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Lessons from Suzuki: How to Ignite and Inspire a Child’s Interest

I have been reading Shinichi Suzuki’s book “Ability Development from Age Zero” in preparation for the day when I will start Hercules on the Suzuki Method. I know I’ve been waxing lyrical about the wisdom of Suzuki but truly this man really is all that. Everything he writes is common sense and yet so easily overlooked. As I read his book, I find that he shares lots of ideas that can be translated across to other areas of education and parenting.

There is one idea that Shinichi shares in his book that I particularly want to write about because it touches on an area I have been struggling with a lot lately. As I’ve said, his ideas are so simple and make so much sense that you will probably think – yeah, I know that. Well, so did I. But despite knowing, I confess that I have yet to even implement such a method with my children until I read about it.

Lately, I’ve been lamenting over my inability to inspire Aristotle. No matter what I suggest for him to try, he seems lackadaisical about it. Why do I keep suggesting things when he seems disinterested? Why not leave him alone? Because he complains of boredom. And that’s where my frustrations set in – he’s bored and he wants my suggestions but he doesn’t want to do anything I suggest unless it involves a screen of some sort – which I loathe. About the only thing that he still seems interested to do without prompting is read.

In his book, Suzuki writes about the importance of training and practice. Everything takes training and practice if you want to get good at it. Even naturally talented kids need to practice if they are ever going to excel. But how do you get the kids to be inspired enough to motivate themselves? I find that I’m always the one nagging Aristotle to practice all the things I feel are important – like Math. He loathes the subject which was ironically my favourite subject at school. I would have thought he’d take a little out of my book and like it, too, but it seems the more I want him to like Math, the less interested he is. I’ve tried so hard to make him see the importance of Math and how our everday lives revolve around it, but even demonstrating the practical aspects of Math in the subjects he likes has failed to ignite his curiosity.

And that’s the million dollar question: “how do you get your child interested in a subject and inspire him so that he wants to spend time practicing?”

Suzuki’s answer is simple – you do it first. And you do it a lot. And that’s the beauty of it – the answer is so simple that I almost want to smack my head for being so dense. Why is it that lots of children like to play pretend cooking – even the boys? Because they watch Mummy cooking everyday. When you want to inculcate good reading habits in your child, it is recommended that you be the example to your children by reading a lot yourself. Because when your children see that you enjoy reading, they will naturally want to read, too. Why do children gravitate towards computers, mobile devices, and the like – no matter how much we don’t want them to? Because we use them constantly, everyday.

Parenting books always warn us about the pitfalls of “do as I say and not as I do” which parents, myself included, are often guilty of doing despite knowing we shouldn’t. The best way to get your child to embrace an idea, a philosophy, or a practice is to first adopt it into your own life. Likewise, if you want your child to like something and want to do it, you should also be doing it.

I have noticed that the earliest hobbies children pick up are the ones that their parents are immersed in. I remember watching videos of toddlers rock climbing and thinking how nice it would be if I could have inspired Aristotle to get interested in climbing. The first time I brought Aristotle to an indoor wall, he balked. Aristotle had never seen me climb before because I stopped when I was pregnant with him and after he was born, I never got back to it. But those toddlers I saw in the videos – their parents were climbers and they were still rock climbing even as their babies were growing up. Their children had plenty of rock climbing exposure while they watched their parents climb. When they were old enough, they wanted to do it, too.

Now I realise the root of the problem I have been having with Aristotle’s wandering interests. Ever since he was born, I’ve let go of all my own personal interests. I stopped rock climbing, hiking and running, I no longer played the piano, and I stopped working. Aside from this blog and reading, I have no personal hobbies that I have maintained. As a role model to my children, I am a poor one.

So here’s my extrapolation of what Suzuki wrote in his book about getting young children interested in learning an instrument and committing themselves to practicing:

Decide what it is that you want to get your child interested in. Pick it up as a hobby and make sure you commit yourself to it. To illustrate, lets assume you want your child to learn the piano (since this is Suzuki’s example). If you already know how to play the piano, make sure you practice everyday so that your child can observe you dedicating yourself to it. If you don’t know how to play the piano then pick it up and be a student yourself.

It is important to let your child discover his own interest and desire to play the piano. Don’t ask him to play and don’t have any expectations of him. Let him come to you – because ultimately, you need him to be his own driving force. If you start asking and prompting, you’ll eventually be the one pushing, especially if he does not discover the interest himself. And that will be the spiral to your downfall because the more you push, the more he will resist.

