“What is man’s ultimate direction in life? It is to look for love, truth, virtue, and beauty.” -Dr. Shinichi Suzuki
The Suzuki method, developed by Japanese violin pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki, offers younger students an age-appropriate entry point to the world of instrumental music lessons based on language acquisition theory. Students are immersed from a young age in the environment that uses the language we’d like them to become fluent in- in this case, violin, guitar, or piano. Students are most successful if they start very young (as young as three years old). At this age, their brains are in the “sensitive period” of language development and will absorb this kind of training much more readily than an adult. The student, parent, and teacher work as a team to support the young musician on his or her musical journey- parents attend lessons and function as the “at home teacher.” The home environment is supplemented as part of a larger environment and community through our studio group classes, which create a larger community of musicianship, emphasizes the joy of making music together and provides a source of community and resource on the Suzuki journey for the student and practice parent.