The Suzuki method of teaching children music is based on wrapping the child in a nurturing environment. The philosophy behind this method is to create a high ability and beautiful character amongst its students. Suzuki is primary focused on specific instruments most often the violin or piano, but not limited to these two instruments. The idea is much the same as when teaching our children to speak. Surrounding the child with music, encourage them in music, small steps and a timetable that is more guidelines then strict and rigid deadlines.
With this is mind, I encourage all parents to play music for their children. It has been long noted that babies in the womb can hear music that is being played and this aids in their intellectual development. The doctor encourages you to read to your baby inside the womb, playing music for them as well is just as vital. I also prefer my students to start as young as 3. Suzuki emphasizes that children should begin playing as early as possible.
I do not test my students on their “aptitude” for playing a particular instrument. I am against auditions. This also follows the Suzuki method. All children have the right to be able to learn the instrument of their choice when they are ready. Suzuki believes that all children should learn to play music just like they are expected to learn to talk. This first step in learning to play music is to learn the music by ear. My students need to learn to listen to the music and understand it there before we move to reading the music. Again going back to the process of learning to speak, we learn to talk before we learn to write.
I became a Suzuki teacher because to me, the philosophy behind it made the most sense. I believe that all children should learn music, and all children should be given the opportunity to learn music and to play instruments. The Suzuki method promotes this in a nurturing environment. Children need to be encouraged from a very young age and given a chance to become the best that they can be. I love to see the delight in their faces when they get the perfect note, to hear them work together and for me to be able to be part of that. Children are the one’s that are capable of the most amazing things. They need to be given a place to flourish and become the “great” at what they set out to be.
