The Suzuki Handbook for Parents

“If a child hears good music from the day of his birth, and learns to play it himself, he develops sensitivity, discipline, and endurance. He gets a beautiful heart.”
— Dr. Shinichi Suzuki —

Roles and Responsibilities

Student/Parent:
It is very important that each student commit himself or herself to a consistent practicing schedule. When students fail to practice consistently, they do not improve. However, most children do not have the self-discipline to practice on their own. The parents must sit in on the lesson and practice with the student to ensure proper, efficient practicing.
Students can be somewhat responsible for listening to their tape, but ultimately, it is the parent that is responsible for the listening. The parent should be very aware of the time the student actually spends practicing and listening.

Teachers/Parents:
“The word education implies two concepts: to educe, which means to ‘bring out, develop from latent or potential existence’ (Concise Oxford Dictionary), as well as to instruct. I want—if I can— to get education changed from mere instruction to education that inculcates, brings out, develops the human potential, based on the growing life of the child.” - Dr. Suzuki, Nurtured by Love—
Teachers are responsible for teaching the parent, as well as the student, proper technique, musicality, the skill of piano playing. It is then the parents’ responsibility to enforce all the concepts covered in lessons in the home. The parent is the home facilitator. It is also the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that the parents understand what is going on in the lesson, so they will be able to repeat these lessons at home on a daily basis. The parent should feel free to ask the teacher to repeat something for their benefit, or ask the teacher to show them how to do something they have asked the student to do.

The Home Studio

WHY DO WE PRACTICE EVERY DAY?
BY DR. HARUKO KATAOKA

"Sensei, why is it that we have to practice piano every day?"
"Why do we have to repeat the same thing over and over every day?"
I have known many students over many years. Always at lessons all my adorable little grade-school children ask these very questions. The parents who accompany these students report that their children hate to practice, and they want to know what to do about this problem. I get asked this question by parents from all over the world. My answer is always the same.
There is not a student anywhere in the world who loves to practice. The importance of practice is not just to play through pieces, but to repeat small parts of pieces. This is especially true of piano music. If there is a child somewhere in the world who loves this practice, perhaps she should have her head examined. Your child who hates to practice is absolutely normal. Children love music but hate practice.
When children ask me why they must practice every day, I explain, "The human body is not like the brain. Each day is one unit. You eat every day and you sleep every day don't you? If you thought that it maybe a bother to eat every day and decided therefore to eat three days' worth of food all at once, you could not do it. Sleep is the same. Would you be able to sleep for a whole week all at once and then be up the next seven days? Breathing is the same. God decided that there were some things that our bodies have to do every single day. This is why piano practice has to be done every day. If you do not practice for three whole days, your piano technique suffers quite a bit and will not improve. It is all right if you just practice a little bit, okay?" Children usually listen to my reply, but their faces seem to say, "I sort of understand, but..."
Our brains immediately take in things we see and hear. Furthermore, we are able to remember our impressions and feelings of things we said and heard many years ago. There is such a radical difference between the brain and the body that most people are confused about this.
Because of the high importance placed on test scores, students nowadays are forced under great pressure to memorize unreasonable amounts of information. They have not had the repetition necessary to develop their intelligence and have not had space in which to grow naturally. This interferes with their proper development. Furthermore, they are not given the opportunity to use their bodies with simple practice. They have not been given the chance to play the piano or to do sports. Being able to use our body well, however, is a prerequisite for life itself. To walk, to run, to eat, to sleep, -TO MOVE- is everything. For example, if you do not use your legs over a long period of time, you will not be able to walk.
For this reason, we must learn every day, little by little, how to play well by practicing. Because children have not yet acquired a great deal of knowledge, they find practice to be tedious and they resist it. On the other hand, unlike adults they are far better at enduring repetition. If you have reared children, you are well aware that very young children are able to repeat something that they like, something that interests them, ceaselessly, to a point we adults find difficult to imagine. Whatever children repeat over and over again, even if they hate doing it, whether it is good or bad, becomes apart of them.
As adults, we are able to acknowledge that practice is necessary and to determine earnestly to do our best. This adult knowledge and desire interfere with our bodies by making them stiff and unable to do the task at hand. It is not absolutely impossible for adults, but.. when it comes to learning a physical task even if we devote the same amount of time with the same patience and effort, children always do better because childhood is a stage when the gains of learning a task are ten, no, maybe one hundred, times greater than for an adult.
When it comes to the body, childhood is the time to learn a physical task well. What children can learn naturally and with freedom is so great that we cannot even compare it to what can be learned in adulthood.
To practice piano properly every day is quite a job for parents. Whether a child starts at three or six years old, if you try as hard as you can for ten years you will be giving that child an invaluable gift: a lifetime of deep appreciation and love for music. This is a gift which cannot be bought anywhere with any amount of money.

SUZUKI PIANO BASICS FOUNDATION NEWS
Volume 2.2, March/April 1997

The Importance of Listening

Each student is required to listen to a tape of the pieces they are learning, as well as pieces to be learned later in the year and pieces in the next book. They must listen to their tapes every day.
Listening is as important as practicing. As Suzuki students do not learn their pieces by reading them, they must learn by ear. Students who listen to their tapes on a regular basis are developing this skill.
Challenge your children to listen to themselves as well. They are learning to listen and evaluate what they hear. A good way for them to improve their own playing through listening is to record themselves.
As well as listening to the Suzuki tapes, students should listen to other piano compositions and even other instruments to increase their musicality. A great way for children to learn is to take them to concerts! There are many great events in Calgary that your children can enjoy. Some examples include the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Calgary Opera Company, and the University of Calgary and Mount Royal Music Departments.

