Shinichi Suzuki - Biography, Contributions to Pedagogy, Further reading

Music teacher, born in Nagoya, EC Japan. He studied in Tokyo and Berlin, and with three of his brothers founded the Suzuki Quartet. His mass instruction methods of teaching young children to play the violin have been adopted in many countries, and adapted to other instruments.

For the animator, see Shinichi Suzuki (animator).

Shin'ichi Suzuki (鈴木 鎮一 Suzuki Shin'ichi October 17, 1898 - January 26, 1998) was the creator of the international Suzuki method of teaching music.

Considered to be one of the most influential pedagogues of the 20th century, he often spoke about the ability of all children to learn things well, given the right environment.

— Shinichi Suzuki

Biography

Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1898, Shinichi Suzuki was surrounded by the sound of violins at his father’s violin making factory. Born into a large family, one of seven children, Shinichi spent his childhood not learning how to play the violin, but working at the factory putting up violin soundposts. A family friend encouraged Shinichi to study Western culture but it wasn’t until the age of 17 that he finally taught himself how to play the violin after becoming inspired by a recording of Mischa Elman. Upon his return to Japan, he formed a string quartet with his brothers and began teaching at the Imperial School of Music and at the Kunitachi Music School in Tokyo. The family was also left penniless and Shinichi decided to leave his teaching positions and move to a nearby city where he constructed parts for wooden airplanes to raise some money. Shinichi combined his new practical teaching applications with the old Asian philosophies peculiar to the Japanese culture.

Shinichi Suzuki died at his home in Matsumoto, Japan on January 26, 1998. Robert Klotman said, "With the passing of Shinichi Suzuki, the music world has lost a distinguished philosopher-pedagogue. He was more than a music pedagogue, Suzuki was a unique human being who was concerned with the emotional welfare of all humanity and used his artistry to further his commitment.

Contributions to Pedagogy

The life lessons of Shinichi Suzuki and the philosophies which surrounded him throughout his life were recapitulated in the lessons he developed to teach his students. It was very important to Suzuki that his teaching was not viewed as a "method" as it is today (see Suzuki method).

"First, to set the record straight, this is not a 'teaching method.' You cannot buy ten volumes of Suzuki books and become a 'Suzuki Teacher.' Dr. Suzuki has developed a philosophy which, when understood to the fullest, can be a philosophy for living. (Hermann, 1971)

Suzuki developed his ideas through a strong belief in the ideas of "Talent Education", a way of instruction that he developed during the time he was beginning to build his ideas. At the 1958 National Festival Suzuki said, "Though still in an experimental stage, Talent Education has realized that all children in the world show their splendid capacities by speaking and understanding their mother language, thus displaying the original power of the human mind. Talent Education has applied this method to the teaching of music: children, taken without previous aptitude or intelligence test of any kind, have almost without exception made great progress. (Kendall, 1966)

Suzuki employed the following ideas of Talent Education to his music pedagogy schools:

The human being is a product of his environment. (Kendall, 1966)

The epistemological learning aspect, or as Suzuki called it, the “mother tongue” philosophy, is that in which children learn through their own observation of their environment.

Further reading

Suzuki wrote a number of books about his method and his life, several of which were translated from Japanese to English by his German born wife, Waltraud Suzuki, including

Nurtured by Love Ability Development from Age Zero Man and Talent: Search into the Unknown Where Love is Deep

There are also several biographies of Dr. Suzuki, including

Diamond in the Sky (a biography for children) by Jerlene Cannon Shinichi Suzuki: The Man and His Philosophy by Evelyn Hermann Shinichi Suzuki: Man of Love by Masaaki Honda