I love how Suzuki describes this so I’m going to borrow his words. He calls it the “How Not to Develop Ability” method. When you nag and scold, your child will practice but he will not like it and the ability will not develop. Suzuki goes on to say how obedient children are – they might complain about having to practice but yet they will do it because they are told to do so. In contrast, adults who are nagged and scolded to practice will turn around and yell, “I will never touch the piano again!”

I have paraphrased what he wrote, but I recall that when I read what he wrote, I was struck by the truth of his words. We feel bitter about the “disobedience” of our children for being so “difficult” about doing the things we nag them to do – but the fact is that they do it regardless of their complaints. I’m probably going a little off tangent here but it does seem that we treat children differently from other adults. We tell them what to do and expect them to do it. To another adult, we would ask instead of tell – “could you please put your dishes in the sink?” as opposed to “put your dishes in the sink!” And despite being bossed around all day, they “obey” even if they grumble about it. At the end of the day “actions speak louder than words”.

But I’m digressing… if you want your child to like doing something, make sure you’re the one doing it first. You don’t have to be doing it indefinitely. You just need to keep doing it until your child’s personal interests in the subject or hobby takes off on its own.

Books: Teaching Suzuki Music – Ability Develop from Age Zero

by Shen-Li Lee Leave a Comment

The Suzuki Method of teaching music is very much like Right Brain Education in that it is more of an educational philosophy rather than a specific method of music instruction. Of course the end result is to teach music, however, the concept behind the Suzuki Method may be applied to the teaching of any other subject.

The author Shinichi Suzuki believed that any child who is capable of learning to speak their mother tongue is capable of learning anything. It is the most fundamental point of the Suzuki Method and is so amazingly simple that it is easily overlooked.

When we look at a child and lament over their “inability” to learn subject “xyz”, we naturally assume they are “not smart enough”. Yet, if they were capable of learning how to speak their own mother language and mastering the accent to a precision of a native, then they surely have the ability to learn anything else for it is not easy to learn how to speak a language as any of us who have endeavoured to learn a second language can attest to. Shinichi believed that children who struggled in school did so only because their abilities were not nurtured properly when they were younger.

In his book, Nurtured by Love, Shinichi Suzuki explained this idea with numerous examples. Ability Development from Age Zero, also written by Shinichi Suzuki, is the follow-up book that teaches parents how to embrace the Suzuki philosophy as opposed to the Suzuki instruction outlined in How to Teach Suzuki Piano. In Ability Development from Age Zero, Suzuki talks about the right way and the wrong way of developing a child’s talent. In this book, Suzuki gives some very useful and practical ideas for creating a Suzuki environment within which your child can learn a musical instrument the Suzuki way.

After reading a couple of chapters from this book, it appears to be a beneficial parenting book in more ways than one – not only is it useful for teaching the Suzuki Method, it also helps parents create a Suzuki environment at home so their children can be immersed in Suzuki philosophy and practices. Like Right Brain Education, Suzuki also talks about discipline for children who won’t listen, who misbehave, etc. because these are all part of the Suzuki philosophy. In his book, he coaches parents on how to handle tricky matters, such as music practice. Most children dislike practicing but practice is crucial if they are to excel at their instrument.

Suzuki’s belief is that parents need to create the environment where children are the drivers for their own practice rather than the parents. If the parent is the driver for music practice, the child will become resistant and resentful. His practice will not be effective because his heart is not in it, therefore the results will be mediocre at best. However, if the child is motivated to practice of his own accord, he will work hard to apply himself and the results will be good.

Even if teaching music is not your aim, I feel that this book is worth a read for the number of practical parenting ideas it offers. The parenting style is very much like what Shichida preaches – positive parenting, discipline with love, and showing respect to your child. And if teaching music is your aim, you really should read this book.

Implementing the Suzuki Method at Home

by Shen-Li Lee 2 Comments

With so many benefits for learning music and Hercules demonstrating a keen interest in music since he old enough to express an interest, I have decided to implement the Suzuki Method once he is through with the BrillKids Little Musician course. Although we originally contemplated the Suzuki Method for Aristotle, we weren’t able to make the commitment so we never ended up taking classes.

Instead of taking classes, I’ve decided to go it alone and do a partial implementation of the program. Why partial? Because the Suzuki Method also involves experience with group practice/learning and performance that I will not be able to offer Hercules unless I can find him a music group to join. However, since the intention is merely for Hercules to get more musical exposure and the opportunity to learn an instrument, I figure we can still achieve our goals this way.

