Teaching Strategies Course for Mixed Instruments: IX International Suzuki Festival of Ecuador–August, 2021

The International Suzuki Festival of Ecuador celebrated its ninth annual edition this year, online. We had the immense joy of having participants from various parts of the Americas: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

This festival was particularly special and historic as the Teaching Strategies course for mixed instruments took place, coordinated by SAA-ESA Teacher Trainer Caroline Fraser (Scotland). It was a very enriching course where several aspects of teaching the Suzuki method on different instruments (piano, guitar, recorder, transverse flute, and saxophone) were shared. Below are the testimonies of some of the participants of the course.

The Teaching Strategies course provided many benefits for me as a teacher. Watching my colleague’s classes with their students expanded the possibilities and tools that I can apply depending on the different circumstances and needs of the students and their parents. This allows the students’ performance in class to be more efficient and have a pleasant and positive environment. I was very happy to share this experience with everyone. I thank Caroline very much for her words, and for always guiding us to continue our training with joy.

—Santiago Navarro (Ecuador, Recorder)

I found the Teaching Strategies course with Caroline Fraser charming and very enriching. Typically, when I have been trained on the different units for my instrument, guitar, we have focused on technique, relaxation, and exercises. All of this is very relevant to our training as Suzuki teachers, but in this course, I had the opportunity to observe the work of various teachers in their classrooms. They played instruments, including flute, recorder, piano, and saxophone—each with its own characteristics and beauty. The teachers all implemented different tools for a goal that we all share, which is to make students love the music that they play. I’ve adapted ideas and games from my colleagues that I can use in my classes, and I always value Caroline’s guidance very much. Thanks to her advice, I have goals and know what I should focus my attention on. There is something in Caroline’s courses that rekindles in me the commitment to being a Suzuki teacher, to improving for my students, and to growing as a musician to be an example for them. I appreciate the opportunity to be part of this course and highly recommend the experience for other teachers. 

—Tomás Álvaro (Ecuador, Guitar)

With great joy, I participated in the IX International Suzuki Festival in Ecuador! I am a Suzuki piano teacher and I have taken the Teaching Strategies courses, which are part of every piano book training. In 2020, I took two strategy courses offered by Caroline Fraser, in Lima, Peru. However, the experience of the Teaching Strategies course at the Ecuador Festival was different. The opportunity to learn specific strategies for each instrument was valuable!

I want to highlight the organization of the festival, and I congratulate teacher Andrea Raza for her generous welcome. I thank teacher Yamileth Almeida for the punctuality and excellent coordination, and Paul Carrión, a dear friend and colleague from other courses, for his help.

—Maria Luiza de Moraes Coelho (Brasil, Piano)

The Teaching Strategies course is one of the best courses to refine teaching tools since the teacher is reviewed in action. The teacher always receives positive feedback from the participants and constructive criticism from Caroline Fraser with specific ideas and concepts to improve.

What is different this time is observing teachers of different instruments. This allows us to concentrate on the teaching strategies that the teacher uses and the results the student obtains, without thinking about instrument-specific technique. It is also interesting to see other class dynamics and different ideas that help improve creativity, thus expanding the possibilities for facing each situation. All aspects around the teaching of the instrument are evaluated as well: parental involvement, review, and condensing the lesson plan to one main point at a time.

I would like to repeat the experience since I am sure that next time, I will be able to learn much more. Repetition of a course makes us better.

—Leslie Mizrahi (Piano, Mexico)

Taking a course with Caroline is inspiring and motivating. She always leaves us with great knowledge not only for our work in the classroom but for our lives. It was very enriching to be able to observe lessons on instruments different from what one is used to. We learned very important lessons, which go to the essence of teaching and can be applied to any instrument because we all work on teaching music.

It is very exciting to see how teachers make progress, big and small, with joy and simplicity. This has been the most interesting thing about this course: being able to notice that, no matter the instrument, significant progress can be achieved in students by using the appropriate strategies.

I have also learned to use fewer words in class and do more demonstrations with music, to review previous lessons to refine technical and interpretive aspects, and many more things that will surely emerge when I go back to my lessons. I highly recommend the course.

—Roberto Veloz (Ecuador, Guitar)

Taking the Teaching Strategies course for mixed instruments with Caroline Fraser has shown me once again that you can always find different ways to guide the student without losing the focus or objective of the lesson. To my understanding, this goes beyond the instrumental technique itself. It serves to discover and obtain better musical results in the student in an intelligent and sensitive way.

—Cecilia Cáseres (Piano, Argentina)

Teaching Strategies for mixed instruments gave all of us a new opportunity to observe the teaching experiences of various colleagues from Latin America. The course was developed within an atmosphere of fraternity, joy, commitment, and respect. The recommendations of our teacher, Caroline Fraser, were always very appropriate and were delivered with much affection and professionalism. Likewise, listening to the opinions offered to my classmates was a great help. They had so many insights regarding the organization of our time during class, optimization of resources, appropriate language use, and the main thing: knowing exactly what we should do based on various circumstances that arise spontaneously when offering lessons to our students.

I thank my colleagues very much for their generosity and especially appreciate Caroline for always offering us the enthusiasm to continue on the path.

—Paúl Carrión (Ecuador, Piano)

The learning that I have been acquiring and experiencing with Caroline these last four years has been enriching and profound. She has given me not only intellectual knowledge, but also insight into the philosophy of life that the Suzuki method offers. The Teaching Strategies course for mixed instruments allowed me to strengthen my convictions and refresh the Suzuki philosophy in these difficult moments that we live as artists, in which we need more than ever to reaffirm our commitment to education from love.

This is the first time that I have participated in a Strategies course with a wide variety of instruments, which was quite enriching. It was very opportune to be able to observe online lessons of all these instruments and to have Caroline’s suggestions, applause, and teachings. I am grateful and fortunate for having these opportunities to continue learning and walking hand in hand with teachers of life.

—Yamileth Almeida (Ecuador, Flute)