[Excerpt from the book Beyond the Music Lesson: Habits of Successful Suzuki Families, by Christine E. Goodner]
The Suzuki Method is so incredible that I could fill this whole book with stories about students, teachers, and families who can attest to the fact that their lives have been changed for the better because of how this method has impacted them in musical and nonmusical ways alike.
Suzuki Parents: all the effort and hard work you put into this is worth it. There are a lot of tasks you will be given each week in order to parent a Suzuki student– practice every day, attend lessons and group classes, listen to recordings daily, and attend recitals and performances. Your teacher will ask you things like, “did you listen this week?” or “How many days did you practice?” or “Are you able to come to XYZ event/class/workshop?” Our lives are already busy, and this can seem like a huge list of things to do.
But I would like to say to all the parents reading this that it’s not really about all that–it’s not about what your child does today that is most important. Ten years from now, the fact that your child practices on a random Monday in July is not a life-changing event. But who your child has become because they practiced daily is. This process is about more than a list of things to do–it’s about who we are raising children to be.
Ten years from now, the fact that your child has bot the self-discipline to get what they need done but the grace for themselves to know not every day is going to be exactly ideal–now that is life-changing!
When asked what they learned from studying the Suzuki method, adult Suzuki students don’t usually answer with the names of pieces or by listing instrumental techniques; instead, they list character traits: discipline, love for music, ability to break big problems into small pieces, persistence…
This is the life-changing work we’re really doing when we practice bow holds, attend institutes, and practice those review pieces yet again.
For further reading, we highly recommend purchasing Christine Goodner’s book, Beyond the Music Lesson: Habits of Successful Suzuki Families.
