Importance of Daily Listening

The Suzuki method is based upon the mother-tongue approach.  Children learn to speak by being immersed in an environment where their language is spoken incessantly.  Likewise, in the Suzuki method, we are teaching students the language of music.  Students will have a much better music experience if they are very familiar with this music language.  This is why students who listen to the Suzuki recordings frequently make the most progress!  Read below for more reasons about why you should make listening a daily habit in your own home and help make lessons more successful!

Listening Like a

Maniac!

Adapted from an article in the American Suzuki Journal, Vol. 37/1
Here is a tip that will make the job of all Suzuki parents MUCH EASIER:
 
PLAY THE SUZUKI RECORDING REPEATEDLY FOR YOUR CHILD EVERY DAY.  Parents who want to jump start their child’s motivation and/or help their children progress in the easiest and smoothest way possible through the Suzuki repertoire adhere to the concept of repeated daily listening to the recording.  Suzuki is based on the model of language learning.  Infants are surrounded at all times with their native language.  Imagine if an infant only heard their native language for 15 minutes a day.  That would seem ridiculous, right?  Yet, many times, parents neglect playing the Suzuki recording for their child, or only play the recording one time a day. YIKES!  This is akin to expecting their child to speak fluently without hearing the language.
 
IT IS THE PARENT’S JOB TO PLAY THE RECORDING FOR THEIR CHILD! 
​I had a young student who was struggling to remember Lightly Row, yet could sing all the words to an entire Pearl Jam album.  Guess what music was being played repeatedly at home.  Guess which music was not being played at home.  Suzuki parents universally want the best for their children.  Parents commit to bringing their kids to lessons each week and to practicing with them every day, yet without the necessary component of repeated daily listening to the Suzuki recording, all of their efforts may be stalled or diminished.  So what is the best way to listen?  I call it: “LISTENING LIKE A MANIAC”:
  1. Parents must make the commitment to PLAY THE SUZUKI RECORDING EVERY DAY. If YOU do not play it, they will not hear it! I challenge all Suzuki parents to take the Listening Challenge and play the recording 100 days in a row. Kids routinely do 100-day Practice Challenges. I am throwing down the 100-day gauntlet to parents. Try it, and see what happens!
  2. Use the “magic button.” The “repeat one” function on your recording or computer is the magic button. I used to make Magic CDs of my daughter’s current piece and the next two pieces ten times in a row each. This became hard to keep up because my daughter progressed through the pieces on those CDs so quickly that I was having trouble making CDs fast enough. Then I discovered “repeat one.” Now we listen to her current piece on “repeat one” for an hour, and then change to the next piece. Some of my students have completed two Suzuki books within one year by doing this type of listening.  You use repetition in practicing. Why not incorporate repetition into your listening regimen as well?