Shinichi Suzuki

The Suzuki Experience

From one Suzuki parent to another

practice

How slow can you go

Of the hundreds of practice techniques at our disposal, one rules them all.

Alan Duncan

3 minutes read

When I was a teenager, I learned the Prelude and Fugue in C# from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. It’s a brisk, joyful work, though the fugue is incredibly tricky because of the key. As usual, I flew through it at breakneck speed heedless of my teacher’s pleas to take in all the details. Flash forward decades and the pandemic finds me sitting at the keyboard relearning a lot of these works from my youth. It has been fascinating rediscovering overlooked details, considering…

No instrument? No problem!

One of the most frequent questions that comes up online is what to do if you cannot practice with your instrument. Here's a handful of tips about practicing without an instrument.

Alan Duncan

3 minutes read

Suzuki said to only practice on the days you eat. It must have been his wry way to say: “Practice every day.” That is sound advice; and in reality, there is so much progress to be made by practicing every day. But life intervenes. We’ve been practicing for many many days now. But twice during that stretch, my daughter had to practice without an instrument because it was simply not safe to bring her instrument into the back-country where she was on a school trip.

Finding the recipe for success

Artistry comes from finding the right recipe of contradictory ingredients in the practice room.

Alan Duncan

3 minutes read

“Go in front of a mirror with your instrument, look at yourself and tell yourself what recipe, from several contradictory elements will make you the best artist. The ingredients are repetition vs spontaneity. Relaxation vs control. Confidence vs humility. After all, technical discipline does bring us artistic freedom. We just have to figure out on any given day what the recipe is to make us the best artist we can be.”

Trust the process

Confidence comes from knowing that your route will take you where you want to go.

Alan Duncan

4 minutes read

Confidence comes from knowing that your route will take you where you want to go. Whether it’s about the mastery of a certain piece of music or about the long road to become a confident player, it’s about trusting that the process will get you there.

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The Suzuki Experience is a weblog focused on helping parents practice more effectively and joyfully with their children. It traces the progress of our experience from beginner to budding young artist.