Dr. Shinichi Suzuki was a 20th-century Japanese violinist, violin teacher, and educator. He was interested in learning about how babies learn to speak after it occurred to him that all children born in Japan grow up speaking Japanese.
“All Japanese children speak Japanese!”
He realized babies who are surrounded by grownups who speak Japanese will inevitably learn to speak Japanese. Babies in the United States who are surrounded by grownups speaking English will learn to speak English, with an American dialect. Even babies who are surrounded by grownups speaking sign language will learn to sign! Our brains are wired for communication. It’s well known that language development and music processing takes place in the same part of the brain. Dr. Suzuki developed a method of teaching music that mirrors how language is developed in babies. This is called the mother tongue approach.
Also central to Suzuki’s teaching is the idea that “every child can.” There’s no such thing as “inborn talent.” No one is born a virtuoso violinist, or Olympic athlete. People with talent achieve their talent through hard work, and lots of encouragement from the people around them. This idea is called “Talent Education“.
How do students achieve musical talent? Through immersion, repetition, review, and encouragement.
- Immersion
- Listening to the reference recording everyday
- Practicing your instrument everyday
- Teacher modeling technique for you
- Repetition
- Developing fluency
- Dr. Suzuki said this of repetition:
“Knowledge is not skill. Knowledge plus ten thousand times is skill”
There’s a charming story about Pīko the parrot, who was the “class pet” in Suzuki’s studio! Pīko achieved fluency in Japanese, an ability that was fostered by relentless repetition. After hearing her name 50 times a day for two months (a total of 3000 repetitions) she could say her name.
Next, she learned her family name, Miyazawa, which she could successfully say after only 200 repetitions. Soon after, she was reciting Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and was finally able to speak in full sentences, and could introduce herself, “I am Miyazama Pīko”. Dr. Suzuki’s retelling of Pīko’s progress in Nurtured by Love draws attention to a central element of this teaching philosophy; “ability begets ability”.
Pīko the parakeet began her “ability development” at a young age, soon after birth. She consistently heard her name from her caretakers, and after two months of practice, she had mastered the first step in her ability to verbalize. It is significant that the next step in her development, learning how to speak her family name, took one fifteenth of the time that was required for the first step.
- Review
- “Ability begets ability” means students are always revisiting old skills and repertoire- learning an instrument is a skill that builds upon itself, which makes it crucial to have a solid foundation before taking on new challenges.
- Suzuki students have a set list of repertoire across ten books. Each piece has a unique set of challenges to create a “repertoire based curriculum.” Instead of assigning boring technique exercises, students learn technique by playing music!
- Encouragement
- Recognition of hard work or correction of mistake
- Motivation
- Create positive learning space
- Learning through games! Children learn through exploration and fun
More information on “talent education” can be found in “Nurtured by Love,” a short book by Dr. Suzuki. Click on the link to find your own copy (or feel free to ask to borrow my copy!)
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