Here’s a video by a violin player talking about the Suzuki Method.
If you don’t know anything about the Suzuki Method of Teaching, in a nutshell:
- It’s aimed primarily at children
- It uses a ‘baby steps’ teaching methodology
- It uses the ‘mother tongue’ method of teaching.? (think of how children learn to speak…it’s a musical version of that)
- This method isn’t the only method to learn – but there are violin and piano and cello maestros who learned using the Suzuki method.
- The Suzuki Method is based around ‘learning by ear’ rather than learning to read music.
- The Suzuki Method is a ‘songs not scales’ kind of learning – hence why I’m really interested in it.
- The Suzuki Method does have a ‘bass version’ but it’s upright, string bass.? There’s no electric bass version.
- The Suzuki Method’s focus is on classical music.
- Listening to music is a BIG part of the method.
This is something I’m really interested in and exploring right now – literally teaching my 9 year old to play bass using this method.
I’ll be posting more on this over the coming months.
Great post! I’ve had already heard about this method… Maybe you could create an adaptation to electric bass 🙂
Hey David
Yep – I’m looking at the possibiities – waiting to hear back from the British Suzuki Institute!
Paul