Dr. Suzuki extends this philosophy to music: all children are musically talented and should be educated. Educators only need to embrace the learning needs of each child and allow each child to achieve a level of musical achievement.
Dr. Suzuki promotes what he calls the Mother Tongue method. From birth, the child will try to imitate the environment around her. This includes all things positive and negative. A child who is immersed in a language will master it well before reaching school age. Dr. Suzuki suggests taking the same approach with music or any other subject matter we desire a child to master. He called his approach, "Talent Education." The correlations that Dr. Suzuki draws between language and music learning can be summarized in the following table:
Language Learning |
Suzuki Music Training |
| A child listens to language for up to 2 years before speaking much. | A child listens to music from birth. |
| When the child starts to speak even one word, the parents offer strong encouragement. | When the child starts lessons, the parents offer strong encouragement. |
| Parents and teachers review and correct a child's language as he continues to study. | Music pieces are reviewed daily to build a foundation of technical and musical excellence. |
| All children learn the language. | All children master the instrument. |
The following points summarize the principles of Talent Education:
- There is no admission test for children into a Talent
Education program. The only prerequisite is that parents are willing to
work and follow the program. - Talent Education should start early within a child's life.
Initially we create an environment of listening and modeling. As soon
as the child is ready, we start with lessons. - Parents are an integral part of the Teacher Student Parent
triangle necessary for Talent Education. Parents play the most
important role in helping create the environment for proper learning
and in helping teach the child the basics. - Reading of music at the instrument is not taught until
after the ear and performance technique are developed. (Children can
start learning to read music away from the instrument from the very
beginning, as a separate process form learning to perform. In learning
language, babies and children play with alphabet blocks, learn to
recognize letters, and memorize the alphabet long before applying these
skills to reading.)Skills are taught step by step, and each step must
be mastered along the whole process. - It is easier for a child to master a technique on a piece
that has already been learned instead of a new (and probably more
difficult) work that is being learned. Hence, review of pieces on a
daily basis is fundamental to Talent Education. - The child is exposed to the material being taught
repeatedly and in as many different ways as possible. - It is imperative that the child have the best environment
possible for learning. The child should listen to high quality
performances of music on high quality equipment. The child should have
the proper tools (instruments, foot stools, etc.) available, and the
student should be surrounded by excellent models (parents, teachers,
fellow students, accomplished performers, and by people in their lives
who are passionate about music).