If you refer back to my "Suzuki vs. Traditional" post you'll see that the first step in the Mother-Tongue Method is listening. I cannot express how important this step is in the natural learning process of your child, especially when using the Suzuki Method. Here are a few simple reasons why and some examples of how listening ensures success.
Listening ensures success through continual progress. Have you or your children ever taken dance classes? I never have, but I know that dance instructors don't have their students read descriptions of steps and sequences in order to teach them to dance. They have their students watch and imitate. The same goes for any type of music. As an accomplished musician you should always know how to count and read music, but it's definitely easier to grasp a complex rhythm, such as are used in popular music today, when you've heard it! Children are sponges, they imitate what they hear and see, both good and bad. If my students are listening to their CD on a daily basis then I can assure you that their progress will be consistent. I would even go so far as to say that listening to the CD is more important than practicing!
Listening ensures success in new material. When starting a new song with one of my students, I can always tell if they've been listening to the CD at home on a daily basis. Students who have been listening pick up the melodies of new songs effortlessly, usually with just a few tips from me such as which fingers to use and what note to start on. This is because the direction of the melodies have been in their ears for months. They know what's coming next.
Listening ensures success with review. A couple of summers ago the mother of one of my students was worried that their extended summer vacation, which would include a lot of camping but no access to a piano, would send her and her daughter backwards in the hard fought progress they had seen the previous year. I challenged them to listen to the CD as much as possible while away, and whenever they had a piano to only focus on review. They came back in the fall not having lost any progress at all!
Listening prepares younger siblings for success. I love teaching families of two or more because everything seems to be easier for the second sibling. My favorite example of this was with a family whose son, Adam, started at the age of 5, and a year later their 4 year old daughter, Anna, started lessons. During that first year when Adam was taking lessons, Anna would eagerly come to lessons, not to play, not to see me, but to sit right by the piano with her dad and watch Adam's lessons. They told me she did the same thing at home while he was practicing. When Anna finally got her chance to take lessons she already knew how all of the songs sounded, how to sit in lessons and pay attention, and that practicing at home should happen every day. Every week she astounded me with how easily she learned new songs, how careful she was to have excellent technique, and how attentive she was in her lessons, all because of the year of listening she'd had prior to starting her own lessons.
If you don't already listen to your Suzuki CD every day, I challenge you to do it for one week and look for changes in how your child practices.
Some good places and times to listen are:
- in the car,
- in the morning while you're all getting ready for work or school,
- while your child is doing homework,
- at night while they're falling asleep.
Try to make the listening active by asking your child:
- "what song do you like best?"
- "do you recognize any songs from the end of the CD?"
- "which songs would you most like to learn?"
I hope this has adequately emphasized the importance of listening. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments by contacting me at dunkirksuzuki@gmail.com.
Happy listening!
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