Can parents teach their children music following the Suzuki Method? I’ve been pondering about this for some time. Since the Suzuki Method requires a high level of parental involvement, parents are effectively learning music alongside their child. While a parent with no music experience might struggle, I think that as long as you have learned to play the instrument you are intending to teach to some level of proficiency, I believe you should be able to teach your child music using the Suzuki Method, especially the earlier levels. There are also a number of books available for parents and teachers teaching Suzuki and structured book course for Piano and Violin to support a home program.

Why the Suzuki Method?

I’ve been reading How to Teach Suzuki Piano by Shinichi Suzuki and a lot of what he writes resonates with me, especially when I ponder over my own experiences learning music…

When I first started learning the piano, it was because my parents wanted me to. My music teacher was a lovely lady whom I bullied at every lesson because she was too sweet natured to do otherwise. Because of my defiance and unwillingness to practice, I was not ready to sit for the Grade 1 exams when my brother did. Realising that learning graded piano lessons were not working well for me, my parents changed my lessons so that I was free to learn whatever musical pieces I wanted. That worked well for a time and I got to a level where I could read music but not well enough to play by sight reading. I had to stop after that because my music teacher left and we were unable to find a suitable replacement.

During that break, I heard my cousin playing a musical piece that caught my interest. Inspired, I asked her to teach it to me and she showed me the opening on the piano (without the score). Once I memorised that part, she gave me a copy of the score and I committed it to memory because I couldn’t sight read fast enough to play the piece. I enjoyed the music so much, I asked her for more and committed another five pieces to memory. Once I had them by heart, I worked on my expression of the pieces. After that, my parents started up my piano lessons again and I started taking grades. I was allowed to skip two grades. I continued lessons until Grade 5 then I stopped.

Recently, I bought the boys and myself a digital piano – a cheap Casio with lots of gimmicky functions so we could have fun with it and so I wouldn’t feel like someone was stabbing me if Hercules was rough with it. I found I was still able to play the pieces that I memorised by heart. It was like getting back onto a bicycle – a little rusty at first, but I got there in the end. As for the pieces I studied for my Grade exams, it was like sight reading them from the beginning all over again. Well, maybe marginally better – just.

The Suzuki Method requires children to commit the music to memory so they can concentrate on the expression of the music rather than being distracted by reading the music. Suzuki’s belief is that if you are too busy reading the music, you cannot inject the true emotion into the music to create something beautiful. When you are too busy reading the score, you cannot hear the music you play. From my own experience, I believe he is right. My truest appreciation for the music I played came when I knew the pieces by heart and could listen to the sound I was making.

While I think it is great for a child to learn how to play an instrument, I think it is better if the child can truly appreciate the learning of the instrument and the music he plays. Although the Suzuki Method is not the only way to achieve this, I believe it is one way of doing so. Additionally, the availability of resources for teaching the Suzuki Method makes it a little easier for a parent like me who has some musical knowledge but no teaching experience.

Last but not least, the Suzuki Method follows the basic principles of Doman’s and Shichida’s teaching philosophy for young children:

Keep the lessons short – stop before your child’s attention is lost
Make the lessons enjoyable – do not force your child to learn

Because if a child is happy and likes what he is doing, he will inevitably excel at what he is doing.

More about the Suzuki Method

Music: The Suzuki Method

by Shen-Li Lee 6 Comments

The Suzuki Method of learning music follows the immersion concept of learning a native language. The Suzuki Method differs from most traditional music schools in two ways:

Firstly, children are taught how to play a musical instrument by listening first before they learn to read musical notation (most other music schools focus first on learning to reading musical notation). They first learn to play musical pieces by ear and thereafter only learn to read musical notation.
The age for learning music through the Suzuki Method is from 3-4 years. Most music programs recommend a starting age of about 6-7 years. The reason for starting early is because younger children are more easily guided, have less external distractions (e.g. school), and they will come to accept music as a regular part of their daily routine much like eating a meal or brushing their teeth.

With the Suzuki Method, students receive both private individual lessons and group lessons with other students. The latter helps them learn to play music alongside other musicians and to perform in front of others.

More about the Suzuki Method.

