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It was so nice talking to all the parents at this weeks Parent Education Night!
I received some really great questions that I will elaborate on a bit in this blog post and more so in a future post. If you still have questions about the Suzuki Method and/or violin lessons with your child, don't hesitate to reach out. I also suggest you do some of your own research by reading any of the following amazing books:
What sets the Suzuki Method of teaching and learning an instrument apart from traditional music lessons?
Practice
Listening
Review
Repetition
Connection
"You should only practice on the days you eat" - Shinichi Suzuki
Making practice a daily habit, something that is good and healthy for you, is key to the Suzuki Method. This may seem daunting to a parent of a little one, as the list of things to accomplish with your child in a day may already seem overwhelming. Start small, with one minute or one small activity and call this a success. If it turns into more, let it. If your child is done after one thing, don't push it. But make it a DAILY HABIT to pick up the instrument and do one small thing. These ideas of discipline, commitment and perseverance are invaluable skills to begin teaching to young children. The more consistent we are in our expectations of ourselves and our kids, the easier it is to develop new skills and new habits.
Listening
So much importance is placed on listening to the Suzuki Repertoire because this is key to how young children learn. Babies learn to speak through listening to their mother tongue language on a daily basis. Music can be taught in the same way if we are exposed to the music we want to play. Similarly, we do not expect children to learn to read before they are able to speak. They learn to read by relating what they hear to what they see on the page. Learning to read music can be done in the same way. If we know what the music is suppose to sound like, we can relate that to what we see on the page of music. Therefore, the process of learning to read music is done so very naturally.
Finding time to listen during the day is another daily habit to develop as with practice. The most important thing to remember in developing new habits is to MAKE IT CONVENIENT and MAKE IT CONSISTENT. Here are some ideas to try to make listening happen daily:
CD in the car
playlist on phone
make it voice activated on home devices
save Youtube links on devices for easy access
use QR codes
pair listening with other daily activities: mealtimes, after school, during work/play, after dinner, etc.
Review
Many students who are raised traditionally can only play the pieces they are currently working on. In the Suzuki Method, priority is placed on being able to play all the pieces we have learned by memory. Think about it like a Jenga tower. For all the pieces you learn, you start to stack up your tower big and strong. What happens if after a while you start to forget pieces you have learned? Blocks one by one get removed from the tower. Eventually if too many blocks are removed, the tower is weakened and will eventually crash and fall. This can happen with our skills on the violin and progress can slow if not come to a complete stop.
Attending Group Classes and following a review schedule at home are really easy ways to establish and maintain a working repertoire of review pieces. The more pieces we have that we can play by memory, the more freedom we have on our instrument, the more skills we can layer upon and the more joy is created in playing.
"Knowledge is not skill. Knowledge plus 10,000 equals skill" - Shinichi Suzuki
Repetitions create habits and skills. Repetitions strengthen and build our muscles when we go to the gym, they teach us how to print and draw, dance, sing, speak, and anything that we want to develop. We repeat to train our brain and our muscles how to do something with ease. But because repetitions are generally made of small movements or chunks and take time to see results, it can be a daunting task of committing and persevering to. Keeping track of your progress can not only help you stay on track with your goals, but gives you a sense of accomplishment over time. It also gives you perspective to see that if over time you still aren't developing the skills you want, but you have put in the reps and the consistency, that you might need to change your strategy and chunk down or strengthen another muscle or move or practice spot. Great artists and athletes didn't get where they are with minimal effort and by doing things only a few times. They achieve greatness by being consistent and doing the same things over and over and over again.
When repetitions become a bore, keeping track of progress and establishing positive incentives can go a long way. Not sure what works for you or your kids? Start with one thing, talk to your teacher for suggestions and rework as needed until you find what works for you.
Connection
Parental Involvement is Critical - one of the 7 Suzuki Concepts from the SECE Small Steps Music Class. Parents - who of you took music lessons as a kid but didn't like to practice so quit? Most likely, you were put into traditional lessons and the sole responsibility for practice was put on you, the child. There are so many adults who are still figuring out how to plan their days, make healthy choices, stay disciplined and establish daily routines. How can we ever expect a child to be able to do this on their own?
In the Suzuki method, parents are part of the learning process whether your child is 3, 13, 23 or beyond. You are there in the beginning to help set up and take care of the instrument. Drive them to and from lesson. Establish when practice will happen and make it daily. Turn on the recordings. Follow the practice instructions from teacher. As a student gets older, the parent is still there to provide support as the student figure out how practice fits into their maturing lifestyle. Parents are there to support a child when they a figuring out a practice spot, encourage them when they are struggling and acknowledge them when they have worked hard and overcome a challenge. This support and connection through music is what keeps a student driven to keep practicing even when it's hard and even when they don't want to do it anymore. In the beautiful words of Shinichi Suzuki,
"Where love is deep, much can be accomplished" - Shinichi Suzuki
Thank you, Suzuki Parents, for everything you do!
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