Upper School Suzuki Piano
“Music is a language of the heart without words.” – Shinichi Suzuki
The Suzuki Piano Program is a music program offered to all Sea Pines Montessori Academy students beginning with 2nd year Elementary students through the Middle School Program. Lessons begin at 7 or 8 years of age in our Lower Elementary and continue through Middle School. Our trained Suzuki teacher gives group and individual lessons as an integral part of our school curriculum.
Suzuki Piano compliments our Suzuki Violin program. Much of the repertoire is the same, which means the children have been listening to the songs for many years already. This facilitates quicker learning of the notes and we can then focus on technique and beautiful tone. Suzuki Piano is oriented to the individual child, yet we still have group lessons so the children can learn together and perform for each other.
Parents look forward to the children’s performances, realizing that in addition to learning how to play beautiful music, the children are gaining poise, improving concentration, enhancing their mathematical minds, increasing their auditory skills and memory, and developing an awareness of how perseverance and practice can affect attitude and ability.
The Suzuki approach to music is compatible with the Montessori approach to education. Just as Dr. Montessori had discovered that by creating the right environment, she could achieve startling results with both handicapped and normal children, Shinichi Suzuki discovered, by observation and extraordinary insight, that even tone-deaf children could achieve a high level of musical ability. The key, both concluded, was in providing the proper environment.
Similarities between Montessori and Suzuki:
- Both respect the child and feel that learning must be approached from where the child is, not where we think they should be.
- Both believe in leading by example — not by telling the child to do what the adult thinks best, but by providing an example of the behavior the adult wants the child to copy.
- Both provide the child with an orderliness that permits the child to learn. In the Montessori classroom this is expressed in the orderliness of the materials — everything has a place, every task has a sequence. In Suzuki, this is expressed through the set order of music pieces expressly designed to take the student step by step through the techniques necessary to learn the relevant skills.
- Both philosophies stress the importance of providing the right environment to nurture the child’s developing character and self-image. Both feel that individuals learn at their own pace, not according to a standard drawn up by educators. In both methods, age does not determine what work the child is doing. They do what is appropriate for their skill level, not their age.
- Both methods appreciate that repetition is the key to mastery.
- Both philosophies believe that education is about bringing out potential, rather than “instructing.” The adult is a director rather than a dictator.
No one brings alive the beauty of the Suzuki Method better than the children themselves. Please join us for a Campus Tour to see for yourself.