European Suzuki Association - Teachers Newsletter Vol 38 2018

13 Foster Intuition Dr Shinichi Suzuki contd/2 poked at changed suddenly in size from the palm to the thumb. Mr. Tanaka, who seemed to have struggled hard with this assignment, commented at the next lesson: "The practice this time was very difficult; it was really hard work." But when I had Teiichi try, he could hit at least once in five times. Despite this impossible instruction, however, thanks to Mr. Tänaka's effort - training has a fearsome power - eventually Teiichi was able to hit his thumb two or three times out of five. Since the tip of the bow was thus clearly visible to the mind's eye of the boy, and the directions of up-and-down and left- and-right motions also became precise, I believed that it was now fine to start violin practice and at last began lessons. Naturally, they were not successful at first while he was still unused to the violin, but, as a result of the bow train- ing described above, he soon began to play well like other children. In about a year, having learned to play skilfully Beethoven's Minuet, Boccheri- ni's Minuet, and elementary concertos, he became one of the fine performers at my young students' concert at the Hibi- ya Public Hall. When this blind boy played at the Hall, many women lis- tened with tears. In the above account of starting violin instruction for a blind child, the central idea is the develop- ment of kan, or intuition. In order to advance to the point where intuition develops normally, usually the first step is to achieve security through the use of the eyes, a faculty for measuring the object; then this is followed by thorough training. Then intuition starts to devel- op. When intuition has developed, one can then do the same thing with eyes closed. In this case, intuition is not in the motion of the eyes but in the activi- ty of the brain. Moreover, this brain power is not at the level of thinking about something, but is a far higher, instantaneous ability to accurately antic- ipate something and act accordingly. This is the highest and greatest ability that a human being can possess. Intui- tion is not slow-moving, tepid brain ac- tivity, but the ability to instantly antici- pate the proper consequence which should appear as a result of the action, or the ability to sum up all the possibili- ties and unerringly find the answer. I can compare these two different kinds of ability in my own playing. For example, when playing the perfect center of the E string, the thinnest of the four violin strings, one can achieve speed like a flash in a fast passage, ringing that single point and moving to the next tone in several tenths of a second. However, this can happen as many times as desired with no error at all: by the power of intuition created through practice, one can do this with no problem. However, when one thinks as one plays, which is below intuitive power, it does not work. In other words, intuition is lost and intonation always goes off when the willpower to think works: I have to measure the right position to play; I'm safe around here; I don't want to make a mistake in front of people, or other similar thoughts. This is because the thought to play well or the thought to make no mistakes obstructs intuition, causing one to play clumsily or make mistakes contrary to one's expectation. "Thoughtlessness" is an expression of the world of intuition. "Thoughtlessness" in a person without intuition, however, makes him as inca- pable as an infant. The true intention of those who respect the realm of thoughtlessness should be found here; they do not mean the thoughtlessness of those without intuition. Whether in catch, tennis, or anything else, if we give enough training to chil- dren for them to be chosen as players, I believe that it will nurture a strength that will prove helpful in the child's lifework. Even if we look at something like violin playing simply from the tech- nical side, it is full of elements that prompt the demonstration of intuitive power. As I stated earlier, when they advance in violin, children's faces and eyes begin to shine beautifully and have more focus, indicating a change. Everyone agrees that those described as retarded reveal at a glance a lack of focus somewhere in their faces. When the brain starts to work, and moreover work in an advanced way, it cannot be denied that even an adult's face re- flects this change. For this reason a child's education is inadequate unless it is carried to the point where the child's facial expres- sion changes. Changes in the face and eyes do not mean changes in the framework of the face given by the parents; whether one is good looking or not cannot perhaps be controlled. However, some physiological changes certainly can occur, and what might be called the beauty of intelligence emerg- es spontaneously. The question of intuition's work is wide in scope, reaching every aspect of hu- man life. Although the examples I have given above were limited to cases where intuitive power works in tech- nical areas, everyone knows that simi- lar power is demonstrated in spiritual matters. In brief, a person's ability can without fail reach that level as a result of ability development, and producing people with this power ought to be the ulti- mate goal of talent education. We must carefully consider what poor and weak work can be demonstrated by knowledge which consists of mere "knowing." Occasionally, having stud- ied means one's never having used intuition until age twenty-four or twen- ty-five and having become, through continual cramming, a useless person with erudition and academic records but without a brain that works. There are many examples of such people. From the viewpoint of ability, no matter how many books one reads, no matter what difficult logic is learned, if that represents the so-called cramming which amounts to nothing more than merely walking through the material just once, and if no effort is made to foster the ability to utilize knowledge, then the result is merely an incompe- tent man of erudition. Regrettably, many people in our present society have been educated to fit this type. This is because in the past Japan's edu- cational circles have greatly erred in their focus. With this idea, when parents heighten their educational principles to the problem of intuition while our national educational principles also focus on the same, I think our future will be brilliant. It is simply a question of discarding the idea of teaching and advancing and instead creating ability through teach- ing, pausing, and thoroughly training.