Is the Suzuki Method good for Beginner Violinists

Hi everyone, this is your instructor Joy. Thank you for taking time to watch this video and I appreciate your nice comments and subscribing. Please let me know your questions and I would be happy to do my best to answer your questions. And there are no wrong questions. Any questions, I want to know what you're working on. So today we're going to talk about Suzuki method, whether Suzuki books are good for all beginners or for any other violinists. It's hard to say just simply yes or no because there are so many different facts and it all depends on the violinist. How you learn and one has to find for oneself what the best method is for each violinist. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you in my opinion the cons and pros when it comes to Suzuki method so that you can decide for yourself. I myself started with Suzuki method when I was very little and it was fun. It was fun for little ones because you get to hang out with the other kids because it's a group lesson and you play and you have one-on-one lesson too but that way it was fun. So I'll put that one in a pro. It is great because a violinist can start playing a tune without spending month and month to learn how to play a single note or how to without knowing how to read music because Suzuki emphasized that just try to teach violinists to play just from hearing without knowing how to read just like same way that we can well children start speaking the language before they learn how to read that's a same idea. However, this is a con side, a lot of violinists who has done Suzuki book in a traditional way they play lots of tunes by memory very well very in tune but after years of playing Suzuki book a lot of young violinists still don't know how to read music because it's hard for them to go back to sit down and read because they have been playing all these tunes flawlessly over and over and when I start making them to read when they came after so many years of playing by ear they find it really frustrating because all of a sudden they have to slow down with that playing so there's a little of that transition one can overcome but in my opinion would be better even when you started playing Suzuki try to learn how to read it when you when you've done Suzuki maybe a month or two I would encourage you to start learning how to read. It is good a Suzuki position they stick to one kind of hand position for quite a long time when you look at Suzuki book one two third or almost all tunes except the last couple tunes in the first entire book it sticks to one hand position which is always a second finger is beside the third either A major scale A major key or D major so always a second finger is beside third so you're always using same kind of hand position one two three like this which is great but sometimes violists who's been playing only Suzuki books when they have to start playing different kind of key which sometimes second finger goes beside a first like like this then their hand muscles are so used to they're having really hard time to do that again one can overcome it but in my opinion it would be better after a couple months that you bring other tunes that's other than the specific hand position so so that violists get used to playing different kind of hand position not just one first finger and second third finger always together kind of one fixed hand position it can be fun for little ones when they're in a group lesson because you know they get to play a little with other kids and it's socially nice however if a little older student end up signing up for Suzuki book or Suzuki method you have to hang out with this little ones it can be kind of you don't have to you can still have a Suzuki method as an individual lesson but whatever you do whether you're using Suzuki method or traditional European method try to combine different method that's best in my opinion so the way I like to do is start with a Suzuki method at the beginning no matter when the violins are three years old ten years old 60 years old seven years old doesn't matter because it is great it's encouraging for violinists to be able to play from day one a tune yeah in Germany when I was studying one of my friends this violinist said well I had to play a recorder for almost two years before I was allowed to touch the violin I find that a little discouraging for beginners so yes starting with a tune like a Suzuki whether it's twinkle twinkle or it doesn't have to be Suzuki book but Suzuki method approach you can pick a tune that's easy easy position often like one and second and third finger close each other I like to do Ode to Joy like that but then from second or third month onwards try to see try to memorize what the note E what the note A and note D yeah so that you get used to reading those open strings and also see if we can also start practicing G string from early on meaning maybe from third month onwards because Suzuki book doesn't touch the G string for entire book one I don't think they use any G strings so then even though G string is a bit harder but this is a part of the violin playing so it's important for the violinist to develop this string differences different angles of different strings so try to get that into that one already from second third month onwards and then make sure if you end up studying with a Suzuki books to bring other pieces so combined with other methods so that shows you different hand positions or helps you to learn how to read and etc. I hope this video was helpful and thank you for watching please click thumbs up below and then subscribe