What is the Suzuki Method?

In the 1950's the late Japanese violinist and educator Dr. Shinicki Suzuki recognized the parallels between young children learning to speak their native language and learning to play a musical instrument. For that reason the Suzuki method can also be called the "Mother Tongue Method." Suzuki teachers develop motor coordination and train the ear before the eye: students are first taught basic listening and playing skills before note reading is introduced, in the same way children learn to speak and comprehend before they learn to read. Parental involvement in the lesson is essential to the success of the Suzuki learning method.

More than forty years ago, a Japanese man named Shinichi Suzuki realized the implications of the fact that children the world over learn to speak their native language with ease. He began to apply the basic principles of language acquisition to the learning of music, and called his method the mother-tongue approach. Shinichi Suzuki was a violinist, educator, philosopher and humanitarian. Born in 1898, he studied violin in for some years before going to in the 1920s for further study. After the end of World War II, Dr. Suzuki devoted his life to the development of the method he calls Talent Education. Suzuki based his approach on the belief that “Musical ability is not an inborn talent but an ability which can be developed. Any child who is properly trained can develop musical ability, just as all children develop the ability to speak their mother tongue. The potential of every child is unlimited.” Dr. Suzuki’s goal was not simply to develop professional musicians, but to nurture ...  more

The Suzuki method is a popular method of teaching young children to play a musical instrument, typically the violin or the piano. The Suzuki method is an educational philosophy that was developed by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. Dr. Suzuki was a violinist from Japan who began teaching young children music in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He believed that music could be equated to language acquisition and that if young children had the ability to develop language skills, they had the ability to learn to play music. Though the Suzuki method was first developed and practiced in Japan by Dr. Suzuki, the method spread to other parts of the world as music teachers gained interest in the Suzuki method and began studying it. Today, the Suzuki method has been adapted as an educational philosophy used in many areas of early childhood education, not just music. Musical instruction under the Suzuki method can begin as early as three years of age. Dr. Suzuki believed that it was not necessary for ...  more

While traveling in Europe in the 1920's, Dr. Shinichi Suzuki (1898 - 1998) of Japan had a hard time learning the German language. He pondered the fact that while adults often have difficulty learning a new language, young children acquire the skills of their native language quite readily. Children learn languages by repeatedly hearing words and phrases, then trying to imitate the sounds. Once the language becomes ingrained into a person's communication behavior, then the study of grammar, spelling, etc. makes sense. On the other hand, adults learning a second language generally study vocabulary lists, rules of grammar, etc. before they have a 'natural' feel of the language. Dr. Suzuki theorized that music is just another language, and devised a teaching method that mimics the 'natural' process of learning a language. His method first teaches stage presence, then how to hold or position the instrument. Then single notes, simple rhythms, then 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'. Students ...  more

History of Suzuki Method Dr Shinichi Suzuki was the founder of the worldwide music education movement known as the Suzuki Method. Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1898, he was the son of Japan's first and largest violin manufacturer. Although he worked in the factory as a child, he had never learnt music formally. Inspired by a recording by Mischa Elman of Ave Maria, Suzuki began to teach himself to play the violin. Over the next few years, he dedicated himself to the study of the instrument and then, at the age of 22, travelled to Berlin to study with the renowned violinist, Karl Klinger. It was here in Germany that Suzuki became a friend of Albert Einstein and through him, associated with many of the world's leading artists and thinkers. Suzuki met and married Waltraud Prange, a concert soprano and they returned to Japan in 1928 where he began teaching and performing with the Suzuki Quartet. Suzuki was asked by a colleague at the Imperial Conservatory to teach his young son and became ...  more

Dr. Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998), Japanese musician and educator, founded the Suzuki Method in the 1930s. It began in North America in the 1960's, and is known worldwide today. The main principle of the Suzuki Method of musical instruction is: Just as children learn to speak their native tongue, they will learn how to play a musical instrument. Dr. Suzuki observed that children hear the sounds and rhythms of their native language from birth, and parents always encourage and celebrate their children's efforts at learning to speak. There is no doubt that they will succeed. In this natural process, all children experience delight and joy in acquiring their "mother tongue." Likewise, the Suzuki Talent Education Program of St. John's applies the Suzuki Method by creating an environment, both at lessons and at home, which stimulates the child's desire to learn to play the violin, viola or cello.  more

The method was developed by Shinichi Suzuki and was refined by him over his lifetime. He believed that children could learn an instrument from an early age (three upwards) in the same way that they learned language. This belief has been described as the "mother tongue method".  more

... It is a methodology based on the fact that children can learn to speak their native language by listening to the surrounding sounds of the language repeatedly as they grow. The method uses several key ingredients: parent involvement, weekly lessons, daily listening, love, encouragement and praise from the teacher and parent, group activities, repetition , imitation of superior examples, etc. Parents are considered as "home teachers", and they are the examples that a child follows. It is well known that a parent often learns to play before the child, attends the weekly child's lesson and both practice at home. It is important that children should start listening to music at birth and training lessons at 3 or 4. However, is never too late to begin. A child should be exposed to the music on a daily basis and also by attending recitals and concerts. Daily listening to recordings of the music being studied is encouraged. With this method, the student repeats the pieces that has ...  more

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Introduced in 1964 to the Western world, first to the U.S. and Canada and then to Europe and the Pacific countries, this method has truly revolutionized how music is taught to children. Often referred to as the "mother tongue method of learning", it has resulted in a ground swell of interest in playing string instruments. As string instruments grew in popularity, other instruments were introduced such as piano, flute, guitar, and harp. The ideas of the philosophy have also been used in early childhood general education.  more