Suzuki Sounds. Or author’s manual for caring parents. Oxana Stetsyuk

his trip to Japan.

      In 1961 the great Spanish cellist, conductor and composer Pablo Casals visited a concert which involved 400 young violinists in Tokyo. The talent of Suzuki’s students led the maestro to complete delight. He was amazed by the live results of the Shinichi Suzuki training. This way, the people in Europe and America gradually became aware of this method. After Suzuki’s children’s ensemble toured in the United States in 1964, the rapid spread of his system around the world initiated. The International Suzuki Associations were founded, and the training of teachers for further teaching began. Now, it’s possible to practice according to the Suzuki method in almost any country in the world: there are 55 national organizations, more than 8000 various instrumental teachers, and more than 250,000 children have learned to play instruments using this system. Suzuki’s philosophy is rightfully gaining more and more adherents.

      What is so unusual about these music classes, you may ask? What’s the secret? The genius of Suzuki lies in the fact that he understood the universality of the relationship between “mother language” for the child and musical art. And many years of practice have confirmed that this path is the most faithful and effective.

      The path of not coercion, but of growing and unleashing the potential built-in by nature. What is needed for this? Nothing special, just to follow certain teaching principles. There are not many of them, but the system does not work if one is missing:

      • The child should be in a positive environment, parents should actively participate in activities and support kid’s interest in knowledge. Parents themselves should be an example for their children in the desire to develop and learn new things;

      • Children should listen to excellent music daily at home. Listening creates a learning atmosphere for the student, the learning process is easier and faster;

      • Mandatory repetitions and daily work on errors. Repetition, the mother of learning, has not been canceled! Without multiple repetitions it is impossible to achieve a performance;

      • Early start! The earlier the better. Each child develops according to their own individual plan;

      • Mandatory group lessons where children can learn to listen to others and play in an ensemble.

      For over 70 years, these rules of the Suzuki method have been helping to uncover the talents of children around the world. Nevertheless, the method is not aimed at “creating” geniuses, but at raising good and noble people, developing discipline, hard work, memory, concentration, and understanding of beauty in children. “Character first, ability second”5. I think each of us will agree with this. These qualities are fundamental to the personality of a modern person – Homo Evolution.

      When to start learning?

      You are definitely late if you first thought about this question after the birth of a child! The best time to start is prenatal and although these words may sound crazy to some parents, in support of this statement I want to share my personal experience.

      I started working with my daughter even before she was born. For this purpose, I chose sounds – the voices of my family and music. During pregnancy, I constantly went to the opera and concerts, because I am a musician myself and try to attend good performances. A month before giving birth, I listened to an opera by Rigoletto Verdi at the Hermitage Theater, performed by Dmitry Hvorostovsky. To this day I cannot forget his brilliant performance. The acoustics there are excellent, so my daughter also heard the opera well inside me. With a high degree of probability, I can say that thanks to this 9-month intrauterine training, she has developed excellent hearing.

      During pregnancy, I studied a bunch of early development books. The thought of developing a child from birth completely captured me. As a result, I chose the methodology of the American psychologist and physician Glen Doman. His books “Harmonious Development of a Child” and “How to Teach Your Child to Read” became for me the textbooks I used for the development of my daughter from birth. Doman’s technique was truly revolutionary at one time, and even now it has not lost its relevance. In the 60s and 90s, on its basis, more modern developmental systems of the Japanese teachers Makoto Shichida and Heguru appeared. By the way, Suzuki was well acquainted with Doman’s theory, and shared his opinion about the great potential of young children and the need for an early start.

      The Suzuki Method also targets this. Children start playing instruments at 2—3 years old. Before that, sometimes right from birth, they are engaged in preparatory groups for early development with their mothers and sometimes with younger brothers and sisters. And practice testifies: the process of subsequent education of younger children that had previously been “passively” trained by the Suzuki method proceeds much faster and better.

      Why is it important to start learning from an early age? Children learn to walk, eat and speak their native language on their own until they are 3 years old. At this age, the human brain is like a sponge that absorbs a huge amount of information at great speed. This process gradually slows down as the time goes. Therefore, the sooner you start learning music, the more natural and easier it will be. In my baby’s cot there were signs with drawn letters and words, we did dynamic gymnastics and went swimming in the pool, we would listen to classical music every day. She first walked when she was 9 months old, started talking when she was 1.5 years old, and she did so at once in whole sentences. From that time on, we started learning English. My daughter attended a private kindergarten with teachers who were native speakers, in order to be fully immersed in the atmosphere of a foreign language. Such kindergartens are now commonplace. In the early 2000s though, only a few people understood my actions. But thanks to such an early and active study of the English language, my daughter has almost no accent now. And she is terribly proud of it!

      At the time, I didn’t think about the results. I only wanted my child to know and be able to do a lot. It is now clear that the main reason for this parental zeal was my ambition. But is it always bad for a child? If the goal of the effort is to gain new useful knowledge and to expand the abilities of the individual, and not to foolishly compete with other people, then I’m sure it is not!

      And another important detail: I dedicated a lot of time to intercommunicating. I even wrote funny stories about two funny friends Bunny and Bear, like my favorite fairy tale about Homa and Gopher from childhood. They were informative and edifying and my daughter loved to listen to them. Together we would occasionally come up with a sequel to them. I wish I wrote them down! It would make a whole series.