Listening – A recording of the student’s current pieces are listened to daily.
Imitation – At each lesson, the teacher chooses a section or phrase to work on and the child is taught by imitation how to sing it.
Repetition – The phrase is mastered and then repeated in the lesson and, with the parent’s help, is repeated further at home before the next lesson. Children are taught early "how to practice and what to practice” and are empowered with practice tools, including games and activities.
In the 1950s, Dr. Suzuki developed a method of teaching children the violin in Mastumoto, Japan. His approach to teaching is based on the mother tongue, like the way that children learn to speak their own language.
He also proved that all children can learn music from a very young age. There is so much to say about this method and Dr. Suzuki in a very short space. There are many books and articles available about this very popular and successful method.
The Suzuki Voice program is designed for prenatal to adulthood. Usually for age under 3 years old, they start with group lessons or family lessons.
The Suzuki Voice repertoire is designed in a sequential manner. Each piece builds technically on what came before. An older child or adult still gains by studying repertoire volumes one and two.
The program begins with simple folk songs and graduates to more challenging levels of classical songs.
Because the Suzuki method trains the teacher to teach at the child’s own unique pace of development, older age beginners simply move more quickly through the early repertoire, at their own technical pace.