not Suzuki trained) music educators have used this technique since the earliest days of recording technology; the difference in the Suzuki method is the scale on which Suzuki systematically insisted on daily listening in the home, from before birth if possible, and his focus on using recordings of beginner's repertoire alongside recordings of advanced repertoire.
• Instruments are adapted to meet the demands of a small child's body in various ways. This lowers the age at which people are anatomically ready to begin studying an instrument. Scaled-down instrument sizes are used for children studying stringed instruments. Curved-headjoint flutes with displaced keys (which are closer together than normal flute keys) and holes are also available, making it possible for children as young as three to study the flute through the Suzuki method. Height-adjustable chairs, benches, and footrests are used for piano, guitar, cello, and string bass. Although fractional-sized student violins were available when Suzuki began to teach, the success and popularity of his idea that pre-school aged children could also learn to play prompted violinmakers to scale violins down to even smaller sizes than before.
• Suzuki Institutes were established to encourage a musical community, train teachers, and provide a place where master teachers' ideas can be spread to the whole community of Suzuki students, teachers and parents. These short term music festivals began in Matsumoto, Japan, where teachers & students came to learn from Suzuki. In the US, they often last for a week or two and include daily masterclasses; repertoire (group) classes; teacher training courses; concerts; discussion sessions; seminars; and various 'enrichment' classes in different musical styles, instruments, or non-musical (usually arts, crafts, or dancing) activities. As at any music festival, participants must pay registration and tuition fees to the institute they are attending. Each national Suzuki association handles registration for teacher training, and policies differ from country to country.
• A common repertoire for all students of an instrument was established. This body of music allows each student to participate in group classes, helps foster local and international musical community and camaraderie, and provides motivation for students to learn new music while keeping the 'old' pieces they have learned in top form. This is in direct contrast to music education outside of the method, in which teachers tailor the repertoire to the current need and level of the individual student.

The core Suzuki literature is published on audio recordings and in sheet music books for each instrument, and Suzuki teachers supplement the repertoire common to each instrument as needed, particularly in the area of teaching reading. One of the innovations of the Suzuki method was to make quality recordings of the beginners' pieces widely available, performed by professional musicians. Many traditional (non-Suzuki trained) music teachers also use the Suzuki repertoire, often to supplement their curriculum, and they adapt the music to their own philosophies of teaching.

Another innovation of Suzuki was to deliberately leave out the large amount of technical instructions and exercises found in many beginners' music books of his day. He favored a focus on melodic song-playing over technical exercises, and asked teachers to allow students to make music from the beginning, helping to motivate young children with short, attractive songs which can themselves be used as technique building exercises. Each song in the common repertoire is carefully chosen to introduce some new or higher level of technique than the previous selection.

Suzuki teaching uses a common core repertoire for students of the same instrument worldwide, and although it focuses on Western European "classical" music, it emphasizes that this music can be a bridge across cultural and language barriers: one does not have to share the ethnic or national origin of the composers in order to learn or share the music. Suzuki created a series of rhythmic variations on the theme "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", using rhythms from more advanced literature in units small enough for a beginner to grasp quickly. Although these variations were created for violin, most of the instruments use them as a starting point for their repertoire.

In the late 19th century, Japan's borders were opened to trade with the outside world, and in particular to the importation of Western Culture. As a result of this, Suzuki's father, who owned a company which had manufactured the Shamisen, began to manufacture violins instead. (Nurtured by Love Documentary) In his youth, Shin'ichi Suzuki chanced to hear a phonograph recording of Franz Schubert's Ave Maria, as played on violin by Mischa Elman. Gripped by the beauty of the music, he immediately picked up a violin from his father's factory and began to teach himself to play the instrument "by ear". His father felt that instrumental performance was beneath his son's social status, and refused to allow him to study the instrument. At age 17, he began to teach himself by ear, since no formal training was allowed to him. Eventually he convinced his father to allow him to study with a violin teacher in Tokyo. (Suzuki, Nurtured by Love)

At age 22, Suzuki travelled to Germany to find a violin teacher to continue his studies. While there, he studied privately with Karl Klingler, but did not receive any formal degree past his high school diploma. He met and became friends with Albert Einstein, who encouraged him in learning classical music. He also met, courted, and married his wife, Waltraud.(Suzuki, Nurtured by Love)