Books on the Suzuki Method:

Nurtured by Love – This book is the cornerstone upon which to build any Suzuki-oriented library. In it the author presents the philosophy and principles of Suzuki’s teaching methods. Through the examples from his own life and teaching, Suzuki establishes his case for early childhood education and the high potential of every human being, not just those seemingly gifted.
Ability Development from Age Zero – Recommended for parents of Suzuki Method(R) students. In this sequel to Nurtured by Love, Dr. Suzuki states that “the fate of the child is in the hands of his parents.” With this book he shows how to create a warm environment which will encourage any child to become a happy, loving and talented human being.
To Learn With Love: A Companion for Suzuki Parents – Practice, motivation, learning, nutrition, competition and family lifestyles are a few of the topics discussed by these experienced teachers, performers, and parents. Treasured as a handbook by many Suzuki parents!
Studying Suzuki Piano: More Than Music – A comprehensive coverage of what the Suzuki approach embodies, this book should be considered a requirement in the home of every piano teacher and student. Eight of the 14 chapters lay the foundation for understanding Suzuki’s Mother Tongue Approach, its procedures and its benefits. The authors have given their ideas of what it takes to be a Suzuki teacher, how to structure an effective lesson, what to cover in those first lessons and how to do it. Using more than 400 musical examples, the teaching points and the interpretation of the seven volumes of music are presented. In addition, some alternate fingerings are suggested and places where the Suzuki edition departs from the original edition are noted.
How to Teach Suzuki Piano – a brief but valuable booklet about teaching Suzuki piano. Directed towards parents and teachers. Originally published in Japan by Dr. Suzuki’s Talent Education Institute.

Suzuki Method Books for Piano and Violin:

Suzuki Method(R) Core Materials available for piano, violin, viola, cello, string bass, flute, harp, guitar, and recorder.

The Suzuki Method(R) of Talent Education is based on Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s view that every child is born with ability, and that man is the son of his environment. According to Dr. Suzuki, a world-renowned violinist and teacher, the greatest joy an adult can know comes from developing a child’s potential so he/she can express all that is harmonious and best in human beings. Students are taught using the “mother-tongue” approach. Suzuki Violin School materials include: Violin Parts (Vol. 1-10) * Piano Accompaniments (Vol. 1-10) * Cassettes (Vol. 1-3 performed by Shinichi Suzuki, Vol. 4-8 performed by Koji Toyoda) * Compact Discs (Vol. 5-8, performed by Koji Toyoda) * David Cerone Performs Suzuki Violin School (Cassettes & Compact Discs, Vol. 1-4) * David Nadien Performs Suzuki Violin School (Cassettes and Compact Discs, Vol. 1-4).

Music Programs for Babies, Toddlers and Young Children

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Recently, I was talking to a mother about starting her daughter on a music program. Her daughter is 6 months old and she asked me what program I recommended. To be quite frank, neither of my sons did any music programs that young. The earliest formal music program I tried was Kindermusik with Gavin when he was 18 months and it did not go well. I don’t think there was anything wrong with the program per se. It was just that Gavin didn’t like it and I didn’t see the point of forcing him to do something he didn’t enjoy.

After pondering over the question of music programs again, I feel that if I wanted to do an enrichment program with my baby, I would not choose a music program for the following reasons:

Most, if not all, of the activities that they do in the class can be done at home.
Most of the materials and resources they provide are inexpensive and easily replicated at home.
At such a young age, there is no interaction between my baby and any of the other babies. In fact, at such a young age, babies seek the attention and interaction of their caregivers.
At such a young age, children don’t need to be exposed to structured learning environment such as a class room. In fact, I found that this was one of Gavin’s primary objections to Kindermusik. He hated the feeling of being locked up in a classroom and kept wanting to leave. It wasn’t the activities that he did not like because he was curious and interested in what was happening but too timid to join the group. Then again, some young children enjoy these learning environments. Although Gavin disliked class, Gareth loves going to classes. Similarly, I have seen other children in Gavin’s classes enjoying class and those in Gareth’s class who didn’t enjoy class.

Personally, if I were to send my baby for an enrichment class, I’d like to know that there is something that the class offers that I cannot replicate at home, or at least not without a large financial or time commitment on my part. As far as music enrichment programs for very young children go, it is easy to do these at home.

Some of the things I have done with both Gavin and Gareth:

Listening to a broad range of music – classical, contemporary, theme songs, educational songs, nursery rhymes, musicals, and so on. Anything and everything is fair game.
As well as listening, I sing along to the songs until they are old enough to join in.
We also dance to the music. When they are babies, I’ll carry them and sway with the music so they can feel the rhythm of dance and the beat of the music.
We play with noise makers which can be as basic as beans in an old drink bottle (resembling maracas) to little toy drums, toy pianos, and basic musical instruments like the RM5 recorder I bought from Daiso, and the harmonica my Dad bought Gavin. If you have a piano in the house, let them tinker on it.
If you don’t have any music instruments at home, take the kids along to a music shop and expose them to the various different musical instruments available. If the store owners will allow, let them “play” the instruments. Name all the instruments you can recognise.
Go online and search for pictures of other instruments that you cannot find in physical form and show them to your children. Search youtube for samples of music using these instruments. Wikipedia also has recordings of some of the more common instruments available.
Take the kids to a physical performance. I took the kids to watch a performance of Peter Pan the Musical and they really enjoyed it.
You can try music games like Soft Mozart and Piano Wizard. You can also play music apps on the iPhone and iPad.
Youtube also has great music clips like the following one from Larry Sanger:

