Suzuki Violin School, Volume 1 International Edition (The Suzuki Method)

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Rather than focusing on a specific instrument, at the stage of early childhood education (ECE), a Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) curriculum for (pre-instrumental) ECE was developed within the Suzuki philosophy by Dorothy & Sharon Jones (SAA), Jeong Cheol Wong (ASA), Emma O'Keefe (PPSA), Anke van der Bijl (ESA), and Yasuyo Matsui (TERI). The SECE curriculum is designed for ages 0–3 and uses singing, nursery rhymes, percussion, audio recordings, and whole body movements in a group setting where children and their adult caregivers participate side by side. The Japanese based SECE curriculum is different from the English-based SECE curriculum. The English-based curriculum is currently being adapted for use in other languages.

The Suzuki method does not include a formal plan or prescribe specific materials for introducing music theory and reading, in part because Suzuki created the method in a culture where music literacy was routinely taught in schools. This is intended to raise technical and musical ability. Review pieces, along with "preview" parts of music a student is yet to learn, are often used in place of the more traditional etude books. Traditional etudes and technical studies are not used in the beginning stages, which focus almost exclusively on a set of performance pieces. Using sound recordings is another technique common to all the musical instruments taught in the Suzuki method. Thibeault's (2018) history of Suzuki's mediated pedagogy presents Suzuki as a technological innovator who created new ways of learning from sound recordings. Pre-recorded music is used to help students learn notes, phrasing, dynamics, rhythm, and beautiful tone quality by ear. Suzuki pointed out that great artists (such as Mozart) were surrounded with excellent performances from birth, and that the advent of recording technology made this aspect of their environment possible to achieve for large numbers of "ordinary" people whose parents were not themselves great musicians & music teachers like Mozart's father was. So-called "traditional" (that is, not Suzuki trained) music educators have used this technique since the earliest days of recording technology; the difference in the Suzuki method is the scale on which Suzuki systematically insisted on daily listening in the home, from before birth if possible, and his focus on using recordings of beginner's repertoire alongside recordings of advanced repertoire. While Pre-Twinkles helped students establish their posture, left-hand frame, and bow technique, the Twinkle variations give students an opportunity to further develop these skills. In each variation, the student applies new rhythmic concepts to the Twinkle melody. These variations also teach students that repetition is a crucial aspect of learning the violin. There are two types of bow articulations in the Twinkle Variations and Theme: staccato and detaché. Students should become familiar with those terms and learn to identify the sounds of the articulations by ear. 5 Twinkle Variations

Instructions

A "modified" Suzuki philosophy curriculum has been developed to apply Suzuki teaching to heterogeneous instrumental music classes & string orchestras in schools. Suzuki believed in training musicians not only to be better musicians, but also to be better teachers. Suzuki Associations worldwide offer ongoing teacher-training programs to prospective and continuing Suzuki teachers. The core Suzuki literature is published on audio recordings and in sheet music books for each instrument, and Suzuki teachers supplement the repertoire common to each instrument as needed, particularly in the area of teaching reading. One of the innovations of the Suzuki method was to make quality recordings of the beginners' pieces widely available, performed by professional musicians. Many traditional (non-Suzuki trained) music teachers also use the Suzuki repertoire, often to supplement their curriculum, and they adapt the music to their own philosophies of teaching. Supplementary materials are also published under the Suzuki name, including some etudes, note-reading books, piano accompaniment parts, guitar accompaniment parts, duets, trios, string orchestra, and string quartet arrangements of Suzuki repertoire.

Eventually, the center of the Suzuki movement in education was established as the Talent Education Research Institute (TERI) in Matsumoto. TERI hosts thousands of people each year—students, parents, teachers, (and teacher trainees). Other organizations have sprung up all over the world to help oversee the movement and train teachers. These include the Asia Suzuki Association, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, the European Suzuki Association (which is currently assisting in the beginnings of the Suzuki movement in Africa), and the Pan-Pacific Suzuki Association.(International Suzuki Association, 2016). The application of Suzuki's teaching philosophy to the mandolin is currently being researched in Italy by Amelia Saracco. Suzuki believed that teachers who test for musical aptitude before taking students, or who look only for "talented" students, are limiting themselves to people who have already started their music education. Just as every child is expected to learn their native language, Suzuki expected every child to be able to learn to play music. The Suzuki method is a music curriculum and teaching philosophy dating from the mid-20th century, created by Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki (1898–1998). The method aims to create an environment for learning music which parallels the linguistic environment of acquiring a native language. Suzuki believed that this environment would also help to foster good moral character.

