Suzuki Violin - Discussion

[Courage]

From my past experience, Suzuki Method is more suitable for kids 3-4 years of age as a start. The more important thing at this stage is to learn the technique of holding the violin and the bow properly and how to play songs with the bow straight. All this technique requires a period of time of practice. Moreover, at this stage learning to play score will be very dry and boring.


Once they are matured enough to read scores, says age 4/5, they may convert to individual lesson and start to learn scores.

Any private violin teacher will be able to teach Suzuki Method base on the Suzuki Violin books.

My kid had no problem when converting to learn scores at 5. It all depends on the individual whether the kid is ready or not.

My other kid started violin lesson at 5 but had no problem learning scores straight away.

[buds]

Yes, Suzuki starts off the basic with numbers.

I suppose this makes it easier for the children
to learn more variety of songs in a shorter time
frame, which indirectly boosts confidence in
children to maintain interest to play and practise.

But, mind you… This method requires more home
practise and yes, i agree, playing along to the piano
really really helps. Hubs does all the training on this
one. He’s the musician at home. But being good at
music does not equal one to be good at teaching it.
Really takes patience to teach music what with all the
beansprouts and all (music notes)! Tho, he does lose
patience at times when P2 gives up so easily, his
firmness has resulted in her playing much much better.

These "musician" of mine gets frustrated when one
can’t "listen" to music. I always remind him, doesn’t
mean he has the ear for it, that it genetically trickles
the gift into P2.

He reali got those "rat’s ears" man!

Sometimes, i pity P2 but cannot succumb to do the
intervention during practise when P2 seems to begin
crumbling… Not my call. Hehee…

I just remind hub… firm yes, but not to the extent of
allowing for an opportunity for P2 to use a reason
to give up and think she is a failure. (at violin)

[phankao]

smurf:

I called crestar yesterday. I think for 45 mins, they charged $248 per 10 lessons (round off) which is quite reasonable compared to Mandeville. The latter charged $424 i think? But class is conducted by the principal lah.


I heard Mandeville quite established, but super expensive lor. Mac Music School charged about the same price, if not more expensive, than mandeville.

So anyone got experience with either of these, or any hearsay?? Which better?

- Mandeville
- Mac's
- Crestar Jurong East

Or.....private suzuki tutor? eg. I heard someone's child takes 1-on-1 lessons with Mr Kang at Jurong East Crestar from 3yo.

Oh, and I'm asking about it being good for very young, like starting at 2years or 3 years.

[metz]

Hi Smurf,


In the beginning, it's so difficult to get them to practise more than 15 mins. Always complained about feet pain, chest pain, shoulder pain etc... But as time goes on, they are able to take longer period of practices. 100 times, of course not in one go lah. They are allowed to rest in between or practise at different times of the day. Too bad, I wasn't disciplined enough :oops:

Sama sama here. My son thought the violin make beautiful sound. Now he knows it's hard to play the instrument well. I understand what you mean about not knowing his preference. My friend's son wanted drum lessons but gave up half way. Now he is requesting for guitar.

Yup, Mr Kang is great teacher but he expects a lot of discipline and perseverance from his students and their parents. Another teacher to keep in mind is Mrs Lauw. She usually takes students aged 3-4.


Hi MommyNg,

Piano accompaniment is a great idea! Will certainly try to find someone to play along with him. He loves playing along with the CD. Pros - his fingers can move faster and he's more in tune with the song. Cons - his bow hand cannot keep up with the tempo, often resulting the bow in moving like a wiper. Also, I realise the pitching suffer too. My greatest headache is his pitching. He knows where his notes are but pitch can either be high or low.

Thanks for the encouragement. Actually, I was close to giving up a while ago. But my son refused to quit. So, I have resolved to stand by him


Hi Phankao,

My kids are taking 1-1 lessons with Mr Kang. My younger child started at 3 yrs 4 mths old. I'm not sure about the long term effects. But according to what I know, the earlier a child is exposed to music via suzuki, the easier for them to pick up.

But if you are intending to get Mr Kang for 1-1 lessons, be prepared to work harder. It's usually at a pace much faster than group lessons.

[phankao]

chamonix:

<snip>...

Yup, Mr Kang is great teacher but he expects a lot of discipline and perseverance from his students and their parents. Another teacher to keep in mind is Mrs Lauw. She usually takes students aged 3-4.

....<snip>....

Hi Phankao,
My kids are taking 1-1 lessons with Mr Kang. My younger child started at 3 yrs 4 mths old. I'm not sure about the long term effects. But according to what I know, the earlier a child is exposed to music via suzuki, the easier for them to pick up.

But if you are intending to get Mr Kang for 1-1 lessons, be prepared to work harder. It's usually at a pace much faster than group lessons.

Not really afraid of hard work, since BTDT - all our children play musical instruments, including 1 violinist gr8, jus never start so young before. Now I'm checking around for trs for toddlers. We would want nothing less than a good effective & daring teacher. Our boy's curr violin tr doesn't do suzuki, n is not suitable for toddlers/preschoolers.

Heard that Sylvia khoo of mandeville is good too?

[smurf]

Mr Kang only teaches at Jurong East right? That's too far for me.

[mommyNg]

Hi Chamonix,


Great to hear that playing along with the CD works!!! You may already be doing this, perhaps you may want to devote some part of his practice session to work on just on his bow hand and pitch without playing along with the CD? I hope I'm not giving you possibly spurious ideas... how about changing the tempo of the songs? Otherwise, just treat playing-along-with-the-CD as a bonus lor.... :D. As for pitch, does his violin teacher talk about working on tonalization with him? It should help with getting the right pitch.

Your son's resolution to learning the violin is half the battle won!

[smurf]

Is it necessary for 4 year old to go through Suzuki method, or can they already read notes (aka beansprouts words)? :?

[phankao]

chamonix:

In the beginning, it's so difficult to get them to practise more than 15 mins. Always complained about feet pain, chest pain, shoulder pain etc... But as time goes on, they are able to take longer period of practices. 100 times, of course not in one go lah. They are allowed to rest in between or practise at different times of the day. Too bad, I wasn't disciplined enough :oops:

Hah, tell me about it. Even my 10year old was into the feet pain, shoulder pain, body itchy, head hot. That was when I was trying to get him to be serious in the last few weeks before his exam. The practices were not long per se, just that I don't like to waste time, so I wanted him to be serious and *chop* *chop* during the practice (I was the accompanist *LOL*). :x :x :x Luckily he did well, so being strict was not so bad after all, lah. I'm all for serious but short practices - efficiency & quality practices.

[phankao]

chamonix:

Sama sama here. My son thought the violin make beautiful sound. Now he knows it's hard to play the instrument well. I understand what you mean about not knowing his preference. My friend's son wanted drum lessons but gave up half way. Now he is requesting for guitar.

Violin is probably one of the most difficult instrument to learn. Intonation is soooooo important. We sure endured lots of the cat scratching sounds when our boy first started. :stupid: :!: