The Press 1971: Suzuki students absorb music by ear
Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32798, 24 December 1971, Page 9
Something of the enthusiasm with which a 72-year-old Japanese musician, Shinichi Suzuki, sometimes takes children as young as three and turns them into violinists before they can even read, exists in Christchurch.
Mr Robert Perks, director of what has become known and valued by hundreds of Christchurch parents as the Saturday morning school of music—or more properly the Christchurch School of Instrumental Music—has long been convinced of the validity of the Suzuki method of teaching young children to play the violin.
Although most children involved have been aged from five to eight, today many of the first group who began learning by listening and imitating three years ago, are astonishingly competent young musicians. “Compared with other children of the same age who have been learning conventionally for the same length of time, their intonation is better and they have developed a more musical style of playing,” says Mr Perks. “It is very important from the beginning for the child to listen and absorb the idiom and type of music he should be playing. “The violinist, Mr Louis Viter, is very pleased with the results so far.” Earlier the better Interviewed in Japan recently, Mr Suzuki who began to apply his idea of music teaching about 38 years ago, said that as children learned to speak their mother tongue, so they could learn to play the violin. His revolutionary but simple teaching method has turned out tens of thousands of child violinists in Japan over the years, and some have become leading musicians.
Since a demonstration trip to the United States in 1964, his method has been winning support in North America and Europe. In New Zealand, apart from a few teachers trying the method, and experimenting with it, Christchurch has taken the lead in successfully applying it on a significant scale. “What is important in teaching the violin,” says Mr Suzuki, “is to let the children listen to good music, live or recorded, over and over again.” And he adds: “The earlier they start, the better—even within a few days of birth.” Christchurch children do not start so early, but about five they do listen to speci-ally-produced records designed to help them learn from Japan or the United States. Mr Suzuki gives a warning against exposing children to bad music and says:, “As a child growing up listening to a dialect comes to speak it, so a baby brought up on offkey sounds may not be able to develop perfect pitch.” He believes that even great musicians like Beethoven and Mozart would have been failures if they had listened to off-key records in their youth. The Japanese musician says in the beginning children learn by heart and are not taught to read music. When they have memorised the piece, they can put their feeling into the music and improve their technique. Only after one or two years of learning do they begin reading notes. Mr Perks says that he first read of the Suzuki method in 1966 when it appealed to him as a realistic way to approach very young people. It seemed common sense to use the same concept involved in a child learning to speak by imitating vocal sounds in learning music. In this way, he points out, it is possible to concentrate on the technique of holding the violin correctly—anyone who has had any contact with the School of Music’s scheme will know that this is given constant emphasis by Mr Perks—as well as the absorption of what is involved in a musical style of playing.
Small violins This means, of course, that initially, learners are concerned with learning to play without reading notes on a score.
According to Mr Suzuki, he likes to begin giving lessons at the age of three with mothers playing a key role. The mother attends the Suzuki class with her child and learns a few simple pieces at first so she can be a home teacher as well. Small-scale violins have been developed in Japan, the smallest being only onesixteenth the normal size.
For the last two years, the initial number starting the Suzuki method in Christchurch has been from 25 to 30. Mr Perks says although no stipulation is made as to age, and three and four-year-olds could perhaps cope, most are at least five years old.
From next year, he says, they will not begin class work until they have mastered the technique of holding the violin and have a good hand position. Young violinists in Christchurch learn on half-size, quarter or even eighth-size violins most significantly made in Japan. Mr Perks says that once the child reaches nine or 10 he should be reading music. Of those who began with the Suzuki method in 1968, and who are still learning, all are now reading music well, and have experienced no difficulty in making the transition from ear to score.
blems if playing by ear is carried on too long, what happens in practice is that children who make good progress want to learn to read notes and with the enthusiasm that playing music from the start generates, take this in their stride.
In the early stages the children have the opportunity to take part in movement classes designed to develop a sense of rhythm and these help develop their sense of music appreciation. The help and encouragement of parents is important with the Suzuki method. And on any Saturday morning during the year it is commonplace to see mothers, and sometimes the odd, dedicated father, sitting in on lessons in a supper room, kitchen or back room of the various halls and buildings used by the School’ of Instrumental Music in the absence of a permanent home. As Mr Perks says, it is not necessary for parents to have detailed musical knowledge, as the child is concerned with imitating the style of playing and sounds on record and demonstrated by the teacher. “The joy of discovery is shared when mother and child learn together,” says one mother with little formal musical knowledge who has had a daughter in tjie scheme since its inception in Christchurch.
“It is an exciting expert-. ence and now my young daughter and I are able to enjoy, not only working together, but listening to music with greater appreciation. “The method at the C.S.I.M. has given my daughter a confident approach to reading music, and she loves playing often.” It is difficult to measure precisely the success of the violinists who began with the method and who now play scheme in generalisations, but there are a number of young with enthusiasm and verve.
Many have private lessons as well.
Mr Perk says that eventually the children who began with the Suzuki method will be integrated with other orchestras at the School of Music.
• One factor is clear, however, and this is that although drop-outs can be expected in any group of violin learners in the five to eight years age group, the proportion of those who started with the Suzuki method and who continue learning is between 70 per cent and 80 per cent, as against a 50 per cent dropout rate under the conventional method.
This gives Christchurch a much better than average chance of producing young violinists of ability—thanks to Shinichi Suzuki, the C.S.I.M. and parents and children’s enthusiasm.
The public will, incidentally, be given an opportunity to judge for themselves when a group of young violinists who have learned under the method plays at the opening of the city’s new Town Hail complex.
Although there can be pro-
