What is the Suzuki Method?
While traveling in Europe in the 1920’s, Dr. Shinichi Suzuki (1898 – 1998) of Japan had a hard time learning the German language. He pondered the fact that while adults often have difficulty learning a new language, young children acquire the skills of their native language quite readily. Children learn languages by repeatedly hearing words and phrases, then trying to imitate the sounds. Once the language becomes ingrained into a person’s communication behavior, then the study of grammar, spelling, etc. makes sense. On the other hand, adults learning a second language generally study vocabulary lists, rules of grammar, etc. before they have a ‘natural’ feel of the language. Dr. Suzuki theorized that music is just another language, and devised a teaching method that mimics the ‘natural’ process of learning a language. His method first teaches stage presence, then how to hold or position the instrument. Then single notes, simple rhythms, then ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’. Students lear
The Suzuki method is a popular method of teaching young children to play a musical instrument, typically the violin or the piano. The Suzuki method is an educational philosophy that was developed by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. Dr. Suzuki was a violinist from Japan who began teaching young children music in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He believed that music could be equated to language acquisition and that if young children had the ability to develop language skills, they had the ability to learn to play music. Though the Suzuki method was first developed and practiced in Japan by Dr. Suzuki, the method spread to other parts of the world as music teachers gained interest in the Suzuki method and began studying it. Today, the Suzuki method has been adapted as an educational philosophy used in many areas of early childhood education, not just music. Musical instruction under the Suzuki method can begin as early as three years of age. Dr. Suzuki believed that it was not necessary for children
More than forty years ago, a Japanese man named Shinichi Suzuki realized the implications of the fact that children the world over learn to speak their native language with ease. He began to apply the basic principles of language acquisition to the learning of music, and called his method the mother-tongue approach. Shinichi Suzuki was a violinist, educator, philosopher and humanitarian. Born in 1898, he studied violin in for some years before going to in the 1920s for further study. After the end of World War II, Dr. Suzuki devoted his life to the development of the method he calls Talent Education. Suzuki based his approach on the belief that “Musical ability is not an inborn talent but an ability which 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.” Dr. Suzuki’s goal was not simply to develop professional musicians, but to nurture loving
The Suzuki Method of music education was begun in the middle of the twentieth century by Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki. Dr Suzuki believed that the best and most effective way to learn music is to be exposed to it from a very early age. He calls this the “mother tongue” method – young children learn to play an instrument in the same way that they learn their own language: by listening, absorbing, and copying. In the beginning, the parent is given the first lessons on the instrument, while the child watches. In this way, the child’s interest is aroused by its natural desire to copy the parent. This also gives the parent an understanding of the technical difficulties that playing a musical instrument involves. When the child begins learning, it is by ear – music reading is not taught till later. Again this ties in with the idea of the “mother tongue”: one could not imagine trying to teach an infant to read before it can speak – similarly the young musician does not learn to read mus
