Does anyone teach their kids PIANO on their own?

[huskies]

Hi


Is anyone familiar with Suzuki Piano School? Never enjoyed my piano lessons as a child, bugged my dad to let me quit after grade 3. I was the type of student who only practised enough to get through the next lesson without too much scolding from the teacher and 'chiong' to get through the next exam. :roll: Finally got my way with only grade 8 to go. 'O' levels was the ultimate excuse. Hardly touched the piano after that. Now I regret it immensely!

Trying to teach my 4 year old to play. So far have taught him simple songs that he likes to sing. But want a more systematic approach. Read about Suzuki piano method. Has anyone tried this method?

Thanks for sharing!

[toddles]

Have heard of suzuki violin teaching methods but first time I’m hearing about it being applied to piano. I suppose it started out with violin and now has been applied to piano too…

[jce]

Suzuki is about "drilling" so for example, a simple tune like Twinkle twinkle, is repeated again and again in different time values. I personally am not very fond of it, but this method may work for some. I only use Suzuki method with certain students when deemed necessary.

[peanut_butter]

jce:

I only use Suzuki method with certain students when deemed necessary.

JCE,
:? I am interested in the piano Suzuki method. Could you please elaborate which type of students you would apply the method on?

Thanks.

[jce]

Normally I use this method on students who need plenty of drilling, need the repetition (and don’t mind the repetition), and whose rhythm is weak.

[phankao]

jce:

Suzuki is about \"drilling\" so for example, a simple tune like Twinkle twinkle, is repeated again and again in different time values. I personally am not very fond of it, but this method may work for some. I only use Suzuki method with certain students when deemed necessary.

I'm looking at the Suzuki Piano book now. It's interesting how it starts off teaching the beginner with \"High C\" note instead of \"Middle C\". This is unlike violin where they start with A, which is a basic note for violin.

[peanut_butter]

phankao:

I'm looking at the Suzuki Piano book now. It's interesting how it starts off teaching the beginner with \"High C\" note instead of \"Middle C\". This is unlike violin where they start with A, which is a basic note for violin.

Hi Phankao,
Do you mind sharing your story after you go through a few pieces with your students? I wonder if I should use it if I had 4.5 years old student.

[jce]

Phankao, you’re right, it’s something I don’t quite understand as well (which explains why I don’t choose Suzuki method as my norm). Middle c is much easier to recognise than the high c. But the main focal point of Suzuki method is repetition and rhythm, not so much note reading.

[phankao]

peanut_butter:

phankao:

I'm looking at the Suzuki Piano book now. It's interesting how it starts off teaching the beginner with \"High C\" note instead of \"Middle C\". This is unlike violin where they start with A, which is a basic note for violin.

Hi Phankao,
Do you mind sharing your story after you go through a few pieces with your students? I wonder if I should use it if I had 4.5 years old student.

LOLz, I'm not a piano teacher. I'm just exploring the various methods for my 2yo. And I did look at a copy of the Suzuki piano book.

I have been reading several books written by suzuki currently, and find his philosophy interesting. To put a child on the \"mother tongue\" approach - to have it work is really a rather purist approach. Cannot really say it's \"repetition\". Have to really relate to how a child learns his own mother tongue.

Like one of the questions my dh said was \"what if the child does not like to learn piano/violin?\". Under the \"mother tongue approach\", a child never refuses to learn his own mother tongue, right? The language that he is spoken to since birth? So Suzuki was using this approach to music learning. A child learns and sees from infancy - that's the most ideal.

It's the environment. Like Suzuki believes - there is no \"in-born talent , all talent is nurtured\". Like if Mozart was brought up by parents who sang out-of-tune lullabies to him, he'd not have been as well brought-up musically as he was.

The idea of Suzuki method being repetition is possibly bc to \"create the environment\", parents are encouraged to let the child listen, listen, listen, and watch, watch, watch, observe lots so that becomes part of the child's world. It becomes something that is not \"practice\", but part of their life. Just like how they do not find learning their mother tongue a drudgery (and yeah, we're not talking about learning chinese here, which can be like a 2nd language to some of us! *hahah*!). Think of the japanese environment where Jap/Jap dialect is their mother tongue.

[peanut_butter]

phankao:

The idea of Suzuki method being repetition is possibly bc to \"create the environment\", parents are encouraged to let the child listen, listen, listen, and watch, watch, watch, observe lots so that becomes part of the child's world. It becomes something that is not \"practice\", but part of their life. Just like how they do not find learning their mother tongue a drudgery (and yeah, we're not talking about learning chinese here, which can be like a 2nd language to some of us! *hahah*!). Think of the japanese environment where Jap/Jap dialect is their mother tongue.

Wow Phankao, I have a lot of respect for you and those Japanese parents for the commitment in something that seem so unimportant to the society. My previous piano instructor was trained in Suzuki method. She blamed her weak sight-reading and some other problems on her Suzuki teacher. But she's such a good pianist, it's very difficult to have me convinced.