The Suzuki Method was founded by Japanese violinist, Shinichi Suzuki. Also called the "mother-tongue" approach, the Suzuki Method follows the same basic steps that enable children to learn their native language: exposure to the sounds of their language in the environment, imitation, encouragement and reinforcement by their parents, repetition, and refinement of the basics. The Suzuki Method has been developed for piano, violin, viola, cello, flute, guitar, recorder, voice and Early Childhood education.

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The Suzuki Method is a family approach to learning to play an instrument. It creates a "learning triangle" between teacher, parent and student. The parent learns along with the child and does not need to have previous musical training. The parent attends all lessons with the child and assists the child with the assigned practice every day at home. The parent is responsible for playing the recordings of the repertoire the child is learning every day at home as much as possible in order to create the musical immersion environment required for the most successful learning experience. Just as children learn to speak their language very well before learning to read words, music note-reading is delayed until the child has achieved fluency playing their instrument.



For more information about the Suzuki Method visit the Suzuki Association of the Americas website.