My best advice for parents of new violinists (those parents who don't play the violin) is to learn to play "Twinkle" on your own violin and perform for a small crowd! I did this and it gave me great insight to the discipline, patience, effort, and sense of accomplishment needed to meet this wonderful challenge.

Try to establish a practice routine early on. 

Also, it's really fun to practice in different locations. Even a different room in the house can be fun.  Don't be afraid to take the instrument in the backyard, camping, or the park (weather permitting). 

Being a Suzuki parent is a lot like being a coach; a coach for a sport that you know very little about.  Each week at your private lesson, you try to learn just enough to be able to work with your child for the upcoming week.  Trying to catch bad habits they may be forming, cheering them on during the rough times and trying to provide correct advice and instruction when they are stuck are just a few of the challenges that you will navigate.  Don't let me scare you off or discourage you, there are great joys and rewards that come from this responsibility as well.  Seeing the excitement on your child's face when they can finally play the "new" song all the way through or watching them play a piece, with such elegance and impeccable technique, while you sit in the audience at a recital; all moments that make it all worth it.

Currently, I have 4 children that are learning to play an instrument using the Suzuki method (2 - violin, 1 - cello, 1 - piano).  I have been working with at least one of my children for 5+ years now and have learned a few tips along the way.  I hope this helps you in some way.

1.  Listen, listen, listen and sing.  There really is no substitute for having your child listen to the pieces played properly.  They progress much faster when they can hear the song in their head as they play and/or can sing it as they play.  I find it helpful to be listening to the piece that they are currently learning and the piece that is on deck.

2.  Build your practice time into your schedule.  After fumbling around for a few years trying to work in practice when it was convenient, I have found that having a set time every day makes it easier on me and my children to get consistent practices.  We all know when it is time to practice and I no longer have to twist arms or bribe my children to practice.

3.  You must be with them when they practice.  I have made the mistake of sending my child off to practice by themselves.  I find that when this happens and there is no accountability that my children do the following:  practice what they like (often whatever they are already good at), give up at the hard parts, spend more time and get less practice, develop bad habits, view practice as a bore / punishment, and once your child spills the beans at the private lesson…. you are busted!  My children have grown to enjoy their undivided attention that they get during this time.

4.  Try to read your child's cue's and don't force the issue.  I have learned that Rome was not built in a day.  "Just one more time" could actually do more damage than good.  If your child has had enough then call it a day.  It is better to do one less repitition today and have an eager learner tomorrow than it is to force a disinterested or defiant child to complete one more repetition today and get a begrudged child tomorrow.  Learning an instrument takes time so don't put to much pressure on yourself.

5.  Don't try to be the expert.  Simply put….because you aren't.  Don't feel the need to be always right.  If you don't know, say so….if you are wrong, admit it.  I know I am not a music expert and even if I were, the odds that I am expert at Violin, Cello and Piano would be slim.  Figure it out together and if you are stuck, make a note and be sure to ask your question at the next private lesson.

6.  Equipment Tips.  If the instrument sounds out of tune, it probably is.  Stop and tune it so your child is not learning to hear the incorrect notes.  Also, if you have an instrument that has a case, figure out a way to safely store the instrument that does not include putting it back in the case.  This makes the beginning and ending of your practice time  quicker and more efficient and also allows for impromptu playing during the day if there are only a few minutes to spare.

7.  Get your child in a group.  Most cities should have Suzuki groups available for your child.  This is a chance for your child to play their instrument with other kids at varying skill levels.  You child gets to feel apart of a team, learn from others, share their accomplishments, and maybe most importantly, make friends with other kids who play their same instrument and realize they are not "the only one" and it is "cool" to play an instrument.

8.  Have your own concerts.  Nothing is more motivating to my children than playing a concert for Grandma and Grandpa or their cousins.  Allowing them to showcase their new talent in a loving environment in front of people that they love and want to please is very rewarding.

9.  Find videos online to share with your child.  It was very motivating for my kids to, from time to time, show them a video on youtube of someone playing their instrument.  I vividly remember watching two guys play "Smooth Criminal" with their cellos and watching a girl who plays the violin and dances at the same time.  This opens up their mind to the possibilities of what lies ahead and it creates the same response as a kid watching a basketball game and wanting to go outside and shoot hoops.