At the end of the day, where really young children are concerned, it is really just about exposure and experience. If they develop an appreciation for music, you can move them onto more formal music programs where they can learn how to play and instrument and/or music theory. If you want to try something at home, there is KinderBach (by the way, the coupon is still available since there were no takers), and Piano Wizard/Soft Mozart. There are a variety of other programs available as well but I have not really looked into them.

If you are keen for your child to learn an instrument, the youngest program available that I know of is the Suzuki method. Other programs are Kindermusik and Musikgarten (which I feel are fairly similar), and the Yamaha Junior Music Program (what I’ve explored are only options that are available in Malaysia). There is also the Bentley Music Academy located in the Bentley building near Ikano/The Curve. BMA offers Musikgarten for younger children and a formal music program for a variety of instruments. I like what BMA offers because of the continuity. If you do send your child for Musikgarten, once they graduate from that program, they can move on to the older music programs. They also encourage music performance which helps to develop your child’s stage experience and a great confidence builder.

Talent Education – Time and Commitment and Starting Early

by Shen-Li Lee 2 Comments

If there is one thing that Suzuki stresses, it is the need to put in the hours to become good at your art. Your child doesn’t need to show early precociousness to be good at music (or sport, or Math, or “insert whatever subject it happens to be”). The most important ingredients are time, commitment and starting young. It has been said before that some people just aren’t good at particular things and they never will be no matter how hard they try. Suzuki believes that as long as you invest the time, get in there early and provide the right environment, children can be great at anything.

Talent Education – Why early?

So that the children don’t get sent down the garden path with the wrong methods. For example, if you want to teach your child music, it is important to get off to the right start from the very beginning. If you sing out of tune and your singing is all your child hears for the first few years of his life, then your child will end up singing out of tune like you. If you want your child to learn how to sing in key, then you are better off not singing at all to your child and playing music with singers who sing well.

Sounds harsh? Well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles if you’re tone deaf and you want to raise a music prodigy.

The example Suzuki used was one about nightingales. Did you know not all nightingales sing well? It all depends on what happens during their first month. In Japan, nightingales are taken as fledglings from the nests of wild birds in Spring. These young birds are taught to sing by a master nightingale. If the birds have a good teacher, they will go on to sing beautiful songs. But if a bird is raised in the wild before being brought to a good teacher, they have found that there is always failure to produce a good singing bird.

If we translate that across to the human race, then what happens to your child in the early years sets the precedence for your child’s later years.

Jesus said, “Give me a child for the first seven years and I will give you the man.”
Maria Montessori said that the first six years of a child’s life is directed by the child’s absorbent mind.
Glenn Doman talked about the learning potential of children in their first 6 years as being uncomparable to their learning capacity in later years.
Shichida also focused on the learning potential of children in their first 6 years of life.

It isn’t about being kiasu (meaning: afraid to lose; being the competitive parent) any more, it’s about building a solid foundation for the later years in your child’s life.

Talent Education – Time and Commitment

Suzuki said “talent develops talent”. Once you have planted the seed of ability, it begins to grow with ever increasing speed. However, in order for that seed to begin growing, you need a lot of time and commitment.

“The expert in anything was once a beginner.”

And all beginners know that everything is always difficult when you’re a beginner. When you’re not good at something, it is hard to enjoy it. If you are committed to your practice and put in your practice time diligently, you will eventually see improvement. You may also experience jumps in improvement of your ability and puzzle over how you ever got to that level when it used to appear impossible. I believe those experiences are what Suzuki meant when he said “talent develops talent”.

If you can find a way to motivate your child and keep him going until he can get over the beginner’s hurdle, then you’re well on your way to developing a talented child for life. The hardest part is getting over that hurdle and keeping your child motivated to persevere. And perseverence is not a strong point for children – the younger they are, the worse it is.

And that brings us back to Tools of the Mind – the program that develops a child’s executive function which in turn is responsible for helping a child to stay focused on the task at hand and to block out distractions. What’s unfortunate about the Tools of the Mind program is that it seems to be developed for a classroom setting and we don’t have any schools here that run the program.

Is it at all possible to run a Tools of the Mind program for a homeschool setting? Time to ask Vygotsky and pick up where I left off months ago…