Music Ed Methods: Suzuki

In this series of music education posts, I would like to introduce you to the most popular methods for teaching music. Today I will talk about the Suzuki method.

Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

1. Creator

Dr. Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998) was an accomplished Japanese violinist and educator. During his lifetime, he played for the Imperial Court of Japan was president of the Teikoku Music School. He developed his method by observing that children are able to learn their mother tongue with no difficulty. Suzuki concluded that all children can develop musical ability if music is introduced to them from the start, like their mother tongue.

2. Philosophies

This method of teaching music stresses the importance of parental influence and involvement, which allows parents and teachers work together to achieve a common goal. Parents are expected to attend lessons and serve as nurturing teachers at home. Through this method, students will learn discipline, poise, confidence, and proper posture as well as technical mastery and musicianship.

3. Types of music and instruments

When Suzuki originally developed his method in Japan, it was applied solely to learning the violin. Now that it has branched out into the United States it can be applied to learning virtually any instrument. 

Dr. Suzuki with some of his young students

4. Typical lesson

Students using this method will start out with simpler music and progress to more difficult pieces from there. Children start taking lessons by age 2 or 3, when they are also exposed to great classical recordings that they will eventually learn. Teachers constantly play background music at school to immerse the students in music. The belief behind this is that children will learn to develop good musical ears and be able to detect changes in pitch, timing, tone, and more. 

5. Quote

“Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens, noble human beings. If a child hears fine music from the day of his birth, and learns to play it himself, he develops sensitivity, discipline and endurance. He gets a beautiful heart.” -Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

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Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services