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.
When someone asks me - what’s the most important part of Suzuki talent education? I always answer the same way.
A perpetual search for novelty in practice revealed some cool ways to use real-time audio recording to enhance practice.
As a Suzuki parent, whose own musical training happened to by very traditional, I’m fascinated by how effective listening can be. When kids begin listening at a very early age and continue to listen to their repertoire consistently they develop an almost “sixth sense” about playing.
Listening to the reference recordings of the repertoire is a core element of the Suzuki method of talent education. And it’s a core determinant of progress because listening consistently means having a more clearly defined aural target in mind as you approach a piece. Teachers tell me that it is easy to discern a student who listens regularly because they have a seemingly more innate understanding of the pieces they are working on.
