A reading course for Suzuki Piano students

Upon reflection from having taught piano lessons for years, I feel strongly that the Suzuki concept provides the most natural approach to teaching. Students learn to play by listening, imitating, and continually reviewing previously learned material. Every possible effort is made to adapt to the playing of the instrument the learning process of one's native spoken language, including active involvement of the parents. This is generally referred to as the "mother tongue" approach. Suzuki students who respond well to the Suzuki approach often display exttaordinary advancement in musical imagination, expressive and communicative power, and technical ability.

Children are taught to read and write only after they have gained considerable command of their spoken language. Likewise, in the Suzuki approach, the traditional practice of teaching beginning students to read music is postponed until much later, when the student has already acquired a relatively high level of performance skills. While the fundamental concept is sound, questions about when to inttoduce reading and what methods to use remain. A preponderance of Suzuki piano teachers concur that reading should only be taught when a student can play with polished refinement all the pieces in volume one of the Suzuki Piano School. At this point, in the absence of specific materials, teachers invariably adopt one or more of the traditional beginning piano courses. For instance, Madam Kataoka, the co-author of the Suzuki Piano School, advocates Emest Van de Velde's Method Rose, a dated method book pubHshed in 1947. Alternatively, Bigler and Lloyd-Watts, leading Suzuki piano teachers and co-authors of Studying Suzuki Piano: More than Music, recommend Frances Clark's Music Tree.