The Publishers League

The Suzuki method of violin instruction was created in Japan after the second world war by Shin’ichi Suzuki. His belief was that by instilling music into his country’s children from an early age, the children would develop sensitivity and beauty would be brought to their lives.

He had noticed that children pick up the language that they’re immersed with very easily during the first few years of their lives. For example, imagine being an adult and trying to master Mandarin – it’s a very difficult language to learn. However, children who grow up hearing it speak it with ease by five or six years old.

During the first few years of a child’s life, their brain is absorbing all of the information it encounters; and it’s this that Suzuki proposed could help them to learn how to play music. By surrounding a child by music and by a certain instrument from the time they’re about three years old, he felt they could learn the instrument much more easily (and he was right; the Suzuki method has been widely adopted around the world as a method for teaching many different instruments).

The main components of the method are as follows:

• The child should be completely “saturated” in the musical community. This means that, not only should they have experience of the instrument at home, and be exposed often to classical music, they should also be taken to concerts and have friendships with other music-students.
• A heavy emphasis on learning violin from as early an age as possible – it’s not uncommon for children to begin using this method from the age of three.
• Not having to take constant tests or be made to sit through auditions. The method teaches that, if done correctly, the child will learn and become more and more proficient; the tests are an unnecessary distraction and can be discouraging to the child.
• Always to use a Suzuki-trained teacher who thoroughly understands the method.
• That music should be learned by ear and memorised to improve the actual music-abilities of the student, rather than their sight-reading skills. The method has been the subject of much criticism from those who believe the traditional method is better; they feel that this learning by ear technique negatively affects the child’s ability to read music and their music-theory ability.
• Constant review of the previous pieces learned in the method. Each piece teaches specific skills, and it’s important to review them regularly.
• Finally, that the child should have the opportunity and be encouraged to perform in public often. By getting them used to this from an early age, they won’t have any qualms later on when they’re more experienced.

In general the Suzuki method can be a very beneficial way to teach your child to learn an instrument, and the violin is such a versatile instrument, that it can be used to play anything from classical pieces to acoustic covers. For further information, find a Suzuki-trained teacher in your area and ask to arrange an initial talk to see if you feel it would be suitable for your son or daughter.