Trapped in the Triangle

“I Have a New Idea!”

A sense of renewal, adaptation, and discovery is at the heart of the Suzuki Method. There is no better model for this than Shinichi Suzuki himself. Recently, Suzuki in the Schools (SIS) teacher trainer Winifred Crock shared the following anecdote:

Dr. Suzuki lived this philosophy daily. Every day, he would come into the school and proclaim, “I have a new idea!” Then lessons or group lessons would commence with great hope and excitement. Sometimes the new idea would be a serious commitment that would create 10,000 times of repetition. Other times he would experiment with us and say, “We need another idea. This one isn’t good. I’ll have one tomorrow.” I remember one particular day his idea worked well for shorter Japanese students but when we tall foreigners walked in it simply didn’t work. He just laughed and said, “This idea isn’t good for you. Another one tomorrow.” He always had such joy and excitement in new things and he always had a new idea for improvement and learning.

I met Winifred last year when I registered for her SIS level one training. During the training, we learned about how SIS teachers have adapted the Suzuki model to reach large groups of students in the public school system. Winifred taught us her tips and tricks for working in larger groups as opposed to private lessons, making it clear to me why and how a Suzuki program can work in the school system. Accommodations are made, but the end result still honors Dr. Suzuki’s vision to create good citizens through music education.

In my own teaching career, adaptation has become a core tenet. Four years ago, I left private teaching and moved into a full-time music teaching position at the Montessori School of Raleigh (MSR). As a Suzuki teacher, the bulk of my teaching had been at a community school of music, where students had private lessons once a week with me, plus combined group classes with other Suzuki studios. I always required parents to attend lessons and practice at home with students, forming the desired Suzuki Triangle. When taking on the task of designing a new music curriculum at MSR, I encountered several fundamental questions that made me confront the basic principles of Suzuki education:

Is a program still a “Suzuki program” if there is no at-home practice parent?
What if there is no at-home practice at all?

As I embarked upon this new journey, I was initially overwhelmed by the number of students I was seeing each week, but I soon began to realize that with the support of the administration and a few adjustments, I could bring Suzuki to hundreds of children. I needed to think outside of “The Triangle.”

A New Plan

The Montessori School of Raleigh offers care before school, during the school day, and afterschool for students ages six weeks through twelfth grade. In 2021, we started the Suzuki program with toddlers taking adapted SECE classes, students ages 3–4 taking box violin lessons, and kindergarten students starting on boxes and playing real violins by the second semester. Now, starting in fall 2023, we have two Suzuki violin teachers and over 200 students taking Suzuki violin and SECE classes during the school day. Students are getting Suzuki violin in small groups twice a week, but nobody is taking instruments home. In an effort to keep the program affordable to start, we only purchased five violins my first year and currently own only nineteen violins. I am still amazed that we are teaching so many students with so few instruments!

Keeping the instruments at school and not having parents involved in lessons are two things that make this program unique. I wasn’t sure what would happen if students weren’t practicing at home, but what I noticed was quite surprising. Students at MSR have been moving slowly and carefully but have beautiful tone and an excellent set-up. This is something that I attribute to students not practicing at home. No “bad practice” is happening because the only time students play their instrument is with a proper set-up by the teacher. Also, due to starting in small groups, the students are excellent at playing together and staying in time.

Parents have submitted in-school surveys, giving the Suzuki program rave reviews. They love that their young children are learning an instrument during the regular school day. Having a solid music program at school relieves busy parents of another afterschool activity that they might feel obligated to provide for their child. Such feedback steeled my resolve to create a workable, vibrant application of Suzuki’s principles in my school. Yet, I was still confronted with some of the essential incongruities between my work and The Triangle. If I have learned anything since starting the program at MSR, it is that children and families are in need of Dr. Suzuki’s message and vision, but in order to be accessible to modern families we need to be open to change and willing to adapt.

Expectations and Challenges

My husband and I are both musicians. We are very invested in passing our love of music onto our children, but it hasn’t been without struggle. We both work full time and our daughters are in school six hours a day, are involved in sports, have homework, church, and need downtime. One would think that we would be the ideal Suzuki family, but balancing lessons and at-home practice can often feel very stressful and frustrating. It is only because we both personally understand how fulfilling music making is that we continue to push forward.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022 over 48% of married-couple families have both spouses working full-time.[size=60]1[/size] Families are busier than ever, and between the recession and inflation following Covid-19, it seems like the rat race isn’t slowing down any time soon. There is no doubt that family structures have shifted greatly since the 1960s, when Dr. Suzuki first toured the US.

Is there a way that we can honor Dr. Suzuki’s belief that Every Child Can learn to be a sensitive musician while asking less of parents? Can we make adjustments to how we operate our programs and studios to support struggling families? Whether it’s not having money to pay for lessons or not having time in the day to sit down and practice, many parents are unable (and uninterested in) committing to standard Suzuki lessons.

Dr. Suzuki was a man of innovation, and made his discoveries through constant questioning, observation, and reevaluation. When he needed to adjust and make changes, he did so with joy and excitement. He saw the devastation from World War II in his community, and as a result, brought music education to children in order to bring joy into their lives. He did so in a way that made sense culturally and was accessible to the children he wanted to reach.

Perspectives on Growth

When thinking about accessibility and reaching students who might not typically take Suzuki lessons, I am inspired by my colleague and friend, Renita Luehrman. Renita started Suzuki Harmony STL, a non-profit that “nurtures community, builds character, and fosters academic growth of youth in under-resourced neighborhoods of the St. Louis region by providing high-quality private music instruction.”[size=60]2[/size] Renita shared her ideas on this topic and how she has made adjustments and adapted the Suzuki method to reach families in her community:

The culture is shifting and with it, the Suzuki Method also has to shift in order to stay relevant. The Suzuki triangle works beautifully when a parent can dedicate the time to be at each lesson and each home practice. When this is possible, how great!