10.  Try to make this about more than your child.  I discovered early on that being a Suzuki parent was going to require some time and dedication.  Why not view this as a learning opportunity for yourself, that you get to share with you child, instead of a sacrifice and investment in your child's future?  I decided that I was going to learn the piano.  Now I view music practices and lessons with my kids as my own music education and who knows, maybe I will be able to play the piano someday, without ever paying for my own lessons!

I hope that one or more of these will help you as you work with you child.  There is no 100% correct way, so if any of my suggestions don't resonate with you then disregard them.  Take them with a grain of salt and figure out what works best for you, your child and your family.

Good Luck

My daughter and I just concluded her first year of Suzuki violin.  Upon the request of her private instructor I put some thought to our first year experience.  In order to contextualize my reflection I will introduce myself:  I am a mother to four children, ages (almost) 7 and younger.  My husband travels a lot for work, so I frequently run the show solo, which means my daily life can be described as controlled chaos.  I have ZERO knowledge of or competency in music of any sort.  I pursued this program for my daughter having heard positive reviews about it and knowing how beneficial music is to child development.  My lacking music knowledge has always bothered me and I did not want to repeat that void for my children, so here we are.

Keeping in mind my non-existent music base of knowledge, I had some struggles during our first year.  The individual nature of the program left me unsure of my daughter’s ‘success’ or achievement.  There is no defined calendar of grade level expectations like you see in school to give you an idea of what your child should be achieving and when.  Given my sense of uncertainty at the beginning I found myself not trusting the process.  I felt a sense of urgency for my daughter to graduate from the box phase, thinking we were moving too slowly and not making progress.  However, now observing the tasks in front of her, I better understand the purpose of the box phase in focusing on form without the distraction of sound. 

My ignorance also impeded my ability to completely understand some directions, vocabulary or expectations of the private or group lesson instructors.  Sometimes I failed to intuit their expectations because I have no base of knowledge with which to do so, but other times when I knew I did not understand my pride was my main obstacle in admitting it and seeking further explanation. Proceeding knowingly ignorant did not do any favors for our subsequent practices.

I was much better about facilitating my daughter’s violin practice than my own during the parent education portion of the program.  The practicing I did opened my eyes to how complex the violin is to play and how much brain power is required to do most anything on it.  That realization helps me be more empathic to my daughter when she encounters new challenges.  It remains humbling when I try to direct and/or correct something about her playing by trying to demonstrate it myself on her violin and cannot. It serves as a good reminder that even though I know what she is supposed to be doing and producing and I am coaching her accordingly, it is not nearly as easily executed as it is coached.

Regular student practice has been crucial in my daughter’s progress this year.  As mentioned before, daily life for us is controlled chaos, and the ‘controlled’ aspect is reliant on routine.  We have to practice regularly enough for it to be part of our ‘routine’ otherwise is gets lost in the mix.  Any time we miss more than one day of practicing my daughter noticeably regresses or loses material she was newly solid on, which sometimes results in a more frustrating practice altogether.  When she feels unsuccessful she loses momentum and enthusiasm going forward and it can be an uphill battle to get out of that rut.  When she feels successful she is eager to practice, so abiding a routine and practicing regularly help keep her morale high and our practice dynamic pleasant. 

My final insight from our first year is the value of good notes from private lessons to guide practice at home.  With age (and children) I have become dependent upon lists and calendars to remember pretty much anything.  Lesson notes serve pretty much the same purpose for me.  On occasion I failed to note something I should have (wrongly assuming I would remember correctly the following day) and then misguided my daughter when practicing at home, for which we were corrected at our subsequent lesson.  She has always been a good sport about my mistakes, but I feel bad to spin her wheels or waste our practice time fixing those unnecessary mistakes that were ingrained over the last week.

All in all, this past year of violin has opened my eyes to the dedication required to learn the instrument; it is truly a commitment on behalf of the student AND the parent. Trust in the process, motivation to learn, ample practice and good notes will help you enormously through your first year, especially if you enter into the program as ignorant as I did.

I have a lot of experience as a violinist, teacher, and student myself.  I'm pretty new at the whole parenting thing, though. My kids are little. 4 years old and 21 months, as of this writing. I'm even newer at the Suzuki parent thing. I started my oldest about a year and a half ago.  

I have learned so much from practicing with my daughter.  I never thought I knew everything when it came to working with kids, but working with her has been eye opening in more ways than I could possibly count. 

