Beautiful Tone,  
         Beautiful Heart

The Mother Tongue

Dr. Suzuki knew that by giving children the gift of music, he was giving the world the gift of kind, beautiful citizens. Through the process of learning to play a musical instrument, children learn countless life skills, such as patience, diligence, the joy of hard work and accomplishment, community, teamwork, and the confidence that if they work, they can achieve great things. As Pablo Casals exclaimed after hearing Dr. Suzuki’s students play, “Perhaps it is music that will save the world”.

Every healthy child learns to speak his or her native language. Dr. Suzuki found this to be a very inspiring phenomenon; after all, languages are incredibly complicated! He decided to imitate the way children learn a language and use it to learn to play a musical instrument as well. The “Mother Tongue Method” is one of the core elements of the Suzuki Method and one of the keys to its success around the world. When children learn their native tongue, they are immersed in it every day, so we immerse children in beautiful music every day as well. Children are inspired by their parents’ speech and imitate it, so we start Suzuki lessons by teaching the parent to play the instrument first. Children learn their language in a community, surrounded by other children, so group classes are an essential part of the Suzuki program. Children learn a language gradually, accumulating words and repeating them countless times, so we accumulate repertoire, and repeat the pieces in our practice that we have already learned (we call these pieces “review pieces”, and it is one of the most important elements in our practice). Children start by hearing the language, and learn to write it later- Suzuki students learn to play “by ear” first, and then learn to read music. Most importantly, when a child is learning his or her native tongue, there is a positive expectation that the child will learn it. It is our duty as teachers and parents to imitate this by providing a calm, patient, supportive environment. As Dr. Suzuki always said, “Never hurry, never stop”.