European Suzuki Association - Teachers Newsletter Vol 38 2018

19 Suzuki—Tools for Life by Sven Sjogren ments available. As soon as the torch bearers start cutting the heads off the impure, the movement usually starts to fall to pieces. Something that has taken many years to build, can crack in an amazingly short time. So – should we just call anything “Suzuki”. Of course not, but our rather complex role is maintaining the basics of Dr. Suzuki´s great pedagogical move- ment and at the same time never stop looking for new ways and thoughts. Mr. Kendall used to say “ You know, there are many ways to skin a cat!” (he was a farmer´s son…). Anything that makes the Suzuki philosophy and methodology more understandable and more accessible, must be consid- ered to be something good. This was just the way Dr. Suzuki himself lived and taught. He constantly encouraged everybody studying with him in Matsu- moto “ New idea! You try...! ” he would say always with a great smile. 1988 – the year when Dr. Suzuki came to Sweden In 1988 the turn had come to the Swe- dish Suzuki Association to arrange a European conference. August 7 th - 17 th “8 th European Suzuki Conference” was held in Borlänge, a small city 200 km from Stockholm. 200 teachers and 700 families from all over the world were there and so was Dr. and Mrs. Suzuki plus a group of assisting personnel from Matsumoto. The local airport managed to fix a red carpet for Dr. and Mrs. Suzuki to step on right from the plane. They were greeted by about 100 Swedish children playing Swedish fiddle music right there on the apron. Dr. Suzuki immediately started to dance with his violin case as a partner with adoring looks from everybody including Mrs. Suzuki. The conference started with Suzuki – now 90 years old – as the natural cen- tral figure. The energy from Dr. Suzuki seemed never ending. At 3 o´clock on the very first night in the new hotel in Borlänge, Suzuki passed through the hotel lounge with the fiddle under his arm asking: “Where are the teach- ers..?” . No jet lag in the world could stop him. A special staircase built for Suzuki was leading down from the or- chestra podium. Everybody was very concerned about his age, which was annoying him a lot. I guess some mo- ments always tend to stay in ones memory. One of these moments was when he, instead of using all the steps walking down, skipped the last two. He simply jumped! – Making everybody gasp “Oooohhhh…!” . An- other was when he said “Hallo!” shaking hands with all the kids with a caramel hidden in his hand (we bought him 20 kilograms!). Strengths within the Suzuki Method In my teacher training we make two lists – one with the strengths and one with the dangers in the so called “Suzuki Method”. We all know why it was the violin that came first and grew most within the Suzuki peda- gogy. But gradually more instru- ments joined the family, when crea- tive teachers translated Suzuki´s ideas into new instruments. Piano, flute, cello, viola were soon followed by others. In Sweden we are especially proud of two of our teachers – Gunil- la Rönnberg and Ann-Marie Sundberg – who expanded the Suzuki instru- ment family with organ and trumpet. Another very interesting approach of Dr. Suzuki´s ideas is the Swedish vio- linist Sten Rydh´s “Math School”. Sten started with ESA training, but after some levels he got a severe tin- nitus, which made him look for other ways of teaching. He then started to use the Suzuki principles in mathe- matics. He started an institute where, for instance, 12 year old girls and boys on a sunny Saturday after- noon preferred staying inside doing mathematics with Sten instead of playing soccer because “it is so fun...!” It is interesting how this fol- lows the three steps Dr. Suzuki often talked about, when it comes to the use of his teaching model. Step 1: violin playing Step 2: playing other instruments Step 3: use those principles also in school teaching. I guess that in the early days the methodology used in both violin play- ing and mathematics leaves a lot to be desired. Often when we violin teachers get together, we feel like asphalt flowers, who survived all the attempts to make us stop playing – because of the kind of methodology used in our early teaching. It is almost laughable how many of the most diffi- cult ways of playing a stringed instru- ment were included in that teaching – including note reading. A great strength is the Suzuki philoso- phy, which like plaster keeps the me- thodical bricks together building a very powerful construction. To put the human development as a goal, while using the music training in the triangle format, I think is brilliant. A person with the creativity of Dr. Suzuki could have been born anywhere on the globe – and found the same principles for how to build ability. His method is based on how we all over the world learn our mother tongue. Being born in Japan makes it even more admira- ble that he in that country, at that time, understood that his choice of music should be classical. Although this kind of music in the 1930´s and 40´s was still not very common in his country, he realized that the choice of music style had to be this, if he want- ed his movement to expand all over the world. Another interesting thing is that most of this happened during his life time. Of course, our common repertoire is a great strength. To play together is to build together. If we as teachers can realise this, our will to change details – like bow strokes, notes and slurs “to make it better” – will decrease dra- matically. No bow changes in the world can compensate the possibility, right from when we meet, to easily play together – crossing cultural and lingual borders! This is how our world could survive! It was for this Dr. Suzu- ki was nominated for the Nobel Peace Price. I don´t think Pablo Casals was naïve at all, when after a concert with students in Matsumoto in 1961 he said while crying “You teach your children what music really is. Not only sounds to dance to, or to entertain yourself with, but something high and pure in life. Maybe it will be music that will save the world!” Dangers within the Suzuki Method Are there really dangers within this pedagogy? Yes – several! One is that we in our fantastic triangle are two Suzuki—Tools for Life Sven Sjogren contd/2