I have all parents who come into my studio do a parent education course with me. I have them come to my house for six sessions, more or less, where we discuss my policies, the Suzuki method, how to practice and motivate young children, and finally, how to actually play the violin.  Most of this information that I give parents was gleaned from books and my own teacher training. Some of it is through experience with students. Now I have a whole new perspective on things, though. I can talk to parents AS a parent and tell them what works and doesn't work with my own child.

Here's the thing: my kid is just one kid.  She's my daughter, so she already has a parent with a music background, and she has her own personality. I don't know what it's like to work with EVERY personality. I can't say from experience how to help a shy child or what the Suzuki parent experience is like when you don't know how to play an instrument. I only know what the parents in my studio tell me.

I thought new parents would benefit enormously from hearing stories from other Suzuki parents. I asked a few of my families to write a blog post for me about their own experiences. I am totally blown away by what I've received so far.  I think people will learn far more from these than anything I might have to say.

I will be posting these as I receive them. 
Enjoy!

Me: "Ok, let's start with our singing." 
Olivia: (sings two notes) "Oh, but wait Mommy.... (whispers) I want to do the 'sel'..."
Me: "What's a 'sel'?"
Olivia: "You know..." (sings a scale)
Me: "Oh, a SCALE.  Really, you want to do a scale? OK, I can teach you a scale."
Olivia: "Actually, I can do it all by myself! I figured it out, all by myself!"
(plays an A major scale, with a little help)
Me: "Where did you learn to do that?!?"
Olivia: "Your students!"

She hears my students play scales every day in their lessons, so she hears scales all day every day. It's actually not surprising that she figured it out, but I was floored.  I know she won't be this excited about scales forever, but right now I'm pretty thrilled.

After the scale incident, she took her violin to preschool and played a pretty mean Song of the Wind, complete with hopping fingers, swinging elbows and bow circles.

Suffice it to say, we're in a high period of violin at the moment. I share this (ok, primarily to brag as a mommy...) mainly to illustrate a couple of points:


1. This sounds pretty idealistic, but if you all remember in your parent ed sessions, I told you that you would have high points and low points. This is one of the high points I was talking about. Trust me, we had plenty of low points.  There were many practice sessions where we just played her favorite song once through because I knew she would love it, or we had a concert for Winnie the Pooh and declared it our practice for the day (just last week, actually) or I had to tell her we couldn't practice right now because I don't practice with grouchy people (by the way, a good tactic to get a kid who really doesn't want to practice to suddenly change their tune. Tell them they can't do it and immediately they want to! But the rule stands. I always wait until she's genuinely cheerful before trying again.) There are hills and valleys, and if you just keep in mind how amazing the hills can be, the valleys are easier to get through.


2. It took us a year and a half to get to this point.  And I would consider that pretty fast for a kid who started at 2 and a half.  It really takes a long time and a lot of patience.  


3. We practice every day. I'm not sure how many days we've missed in the year and a half we've been doing this, but it might be less than 5. Certainly less than 10. Some days it's a super short or super easy practice, but we do it every day. Not all of them are ground-breaking, but the routine is there.

Violin is really fun for us right now. I guess another reason I'm sharing this is so I have a written record of this awesome day when we're slogging through Etude.  I just have to keep at it until we get to the next awesome day. 

This is probably the most persistent myth about the Suzuki method, and I encounter it on a regular basis. I recently was in a practice session with a current student and the mom mentioned that when she was doing research into the Suzuki method someone told her Suzuki kids never learn to read music. "But it looks like we're headed in the direction of reading music," she said.  My reply was, all my students, and all of the students of all my colleagues, read music.  We just don't start out doing it that way.

I like to think our goal in every practice session is not to get to the next level, not to progress faster through the repertoire or techniques, and not even gain mastery over what we already know, but to just to keep it fun and interesting.  During the practice session I've come up with a system (working for now, probably won't last forever) where for each smile, "OK Mommy!", and task performed with a good attitude, I put a pony bead into a jar. At the end of the session, we count the beads.

Never underestimate the power of finger puppets! Even when you're just not in the mood to "keep it fun," as we're always told, a finger puppet or two always brings a smile. Here are some ideas.

•Add a new puppet every time you play a song/work on a technique. Elephant likes Twinkle Variation A, Parrot likes the Flower Song. Etc.

•Have an animal puppet roar, meow, bark, or whatever, every time they hear something they like.

•Slip one on the tip of the bow and take it for a ride.