We cannot, however, let our old paradigm dictate our future. In situations where parental involvement isn’t possible, or is minimal, the method can adapt beautifully. Progress may be slower, but those students are still receiving the benefits music education brings. Perhaps the metrics we as educators evaluate ourselves and our students’ success can modulate. Are they learning discipline? Are they learning to appreciate and enjoy music in a deeper way? Are they building a community with other students? Are they trying new things, regardless of the outcome? If these things are happening, if they are committed and happy, then isn’t that success?

We also must ask ourselves if we are truly committed to access or if that has just become a buzzword. Sometimes, access looks like a student coming without a parent because the only way they could get to a lesson was by a ride from a friend or grandparent. Sometimes it looks like a mom out in the hall during lessons because their other children would be more of a distraction in the lesson than out. These parents and students are no less deserving of the Suzuki Method than parents who can commit to more.

A lot of energy and time has been spent to preserve Dr. Suzuki’s legacy, and for that I am grateful. At times, though, I wonder if we are hanging on too tightly to the past, and are forgetting to look around and see what is needed today.

When I was an undergraduate music student, I was able to take Violin Units 1–4 with teacher trainer Michele Higa George. Michele was once Dr. Suzuki’s translator and a pioneer of the Suzuki movement in the United States. She often talked about how we are not teaching the “Suzuki Method.” We are teaching the “Suzuki/Us” method. Michele believed that teachers should not just emulate Suzuki’s teaching; it was his desire to learn and experiment with new ideas that led to the development of Talent Education in the first place.

By using the “Suzuki/Us” method, Michele meant that not only are Suzuki’s concepts used, but every teacher offers their own thoughts and developments to the method, and is receptive and interested in the ideas of other teachers and students. Michele was the director of the Suzuki program at Cleveland Institute of Music but also saw a different need in the world and started outreach programs in East Cleveland, Ohio, and Arusha, Tanzania.

Michele was generous with her time and let me spend multiple hours interviewing her for a school project. In the interview, she said that she had recently been, “taking a broader vision and trying to take the Suzuki method into places where it typically isn’t.”[size=60]3[/size] The following excerpt from the interview speaks to her openness and willingness to try new things.

Teaching is an evolving process. Initially, my goal was to educate myself as much as possible. Learning to teach or mastering that art is never finished. The more that you learn, the more you know that you don’t know. And so it’s a beginning of a process and only by practicing it with real live children and failing and succeeding and adjusting will you get better at it. So you can know something in your head, it doesn’t mean you can do it. And, that’s the biggest part of Suzuki teacher training; it’s a commitment to learning and it’s a commitment to continuing to learn. It could be in a class format, it could be through watching your students and what’s going right and what’s not, or what could be better. It’s the knowledge that there isn’t one way to do it. You’re not going to have all of the answers but maybe you will start to develop some of the questions.[size=60]4[/size]

We Suzuki teachers need to ask questions and be open to what our community needs. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. To continue Dr. Suzuki’s legacy, we cannot shy away from change and discovery. We need to embrace his philosophy of ongoing, neverending learning—for teachers as well as students!

Suzuki teacher and psychiatrist Edith Gettes recently told me: “I have always felt that my role as a Suzuki teacher and music teacher in general was to help students and their families, when available, to weave music into the fabric of their lives. And, as Suzuki said, every child can learn. I think he would definitely applaud teachers who are “thinking outside the Suzuki box.”

What would an institute look like if parents weren’t there? Is it realistic to ask parents to take a week off of work to accompany their child at an institute? What about group classes? Would attendance be higher if students were dropped off instead of chaperoned? These are uncomfortable questions but ones I would like for you to consider. Would things have to be different than previous years? Yes. Would more students be able to participate? Possibly yes. It may be that in your community you have a wonderful group of parents who are engaged and have plenty of free time to devote to Suzuki lessons. If that is the case, expecting parent participation seems reasonable. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that having parents involved in lessons is fantastic and should always be welcome. We as a Suzuki community lose when we hold on to the way things have always been done, rather than subscribing to one of Suzuki’s core beliefs: adaptation.

Dr. Suzuki gave us an amazing pedagogy with the idea that Every Child Can as its cornerstone. With this came other important components such as a common repertoire, an early start, and the Suzuki Triangle. It is up to each teacher to use these ideas in a way that makes sense and is relevant to their community. We do not need to feel trapped in a certain way of doing things because that is what another teacher has done. If we limit ourselves to only what Dr. Suzuki did in a culture over sixty years ago, we will find ourselves outdated and ineffectual. Suzuki teachers should instead feel empowered to ask questions and try new ideas, in exactly the same way that Dr. Suzuki did.

Notes

[size=60]1 [/size]US Department of Labor, “Employment Characteristics of Families—2022,” news release USDL-23-0723, April 19, 2023, [url=https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/famee.pdf]https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/famee.pdf[/url]

[size=60]2[/size] “Suzuki Harmony STL,” accessed October 9, 2023, [url=http://www.suzukiharmonystl.org/]http://www.suzukiharmonystl.org/[/url].

[size=60]3[/size] Jessica Jenkins, “Suzuki Violin and Excellent Teaching: A Case Study of Michele George,” Arete: The PLNU Honors journal,1 (2009): 120.

[size=60]4[/size] Ibid., 120.