The Art of Listening (9/22/23)

I believe that we live in a world that is filled with visual stimulation.  From texting on your phone to working on a computer, we are filled with activities that require our eyes. As is well documented by research, the earliest and strongest sense in infants is hearing.  While we are focused on having young children draw and color, children themselves can be drawn to sound like hearing a story, listening to music, hearing their parents' voices.  This sensitivity to sound enables children to learn how to speak and to learn the language spoken at home or multiple languages of their environment. 

We believe that music is a language. Dr. Suzuki used this tendency for children to respond well to sound, by encouraging families to create a musical environment at home.  Music that is played softly in the background becomes a part of the environment, and encourages comfort and emotions when connected to family life. Some families have music in the home because people in the family actually play music themselves.  This was the case of Mozart and Beethoven who had family members as professional musicians. Thus, as part of the Suzuki pedagogy we ask that parents play music at home.  One way to do this is to download the Suzuki repertoire directly to their phones and computers and play it back over bluetooth speakers. This is our modern technology, but not the only way to listen to the Suzuki repertoire.

Dr. Suzuki believed that one should surround oneself with experts.  It is in fact important that beginners be exposed to the best in their field.  For that reason, with the Suzuki pedagogy we suggest that parents purchase professionally recorded performances of the Suzuki repertoire.  We also suggest that parents consider going to professional symphony concerts of the highest caliber.  Many of our faculty are professional performing musicians, and we showcase these musicians in our faculty concerts (upcoming 11/18/23).  We have two members of our faculty who perform with the Wellesley Symphony who have a concert on October 1.  If a child listens to their Suzuki pieces every day, their ear becomes more and more refined and then the ability to learn their own repertoire is much faster.  Listening to good tone, perfect intonation, and articulation of phrases allows the student to hear these aspects of the music internally.  When I listen to violin music, I listen for the different sound that an upbow or a downbow can create....without having to think.  The strong and weak emphasis that comes from bowings can be learned simply by hearing and feeling the music.

In October we are launching a school-wide "Listening Challenge".  We are going to grow a Dr. Suzuki "caterpillar" and see how much listening we can do.  We will send out the details next week, and we can all participate in Listening every day!

Sachiko Isihara

Executive Director

Suzuki School of Newton