In 1945, Suzuki began his Talent Education movement in Matsumoto, Japan shortly after the end of World War II. Raising children with "noble hearts" (inspired by great music and diligent study) was one of his primary goals; he believed that people raised and "nurtured by love" in his method would grow up to achieve better things than war. One of his students during this post-1945 period was violinist Hidetaro Suzuki, no relation, who later became a veteran of international violin competitions (Tchaikovsky, Queen Elizabeth, Montreal International) and then the longtime concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. (Hermann, 1981)

Eventually, the center of the Suzuki movement in education was established as the Talent Education Research Institute (TERI) in Matsumoto. TERI hosts thousands of people each year—students, parents, teachers, (and teacher trainees). Other organizations have sprung up all over the world to help oversee the movement and train teachers. These include the Asia Suzuki Association, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, the European Suzuki Association (which is currently assisting in the beginnings of the Suzuki movement in Africa), and the Pan-Pacific Suzuki Association.(International Suzuki Association, 2016).

John D. Kendall of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville brought the Suzuki method, along with adaptations to better fit the requirements of the American classroom, to the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Nurtured by Love Documentary). Vilem Sokol of the Seattle Youth Symphony hosted Suzuki in Seattle. The majority of American Suzuki pedagogues and teaching methods are grounded in the Suzuki-Kendall system. Other pioneers of the Suzuki Method in the US include Clifford Cook, Roland and Almita Vamos, Elizabeth and Harlow Mills, Betty Haag, Louise Behrend, Dorothy Roffman, William Starr, Anastasia Jempelis, and Margery Aber.

• Blanche Ray Alden
• Shinichi Suzuki (violinist)

• Barber, Barbara (Autumn, 1991). "Traditional & Suzuki Teaching: A Comparison". American String Teacher.
• Bradley, Jane (Spring 2005). "When to Twinkle – Are Children Ever Too Young?". American Suzuki Journal Vol. 33, #3, p53.
• Campell, Don. The Mozart Effect for Children. Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., New York, NY, 2000, ISBN 0-380-97782-6
• Hermann, Evelyn. Shinichi Suzuki: The Man and his Philosophy. Warner Brothers Publications, 1981, ISBN 0-87487-589-7.
• International Suzuki Association Website Retrieved January 14, 2016.
• Kelly, Birte (2002). International Suzuki Association: Regional Suzuki Associations. Retrieved February 21, 2007.
• Kreitman, Edward. Teaching from the Balance Point: A Guide for Suzuki Teachers, Parents, and Students. Western Springs School of Talent Education Publications, Western Springs, IL, 1998.
• Lavie, Karen (Summer, 2005). "On Gastronomy and Tonalization." New Zealand Suzuki Journal Vol. 16, #4, pp. 5–6.
• Meyer, Constance (2003, 7 September). The Mom-Centric Method. Los Angeles Times, Classical Music.
• Nurtured by Love: The life and work of Shinichi Suzuki [Video Documentary]. Produced by The Cleveland Institute of Music. Telos Productions, Inc.
• Preucil, William & Doris (November, 1985). "The Evolution of the Suzuki Viola School". Journal of the American Viola Society Vol. 1, #2, pp18-20.
• Suggested Supplementary Repertoire for Suzuki Violin School Volumes 6, 7 & 8. Suzuki Association of the Americas Website, May 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
• Suzuki Organ Website , Retrieved June 20, 2010
• Suzuki, Shinichi. Nurtured By Love: A New Approach to Talent Education. Warner bros. Publication, Miami, Florida, 1968
• Suzuki, Shinichi. Ability Development from Age Zero. Warner bros. Publication, Miami, Florida, 1981
• Suzuki Talent Education Association of Australia (Vic) Inc., (Copyright 2005). History of the Suzuki Method. Retrieved November 29, 2008.
• Suzuki Teacher Training for Trumpet. Suzuki Association of the Americas Website , Retrieved July 15, 2013.
• Thibeault, M. D. (2018). Learning with Sound Recordings: A History of Suzuki’s Mediated Pedagogy. Journal of Research in Music Education, 66(1), 6–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429418756879

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Practice Ideas for Suzuki Students

• International Suzuki Association
• European Suzuki Association
• Suzuki Association of the Americas
• Asia Region Suzuki Association
• Talent Education Research Institute
• Pan-Pacific Suzuki Association
• The American Suzuki Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point: The Suzuki Method in Action: An online collection documenting Suzuki and his teaching methodology.
• Suzuki method at Curlie
• Kristian Bush talks about music, the Suzuki Method, and Southern Gravity on Ben Sorensen's REAL Country