Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site linus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!hao!seismo!cmcl2!philabs!linus!sidney From: sidney@linus.UUCP (Sidney Markowitz) Newsgroups: net.kids Subject: Re: music lessons for young children Message-ID: <1244@linus.UUCP> Date: Fri, 1-Feb-85 14:46:12 EST Article-I.D.: linus.1244 Posted: Fri Feb 1 14:46:12 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 6-Feb-85 03:17:32 EST References: Reply-To: sidney@linus.UUCP (Sidney Markowitz) Distribution: net Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA Lines: 77 Summary: This is in response to the request for info on music lessons for young kids: My daughter began violin lessons using the Suzuki Method, at age 5. Here's what I know about it: The Suzuki method is being applied to the teaching of piano, violin and cello. Typically, children begin lessons at the age of 3 in Japan and at 4 in the United States. I was told that the child can begin as soon as (s)he demonstrates a sufficient attention span for the lessons and practice. The difference in the most common starting age reflects some cultural differences between here and Japan in the matter of discipline and socialization (Or so I've been told - feel free to take that with a grain of salt.) The school where my daughter took lessons said that they would start kids on the Suzuki method up to age 8. There were older kids there who had been studying for some years. Suzuki emphasizes training the sensitivity of the child to sound, tonal quality, nuance. Children begin almost immediately playing simple tunes, in contrast to scales and similar drills. Even before the child starts lessons, the parent initiates the regular playing of a recording of the Suzuki lessons. By the time the child starts to learn how to play, there is already deeply reinforced the memory of how the songs are supposed to sound. You don't sit the kid down and say "Listen to this record." It simply is something that is played in the background every day, or that is listened to the way other music is. Another benefit that I saw was the delight my daughter demonstrated when she heard the familiar songs coming from her teachers, and then her own, violin. With violin and cello, students go through a series of sizes of instruments. We rented a quarter-sized student violin from a store that the school recommended. The idea is that the relative size of the instrument stays more constant as the child grows. There was one private lesson and one group lesson per week. Lessons were about 45 minutes long. A parent is expected to participate in regular practice, also. I found it a good way to learn a little bit of violin myself, although that is not strictly necessary. I'm sure you could find more details about the Suzuki method from a school or teacher. If you have any difficulty finding one, I'm sure I can get a reference for any particular part of the country through the school here. My experiences with music lessons: We chose violin over piano mainly because of the expense of getting a piano for practice. We dropped the lessons after about 6 months, because Saana did not want to practice and eventually did not want to go to classes without having practiced. To put this in perspective, she was also taking ballet lessons and was very enthusiastic about that. Her best friend at the music school had dropped ballet lessons and was enthusiastic about violin in an analogous fashion. So the moral there is that the interests of the child will be important. However, I can think of several things that might have led to her being more successful with the music lessons: First, if we had begun the lessons earlier, at age 4, I think she would have more readily acepted a regular schedule of practice as being play instead of work. Also, I think I was a bit too much of a perfectionist during practice sessions, not realizing that it wasn't up to me to teach her the right way of playing the violin, that was the teacher's job during the lessons. It would have been better for me to have the role of scheduler and appreciative audience. Finally, it was a mistake to expect her to practice after coming home from after-school daycare. Those were long days for a 5 year old with two parents working full time. Of course, all that would have been irrelevant if playing music occupied the same place in her life as dance does. Saana is now learning to play recorder, as her school starts all children in that in first grade. It is a much less intensive experience than violin was, and she is taking well to it. The school makes other instruments available to the children in third or fourth grade. So music is still part of her life, reminding me that there are always alternative ways when raising a child. I hope this helps those of you who are thinking of providing music lessons for your child. -- Sidney Markowitz ARPA: sidney@mit-mc UUCP: ...{decvax,utzoo,philabs,security,allegra,genrad}!linus!sidney