“Music is a language of the heart without words.” ~ Shinichi Suzuki
The Suzuki™ philosophy hinges on the idea that every child can learn to make beautiful music in the same way they learn to speak their native language. Much as language mastery is a lifelong pursuit, mastery of a musical instrument is a journey that continues throughout one’s entire life, and for the Suzuki student, that journey begins with the roadmap laid out in the carefully scaffolded common repertoire.
This common repertoire is part of the beauty of studying music through the Suzuki Method. Every Suzuki student around the world has the shared experience of working through the same great music that becomes a common language they all share.
The Philosophy of Progression
“Without hurry, without rest.” ~ Shinichi Suzuki
Suzuki’s Mother-Tongue approach is designed to help every child succeed at making beautiful music. The foundations of an early start, a positive environment, small steps, repetition, and review are all wrapped up in the common repertoire. Students work their way through the carefully scaffolded pieces, collecting skills and techniques along the way.
The repertoire for each instrument has been purposefully selected and sequenced to aid students as they gradually build their musical vocabulary. Each piece was selected with a purpose and placed in its designated position in the progression to ensure student success every step of the way.
Each child will progress through the repertoire at their own pace, but the journey is the same for every Suzuki student.
Navigating the Levels (The Roadmap)
“Success breeds success.” ~ Shinichi Suzuki
While each instrument has its own unique set of repertoire, the progressions follow the same basic formula.
Early Foundations: Roughly Books 1-3, these first few years of study focus on foundational technique and tone production. Most instruments start with the famous variations on “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” as a fun way to introduce young children to the technical foundations required for the repertoire. From there, students progress through a variety of familiar folk songs as well as simpler standard repertoire, particularly from the Baroque and Classical periods.
Preparation: This phase, which is around Books 4-6 for most instruments, contains intermediate repertoire designed to prepare students for more advanced sonatas, concertos, and other concert repertoire. Shorter character pieces and simpler sonatas and sonatinas are included in these levels.
Advanced Mastery: By the time students get to the later levels (Books 7 and up), they’re ready to begin more serious performance repertoire, including first concertos and virtuosic concert pieces.
The Backbone of the Method: Daily Listening
“Listening until we remember is not enough. We must listen until we cannot forget.” ~ Shinichi Suzuki
The most important factor in any student’s musical success is their environment. Children should be surrounded by music regularly, and for the Suzuki student, that includes regular listening to the official recordings.
The International Suzuki Association- approved recordings have been carefully produced to provide students with the best possible reference for technique and tone production. While a variety of recordings exist, it is important that students spend a significant amount of time with the official recordings.
These recordings can be found on the CDs and digital downloads available through Alfred Music, and now, for the first time, they are available in a shareable digital format exclusively in MakeMusic Studio.
It’s important for students to engage in both passive and active listening to the recordings. The CDs and digital downloads are perfect for putting on in the car or as background music at home during mealtimes. Filling as much empty airspace as possible with the music that students are learning and the music they will soon encounter is a great way to create a nurturing musical environment.
MakeMusic Studio is a perfect companion for active listening. The interactive practice tools allow you to isolate specific sections to help students identify certain things that they hear. Students can sing along with the melody while listening to the full recording, including the accompaniment. Once students begin reading notation, they can easily follow along in the score while the music plays, noticing patterns.
Most of the Suzuki repertoire is available in MakeMusic Studio, and more is being added regularly. This makes it easy for teachers to share both current and future repertoire with students.
The Road to Success
“Ability equals knowledge plus 10,000 times.” ~ Shinichi Suzuki
Mastery of a musical instrument takes a lot of time, patience, and endurance, and the Suzuki Method aims to make that journey an enjoyable one. With its careful, step-by-step progression, students are able to master skills that will carry them through a lifetime of musical enjoyment.
MakeMusic Studio hopes to make that journey even easier by providing useful practice tools to enhance Suzuki lessons and support the foundation of the repertoire and recordings.
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