Suzuki method
Suzuki decided to develop a teaching method after a conversation with Leonor Michaelis, who was Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Nagoya.
He modeled his method, which he called "Talent Education" (才能教育, sainō kyōiku), after his theories of natural language acquisition.
The essential components of his method spring from the desire to create the "right environment" for learning music, which he also believed would foster excellent character in every student.
However, some of the technical concepts Suzuki taught his own students, such as the development of "tonalization," were so essential to his way of teaching that they have been carried over into the entire method.
Suzuki literature also deliberately leaves out many technical instructions and exercises found in the beginners' music books of his day.
These arrangements are drawn from folk tunes and from composers such as Bach, Dvořák, Beethoven, Handel, Paganini, Boccherini and Brahms.
Volumes 4 to 10 continue the graded selection by incorporating 'standard' or 'traditional' student violin solos by composers such as Seitz, Vivaldi, Bach, Veracini, Corelli, Dittersdorf, Rameau, Handel, Mozart and Fiocco.
The Suzuki Association of the Americas' supplemental repertoire list includes pieces by composers such as Bach, Kreisler, Elgar, Bartok, Shostakovich and Copland.
The viola books introduce shifting and work in higher positions earlier than the violin volumes, in anticipation of viola students being asked to play in ensembles sooner in their studies than violinists, and needing these skills to better handle orchestral or chamber music parts (Preucil, 1985).
Volumes 4 to 8 include works by Telemann, Casadesus, Bach, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Leclair, Hummel, and Bruch.
Volumes 4 to 10 contain works by composers such as Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns, Popper, Breval, Goltermann, Squire, Bach, Paradis, Eccles, Fauré, van Goens, Sammartini, Haydn and Boccherini.
As one progresses to the second volume, there are pieces written by romantic, classical and baroque composers, such as Schumann, Beethoven and Bach.
The new volumes are collections of piano repertoire from all eras representing works by composers such as Mozart, Burgmüller, Beethoven, Bach, Tcherepnin, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Daquin, Grieg, Granados, Villa-Lobos, Scarlatti, Handel, Bartók, and Debussy.
Book and CD combinations for the revised volumes 4 to 7 were performed by Japanese concert artist Seizo Azuma.
Volume 3 contains some new transcriptions of jazz, Gaelic, and folk songs; plus works by Handel, Gossec, Beethoven, Bach, Webster, Saint-Saëns, and Dvořák.
Famous pieces include: "The Elephant" from Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns, Ode to Joy by Beethoven, and "Largo" from the New World Symphony by Dvořák.
The classical guitar repertoire was compiled through a collaborative process involving teachers from the United States, Europe and Australia, and edited by Frank Longay.
The nine volumes begin with Twinkle Variations and many folk songs, and adds pieces originally written for the lute in the Renaissance, and spanning all musical time periods, including pieces by Sanz, Vivaldi, Bach, Carcassi, Giuliani, Sor, Tarrega, Albéniz, Mudarra, and Yocoh's Sakura Variations.
This series ultimately leads to more in-depth study of the pedal harp and its repertoire and teaches more of a classical style technique.
Developed in Finland since 1986, the vocal repertoire of the Suzuki method has spread to over 20 countries including The United States, Australia, Europe, Asia and New Zealand.
Rather than focusing on a specific instrument, at the stage of early childhood education (ECE), a Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) curriculum for (pre-instrumental) ECE was developed within the Suzuki philosophy by Dorothy & Sharon Jones (SAA), Jeong Cheol Wong (ASA), Emma O'Keefe (PPSA), Anke van der Bijl (ESA), and Yasuyo Matsui (TERI).
In his youth, Shin'ichi Suzuki chanced to hear a phonograph recording of Franz Schubert's Ave Maria, as played on violin by Mischa Elman.
Gripped by the beauty of the music, he immediately picked up a violin from his father's factory and began to teach himself to play the instrument "by ear".
While there, he studied privately with Karl Klingler, but did not receive any formal degree past his high school diploma.
John D. Kendall of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville brought the Suzuki method, along with adaptations to better fit the requirements of the American classroom, to the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Nurtured by Love Documentary).
Other pioneers of the Suzuki Method in the US include Clifford Cook, Roland and Almita Vamos, Elizabeth and Harlow Mills, Betty Haag, Louise Behrend, Dorothy Roffman, William Starr, Anastasia Jempelis, and Margery Aber.
