Life Lessons:
Benefits for Children Studying in the Suzuki Method
Promotes attention to detail.
Encourages problem-solving skills, including breaking complex tasks into small steps.
Creates motivation for personal excellence.
Helps students notice how they learn.
Helps students recognize that repeating activities is part of the learning process.
Increases mental capacity through extended focus and the act of memorizing.
Builds self-confidence through perseverance in overcoming challenges.
Develops fine motor skills and physical coordination.
Teaches respect for people and objects.
Builds confidence in front of a large audience.
Teaches appreciation for fine quality.
Builds a loving relationship between parent and child.
Extends the network of trusted adults for the child.
Teaches the concept of teamwork.
Builds a worldwide community among parents and students.
Fosters a strong work ethic.
Develops a routine activity in a child’s life.
Promotes organization of learning materials and the learning process.
Teaches about our heritage, both musical and otherwise.
Creates an outlet for expressing emotions.
Develops the ability to listen attentively, to notice, and to be a good audience.
Creates an environment for positive learning from both mistakes and successes.
Helps the child discover the importance of rhythms in nature and life.
Nurtures interpersonal skills: eye contact, patience, sensitivity, caring, the ability to give and use feedback constructively.
The Home Environment:
How Parents Nurture a Child’s Involvement in Music
“The whole premise of the [Suzuki] method, and the secret to its success, is that your child will be learning an instrument the way a young child learns a language. They need to be immersed in hearing it, seeing others do it, and practicing it daily---“ Christine Goodner
Be enthusiastic about practice time, lesson time, or any other music time. Your child’s behavior is modeled on yours.
Develop a regular time for practicing in the home each day. Everyone benefits from structure and a routine.
Ask your child to explain lesson assignments to you. This will bring clarity and focus to both you and your child.
Set an attainable goal for each practice session. Maybe choose one point from the teacher’s assignment for the week, performance of a review piece, or a creation of the child’s.
Play some kind of music every day—the Suzuki CD, other classical music, jazz, rock, or any other styles. Daily immersion in music is good!
Take your child to concerts and other musical events.
Learn to play your child’s instrument or another musical instrument. Duet-playing with your child can be fun!
Foster the idea that mistakes are a part of learning anything, including music.
Make visual aids to help in remembering important ideas, such as symbols, terminology, note names and chords. Practice charts showing how many hours have been dedicated to music are useful, too. Lesson books can serve as references if there’s a gap in private lessons.
Find ways to keep music-learning fresh and interesting. Summer institutes and other workshops are great for both parent and child.
Work in small steps. Break a hard thing to do into its components; then tackle them one by one.
Notice and acknowledge the many benefits that are gained from learning music, benefits that have profound application in other parts of a child’s life.
Encouragement is important. Recognizing learning gains builds confidence and helps with motivation to learn more.
Arrange home concerts often; include printed programs and refreshments—and possibly neighbors and friends.
Use video recordings of your child playing a piece to help your child identify what’s polished; what needs more work, and how to accomplish it. Use on-line performances, too, especially ones of children who are approximately your child’s age, but be judicious! But not every on-line performance is worthy of being a model.
Make recordings of your child’s performance-ready pieces. Send these to the teacher between lessons. Or send recordings of polished pieces to relatives or friends. FaceTime provides another opportunity to share successes.
Quitting is not an option for anyone. Help your child learn to persevere; it’s a Life Lesson.
Buy gifts for your child that have a musical motif.
Support your child in becoming part of the Suzuki community. Attending Group Classes is a big part of this, as is participation in recitals, workshops, the Greater Pittsburgh Suzuki Institute and outreach programs.
Keep music-making fun!
Remember, we’re all new at this and every child is different. The story isn’t over in the middle of difficult times!
Ideas from Our Parents
Create a calendar like an advent one where doors open with a surprise inside. The child gets to open a door each time the practice session has ended. Make the calendars relevant to upcoming holidays, birthdays, vacations, etc.
Don’t be afraid to use bribes that are meaningful to the student!
Begin practicing the child’s pieces yourself. Often the child will “butt in” and finish the practice session for you.
Group Classes
Group class is one aspect of the Suzuki method that sets it apart from traditional music education.
It’s a second chance for students to interact with an instructor each week, maybe even a different instructor from the one the student has for private lesson. This offers opportunities for new ideas.
It builds community among musical peers.
Students can learn from each other, those who are more and less advanced. They can hear others play pieces that they’d like to play. And they can support and encourage each other as role models.
It provides more opportunities to perform in a friendly environment, and to play in duets or ensembles.
It’s a time to reinforce skills and learn new ones as well.
It’s another venue for having fun with music.
How is this accomplished? Through parents and teachers working together.
Parent’s Role
As best you can, make sure your child attends regularly.
Be on time.
If your child is overwhelmed at first, be there for support.
When you are observing a class, let the teacher manage the class. Notice, but don’t interrupt or correct.
After the class, help your child put a positive spin on what happened: what was fun, who played something awesome, what they’d like to have happen next time.
Teacher’s Role
At the Community Music School, our teachers are Suzuki-trained to make group classes into fun, music-learning experiences.
Each teacher will do her best to make sure every child is comfortable in the group class, both their own private students and those who are not.
Our job is to balance activities that are both familiar and challenging—to build confidence.
Performance time provides motivation for students to review pieces and to hear ones that they want to learn as well. It’s also a time to hone performance poise.
During performance time, we will coach and suggest, but we will not correct technique.
In summary, Group Classes are integral to the Suzuki Method. They are part learning and part fun! Making music with others is one of the most rewarding aspects of our program; be sure to provide this opportunity for your child!