Guest Post: What is the Suzuki Method?

Suzuki method art class ~ Image by Lee Fenner via Flickr

Thanks to Brittany Lyons* of OnlinePhD.org for sharing this post.

Introduction:  What is the Suzuki Method?

Learning music can be a difficult process for many people to master. The different ways to learn music include gaining an understanding of musical theory on your own, taking extensive theory classes (which can include master’s courses or even PhD programs) or simply learning to play a musical instrument without a knowledge of theory. The Suzuki method, however, fuses all of these different practices into one, uniform teaching style. Created by Shin’ichi Suzuki in the mid-20th century, this approach is designed to introduce music to people and help foster a lifelong love of music.

Purpose and process

The purpose of the Suzuki method is to introduce children gradually into the world of music.  Suzuki believed that children possessed the innate ability to learn anything, and just needed to be taught at an age-appropriate pace. Thus, the most important part of his method was to introduce children to music as early as age three or four. He believed this would cause the joy of music to rub off on the children and foster better musical understanding. A few of the key aspects in this process included:

• Attending local classical and jazz concerts.
• Meeting other music students and becoming friends with them in order to discuss music.
• Listening to music every day, potentially even before birth.
• Avoiding aptitude tests or auditions.
• Playing an instrument at a very early age.
• Learning from well trained teachers who have been taught using the same approach.

The basics

The basic process begins by encouraging kids to learn to play music by ear. This helps remove much of the stress of learning how to write and read musical notation. Suzuki thought emphasizing learning by ear would help children truly enjoy music and experience its creation with a sense of wonder and love, not in a dry, academic style.

Under the Suzuki method children are also encouraged to play in ensembles at a very young age, encouraging their understanding of music and fostering musical growth. Suzuki thought this helped prevent students from becoming incredibly competitive with each other and fostered better group playing as well as more empathetic musical performances.

A few criticisms

Despite the benefits of the Suzuki method, his approach is often criticized. Some critics argue that early rote memorization is just as dull as learning musical notation. Why would children enjoy learning music in this way as opposed to reading sheet music? However, Suzuki expected his students to memorize their repertoire even after learning how to read music, making memorization mandatory regardless of how they learned to play.

Another major criticism of the Suzuki method is that children taught in this way may suffer from compromised sight reading abilities. Opponents to the approach fear that rote learning will cause students to struggle to understand sight reading as they grow older, or limit their ability to add expressiveness to their musical performances. As a result, teachers of the Suzuki Method teachers have responded by introducing more sight reading exercises into their early lessons.

Another potential problem is that the Suzuki method requires great devotion from parents. Parents must supervise their child’s practice every day and attend every lesson, taking notes. While parents aren’t expected to play the instrument, they must have the ability to guide their child through their musical homework lessons and their practice every day and encourage great playing.

Conclusion

Thus, the main flaw most critics find in this approach is the amount of dedication it requires to be successful. However, those who are willing to dedicate themselves to the Suzuki method may notice a striking musical growth in their children. After all, this method has been used for half a century and has been proven to work in many cases.

Today’s guest blogger

*Brittany Lyons aspires a life in teaching, but decided to take some time off from grad school to help people learn to navigate the academic lifestyle. She currently lives in Spokane, Washington, where she spends her time reading science fiction and walking her dog.

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I am not a Suzuki-trained teacher, but I have accompanied Suzuki violin classes and observed young Suzuki-trained players in orchestral rehearsals.  I was very impressed.
Gretchen

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