Listening
Listening to music is critical to your child’s growth as a musician. The Suzuki approach relies heavily on the listening component. There are two forms of listening: passive and active. Passive listening involves playing music in the background and not much attention is dedicated to what is being played. Active listening is when one concentrates on the music, and/or moving, clapping, singing back, conducting with the music.
Why we Listen:
Children learn words after hearing them spoken hundreds of times by others. Dr Suzuki recognized this as a way for children learn to speak their native language with ease. He began to use the basic principles of language acquiring to the learning of music, and called his method the mother-tongue approach. Listening to music every day is vital, especially to the Suzuki literature so the child knows them instantly. Listening is the single most thing a parent can do to make their child learn rapidly and effortlessly. Without listening, it becomes very challenging for the child to progress. Listening to the Suzuki literature is one of the cornerstones of the Suzuki approach.
When children are constantly listening to the literature their brains are retaining the musical memory better thus will be learning the music faster. Regardless if they are listening attentively, they are listening! Dr Suzuki shares in one of his books how a younger sibling who had never performed a specific piece for him (she had listened to the music endlessly and her older sibling playing it), at a lesson one day and performed the piece by rote the first time through with no errors.
How to Listen:
It is valuable (and supportive) to recognize that the Suzuki Bk 1 CD is at the most 30 minutes long. Listen at any moment possible and allow it to be accessible as possible. Buy the music on iTunes! Put the music on your mobile device, tablet, and/or laptop and listen to it as the child and/or parent moves around the house, so it is always an available. Play it while driving in the car to anywhere and/or eating food! Fill your child’s ears with the Suzuki literature on repeat and there is no doubt that progress will be seen/heard!
Happy listening!