The central belief of Suzuki, based on his language acquisition theories, is that all people can (and will) learn from their environment. The essential components of his method spring from the desire to create the "right environment" for learning music (he believed that this positive environment would also help to foster excellent character in every student). These components include: Suzuki, Shinichi. Nurtured By Love: A New Approach to Talent Education. Warner bros. Publication, Miami, Florida, 1968 The most recent audio recordings are Books 1-3 recorded by Hilary Hahn and released in 2020. Audio recordings for books 1-4 are also available in separate albums by artists such as David Nadien, David Cerone, Yukari Tate and Shin'ichi Suzuki. Recordings of volumes 1-4 by William Preucil, Jr. were released in 2007, along with revised versions of the first 4 books. Recordings for books 5-8 have been made by Koji Toyoda, although many of the pieces can be found separately on other artists' albums. In 2008 Takako Nishizaki made a complete set of recordings of Books 1-8 for Naxos Records. There are no official recordings of books 9 and 10 but these books, simply being Mozart's A major and D major violin concertos, have readily available recordings by various violinists. Completing the 10 volumes is not the end of the Suzuki journey, as many Suzuki violin teachers traditionally continue with the Bruch and Mendelssohn concertos, along with pieces from other composers such as Paradis, This includes attending local classical music concerts, developing friendships with other music students, and listening to recordings of professional musicians in the home every day, starting before birth if possible.

While teaching alongside other violin faculty at a Suzuki institute, I was surprised to observe many controversies surrounding Gavotte by Gossec. Some teachers insist that it does not belong in Suzuki Book 1 due to its difficulty and length. Sometimes, they will teach it after the student completes Book 2, and sometimes it is not taught at all. In fact, my program director banned it from student recitals for many years. On the other hand, other teachers require their students to learn the piece and perform it in recitals before graduating from Book 1. The harp repertoire is in five volumes. These books are suitable for learning to read and play music on the pedal harp or the lever harp (folk harp, Irish/Celtic harp, etc. that preferably has 30 or more strings). Most of the music is arrangements of either folk music or classical music. Students of the lever harp will find some of the pieces in the later books to have challenging lever changes. This series ultimately leads to more in-depth study of the pedal harp and its repertoire and teaches more of a classical style technique. Those pursuing traditional Celtic music can use this as a foundation, however, the traditional style of teaching focuses on relying on the ear rather than on the written note. Repertoire for volume six is selected, though the music is not published in a single book. [4] Voice [ edit ] Kreitman, Edward. Teaching from the Balance Point: A Guide for Suzuki Teachers, Parents, and Students. Western Springs School of Talent Education Publications, Western Springs, IL, 1998.Preucil, William & Doris (November, 1985). "The Evolution of the Suzuki Viola School". Journal of the American Viola Society Vol. 1, #2, pp18-20. Azzi, A (2006). "Leonor Michaelis and Music: Transcript of a Conversation with Kunio Yagi in 1986". IUBMB Life. 58 (5–6): 378. doi: 10.1080/15216540600702230. PMID 16754335. S2CID 2802395. Trumpet was added to the International Suzuki Association's list of Suzuki Method instruments in 2011. The application of Suzuki's teaching philosophy to the trumpet is currently being researched in Sweden; the first Trumpet teacher training course to be offered by the European Suzuki Association in 2013. (Suzuki Teacher Training for Trumpet, 2013). The viola repertoire is in nine volumes, compiled and edited by Doris Preucil. Like the violin repertoire, much of the viola repertoire is drawn from the Baroque period. The first 3 volumes have been arranged (or transposed) almost directly from the first 3 violin volumes, and the rest differ significantly as they delve into standard viola literature. The viola books introduce shifting and work in higher positions earlier than the violin volumes, in anticipation of viola students being asked to play in ensembles sooner in their studies than violinists, and needing these skills to better handle orchestral or chamber music parts (Preucil, 1985). Viola volumes 4-8 include works by Telemann, Casadesus, Bach, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Leclair, Hummel, and Bruch. Books 1-4 have been recorded on two albums by William Preucil, and the rest are available in separate albums.