•Put all of them on for a concert.

•Have them dance to the music.

These are just a few ideas. I would love to hear more!

 Practicing with very young students can sometimes be a real challenge.  A two minute practice session can easily stretch out to half an hour or more without actually getting any real practice in. A typical practice session in my house might go like this:

Me: OK, time to practice!
Bun: Rest position!! (spinning around)
Me: Rest position!
Bun: Rest position!! (crawling on the floor like a cat, hands on foot chart)
Me: Rest position!
Bun: Rest position! (Takes a flying leap from across the room, lands on foot chart, loses balance, laughs hysterically)

Repeat the same routine for all 3 activities we're doing. Yes, 3. It shouldn't take more than a minute. But, alas, she's not even 3 yet, and while it might seem like she's just being silly and having fun, what she's actually doing is stalling because she finds the whole thing very intense and intimidating.

Enter the 10 Cheezit Practice Session. Choose 10 Cheezits (or snack of your choice) and put them in a pile on the floor. If you ask her to do something and she does it happily, she eats a Cheezit (or it can go in "her" pile). If she doesn't, you eat it!  When the Cheezits are gone, the practice is over...with a SMILE, regardless of how it went. Big bow, yay, practice over! We have fun with keeping it really fast paced so it's actually hilarious to eat all those Cheezits.

This is great because she can see the pile getting smaller, it's concrete (either she gets it or I do) and it keeps the practice session super short. There's no more negotiation. Best of all, it's fun!!

As a Suzuki student myself, I frequently took the day of my lesson off. Actually, frequently is the wrong word. Habitually. I felt that the lesson kind of counted towards practice. Actually, it was like extra, super practice! As I got older, I would practice on the day of my lesson, but BEFORE my lesson, mainly for the purpose of cramming. I'm not sure how often I actually fooled my teacher. But after the lesson...party time! That violin was NOT coming out of the case. I did my work!

Now, as a teacher, though, I have a different perspective. Yes, I encourage my students to practice every day, without exception. Like Dr. Suzuki says, "Only practice on the days you eat!" But I don't think it's bad to take a day off. Actually, I think it can be really beneficial. If a student is really working hard, practicing every day, a day off can actually cement that learning into place. I've seen it in my own practice. There comes a point where I feel like I'm hitting a brick wall and no matter how hard I work, I just don't seem to be getting better. Then, after a day off, I try practicing again and suddenly it's a walk in the park. I think our brains need to breathe now and then.

BUT.....Not on the day of the lesson.  A very short practice session after the lesson helps reinforce everything learned that day. It's amazing how much we forget, even with a parent taking detailed notes. Just going over what was covered in the lesson sets the tone for the entire week.

We're all very familiar by now with the concept of repetition. Well, it's not just repeating something over and over that makes it permanent in our brain. Imagine two scenarios:

1. A five year old child is taught how to tie his shoes. Once he gets it, he is sent home and told to practice. Five years later, he tries it again. He repeats this once every five years, each time consulting the notes his mother wrote for him at that initial lesson. By the time he reaches 80 years old, he will have attempted to tie his shoes 15 times.
2. The same five year old  boy goes home and ties his shoes 15 times that very evening.

Well, that's a ridiculous analogy. But you can plainly see that the poor 80 year old who broke his hip every time he wore sneakers because he never learned how to tie his shoes wishes he just reviewed what his teacher told him that day 75 years ago.

Ok, seriously...

Another way of looking at it is this: When preparing for professional orchestral auditions, I was instructed by teachers to do all my preparation early and then take the week of the audition easy. If I budgeted my time wisely, I could do very minimal practice on the days leading up to an audition. The day before a student's lesson is less important than the day of, or the day after. A student could miss practice the day before the lesson and still have a great lesson.

When I was in high school and college I would go to summer music programs where we would work harder in 6 weeks than throughout the entire year. I always noticed, though, that the benefits didn't come until maybe 6 months down the line. My brain needed time to process the new information.

By spending a short amount of time after the lesson going over points made by the teacher, the student is reinforcing new neural pathways made in his brain during his lesson when he learned that new technique. The more he practices, the stronger those pathways become, like going over a line drawn on a paper over and over. By the end of the week, they're in there pretty good. The more time goes by, the more permanent they become. At this point, a day off isn't going to make him forget everything he ever learned about the violin (which end do I blow in?). In fact, I think he's earned a day off!