LISTEN
By Dr. Haruko Kataoka

If you want to study music, you must first listen to music.
For example, if you want to play a certain piece on the piano, the smart thing to do would be to sit in front of the piano without looking at the score and listen to the piece on a recording from morning to night. Then try playing the piece with the music after having listened to it for a day, two days, a month, or even year. You will be surprised how easily you will learn the piece. Of course, it would be impossible for someone without any knowledge of the technique of playing the piano to play something difficult by Chopin or Liszt perfectly, but it would not be impossible to play simple portions of the beautiful melodies within the piece.
Listening is an extremely difficult task, is it not? There is no problem when we concentrate and want to hear something or when we are listening to relax, but when we are listening to the same piece throughout the day there will be times when we get tired of it or we feel that it is just a nuisance. I have had such experiences.
How is it that this kind of listening can become a nuisance? It is because we are trying to listen. If we do not actively try to listen, it is possible to play the recording all the time without getting tired of it. We tend to define listening as just one thing, but there are many different ways of listening. Please ponder the following passage by Confucius:
Do not listen with the ears but listen
with the heart.
No, do not listen with the heart but listen
with the spirit.
To listen only with the ears will create awareness just
within the heart.
However, the spirit is unattached so that everything
exists there.
The left side of the brain is not fully developed in children, so that when a recording is constantly played softly they listen with the spirit, and thereby may hear it completely and fully master the music. Their mother tongue which they hear from birth is heard by their spirit in the same manner, so that all children master their own language without complaining that it is a nuisance or that it is boring. Not once do they think that they are trying to learn.
An American child, Lindsay, who recently attended the workshop in Bellingham, Washington. showed this to all of us.
She was a cute little girl of seven. During the lesson she played Christmas Day Secrets from Book 1 very well, so I asked, "Can you play a little more advanced piece?" Her father replied, "I have been busy, so we have not had the time to practice."
So I asked, "How much do you listen to the recording each day?" The response was marvellous: "Twenty-four hours. This is what you always tell us, isn't it? That is why we play the recording softly in our home 24 hours a day."
As I was thinking to myself that even though she did not practice that much she was able to play so well because of all this listening, Lindsay said, "I memorized this piece." Even though it was only with the right hand, she played the third movement from the Clementi Sonatina in Book 3 extremely well. The tempo and rhythm were excellent.
Hearing this, the fifty or so teachers who were observing the lesson were astounded. After all, she was only in the process of studying Book 1.
Childhood, when we can listen openly with our spirit, is truly a wonderful time. We adults can only be envious.

Reprinted from the Newsletter of the Matsumoto Piano Teachers Association of the Talent Education Research Institute
Vol. 6, No.2, July 16, 1996
Translated by Rev. Ken Fujimoto and edited by Karen Hagberg

Recital Etiquette

Recitals are important opportunities for students to perform for others and to hear others perform for them. The student should take advantage of as many performing opportunities as possible. This is the reason why the Association holds three separate performance experiences each year. These are all non-competitive and encouraging opportunities for Suzuki students and are to be taken seriously.
Some important points to remember when attending a recital:
Dress appropriately. Dressing up reinforces to the students that this is a special time and place, and that different behavior is expected here.
All students are expected to remain in the recital hall throughout the entire performance, no matter what the age. No child should leave after they are finished performing. (Sometimes, there is a conflict with other commitments. This is discouraged, but it does happen. This should be discussed with the teacher before hand.) Siblings are also expected to view the entire performance. It is distracting to have people coming in and out throughout the recital. It also shows a lack of respect to children who have worked very hard to perform. If you must leave during a recital, then this should be done in between pieces. You should not walk in or out of a recital while a student is playing. Please wait until that student is finished their piece before coming or going.
3. Learn by listening and watching. Students should sit quietly throughout the recital and listen to the other performers. This is as important as performing itself! Much can be learned by simply listening and watching other students. Bringing a book to read, or to color in is not appropriate. Again, this shows disrespect to the other students. However, younger siblings who are not students may color or look at a book if this helps them to keep quiet.
5. Please arrive on time. It is hard to start a recital when half of the performers are not there. It is also distracting to have these students walk in halfway through the recital.
6. Follow through on commitments. If you commit to attending a recital, or a workshop, or the festival, then you need to show up. Not attending events you have registered for is inconsiderate to those who have taken the time to plan and attend the event. Most events are planned based on the amount of children expected to attend. When students don’t come, people end up sitting around.

These are just a few things to remember when attending recitals. These are growing and building experiences. Some students who are apprehensive about recitals will overcome these feelings if they perform often enough. Something else to consider: If you make recitals a priority in your busy schedules, this tells your children that watching them perform is important to you, and performing becomes important to them.

Resources

Books
Nurtured by Love by Shinichi Suzuki

The Law of Ability and the “Mother Tongue Method” of Education by Shinichi Suzuki

Ability Development from Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki

Thoughts on Suzuki Piano School by Haruko Kataoka

My Thoughts on Piano Technique by Haruko Kataoka

Introducing Suzuki Piano by Doris Koppelman

A Suzuki Parents’ Diary or How I Survived My First 10,000 Twinkles by Carroll Morris

The Suzuki Concept Ed. Mills and Murphy

To Learn with Love by William Starr