Talent is Created

We are preparing for the Playathon on March 16th. This event has three components:  Practicing - Fundraising - Performing!  Some of our students and teachers are in the midst of their 100-day practice challenge. For others, they may only be taking part in the ten-day practicing leading up to the Playathon.  We ask our participants to commit to practicing certain pieces with the guidance of their teacher, asking their friends and relatives to support their efforts with a small donation to our scholarship fund, and performing on March 16th at the Shops at Chestnut Hill between 12 noon and 6 pm.  The performance has been an all school effort with six hours of continuous music and this unusual venue has been loads of fun for many students. 

At the heart of this event is learning that our practicing and music making has meaning.  We can help others by learning how to play an instrument: we share music with the community, but we can raise funds from others who recognize the hard work that students put into their practicing and to performing in public. With this event, we hope students learn of their own value to society and the care they can have for others. Learning these values can bring great joy and satisfaction to the student.

As Suzuki music teachers we look to motivate our students to practice in many different ways. The Playathon is one of these.  Practicing is the source of developing "talent."

The practicing habits taught in the Suzuki pedagogy is backed by science.  Dr. Suzuki said, "talent is extreme ability. It comes from knowledge plus 10,000 times." The knowledge is what students gain from the Suzuki lessons.  The Suzuki teachers demonstrate to the student how to play, how to learn a new technique, and how to make beautiful tone. Then the student must practice at home with many repetitions.  Dr. Suzuki was not kidding when he said that after 10,000 times, the skill becomes so easy it seems effortless to the onlooker.  This, of course, only came about with hard work. The seemingly effortlessness of the skill is what audiences call "talent." As we all know, a lot of work went into acquiring a high skill level. The repetition of small steps that then combine into more complex skills is how talent is created. At the Suzuki School of Newton, that is happening in all our classes, lessons and in the preschool.  We are developing talented individuals by nurturing the skills and encouraging many repetitions (practicing) until the skill becomes effortless. We believe that all children, all students can develop talent depending upon the amount of time they are willing to put into practicing.

In the book, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, the science behind highly developed skill levels involves the production of myelin. In layman's terms this is like insulation that is wrapped around nerve fibers. The repetition of precise movements builds more layers of myelin around the nerve fibers.  The thicker the myelin, the faster the nerves can "fire up" and thus be efficiently guiding the complex movements related to playing a musical instrument.  This science explains why we break down the steps of any skill into very clear steps that then must be practiced via repetitions. Good practice is building more layers of myelin.  

The precision of the movement and its exact repetition is why we say to students to practice slowly.  We need to use the same movement, same fingerings, same bowings, so that we are accumulating the same pathway.  Changing fingerings, playing wrong notes, playing different bowings is not repeating exactly the same neurological path. Thus it does not build more insulating myelin, and the skill does not develop.  However, if precision is obtained by slow and careful practice, the myelin gets thicker, the nerve fibers "fire up" quicker, and the speed comes automatically. 

Of course, it is hard for children to be patient and to slow down when practicing.  Thus, we rely on the Suzuki parents to be our advocates at home for slow, careful practice.  The encouragement that every correctly repeated small step adds one more step towards building up the myelin is essential to learning.  This is applicable to any skill--not just music instrument learning. It applies to learning any sport or even learning how to draw!  Our mission is to teach a love of music and of learning.  The best way we can achieve this is by acknowledging that each small success will lead to more successes and the building up of layers of myelin. In this process, we are creating talent.