Suzuki Approach

Every Child Can learn well.

  • Accept all children
  • Develop talent in all children
  • Believe in all children
  • All children speak their mother tongue with 100% success

Ability is developed early.

  • Never too late but earlier the better
  • Music becomes a natural part of the child’s life
  • Music is learnt as another language
  • Dr. Suzuki recommends that ability development begins at birth.
  • Formal training may be started by age 3

Parent participation is essential.

  • Babies learn to speak their mother tongue because of the adults around them.
  • When the parents show a real interest in what the child is doing, the child is motivated to continue.
  • Either mother or father attends all lessons.
  • The home teacher needs to understand the learning process and can feel secure when working with the child as home teacher.
  • The most important single ingredient for success is the parent’s willingness to devote regular time to work closely with the child and the teacher.

Daily saturated hearing to recordings of the Suzuki repertoire as well as good music in general is the nucleus of the Suzuki approach.

  • The more student and his/her home teacher hear their recordings, the more quickly the students learn.
  • Not rote learning.
  • Let the inner hearing of Suzuki repertoire finds the keys on the piano.
  • When the student learns music reading later, his/her developed ability of inner hearing will help his/her sight reading fun and easy.

The environment nurtures growth.

  • True or false questions

‘How can I change the child?”

“How can I change the environment to produce the desired change in the child?

  • Create the enjoyable learning environment so that much of the child’s motivation comes from learning and desire to please.

Success breeds success: Move in small steps

  • Step by step
  • Moves in small steps
  • When one step is mastered, the next step is prepared.
  • When the next step is prepared, it can be also mastered with ease.
  • Success is guaranteed.
  • A student always plays something for which he is completely prepared in performances.
  • Success performance paves the way for more success.

Follow the Suzuki repertory sequence, for the most part

  • Each piece becomes a building block for the careful development of technique
  • The standardized repertoire provides sting of motivation
  • Students want to play what they hear other students play
  • Constant repetition of the old pieces in a student’s repertoire is the secret of the performing ability of Suzuki students.

Every child at his own pace

  • Every baby learns language at his/her own pace.
  • It is exactly the same in music.
  • Some children advance quickly and others slowly.
  • We must not compare.
  • We have to appreciate each child and their rate of learning.

Children learn from one another.

  • Observations, attending all group classes, recitals and concerts are valuable aids to motivation.
  • The child is always assimilating, absorbing and learning.
  • Foster an attitude of cooperation, not competition
  • Learn to be supportive for each other’s accomplishment.

Character first, then music

  • Through music, we can create a better world.
  • Dr. Suzuki’s objectives was not only to teach music but create a better world through music
  • It seeks to develop the whole child, to help unfold his/her natural potential to learn and become a good and happy person.
  • The purpose of Suzuki training is not to produce great artists, but to help every child to find the joy that comes through music making.
  • Through the Suzuki growing process, children thrive in a total environment of support; they develop confidence and self-esteem, determination to try difficult things, self-discipline and concentration, as well as a lasting enjoyment of music, and the sensitivity and skill for making music.