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The importance of musical training during early childhood is an increasingly accepted reality. If a child is fortunate to have enough exposure to music in the right environment from a young age, it will be hugely beneficial for the child’s musical skills, and more importantly for their overall development and growth. Two people who shared this view were Zoltán Kodály and Shinichi Suzuki. Their influence on the development of pedagogical ideas and approaches for teaching young children has been deeply significant, and has influenced education systems right across the world.
The focus of this essay is to compare Suzuki’s ‘Talent Education’ method with the Kodály-based ‘Colourstrings’ method. Both have been applied to the teaching of a variety of instruments, but it is the violin with which they were first conceived, so it seems right to make particular reference to the teaching of this instrument. In comparing these two methods, an important factor to be taken into account is that so much depends on the individual teacher. I have been fortunate enough to be able to observe high quality teaching of both methods during my research. Both are very effective way of teaching, as long as it is conducted in the right way. As Kodály said, ‘only the best is good enough for a child’
Shinichi Suzuki was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1898. His father, Masakichi Suzuki, owned a violin factory which was at the time the largest in the world. Shinichi’s father was an important figure in his childhood, he says how he learnt ‘countless things from [his] father, both morally and materially’. At the age of seventeen, he began to be intrigued by the abilities of young children:
I had learned to realise how precious children of four and five were, and wanted to become as one of them.
They have no thought of self-deception.
They trust people and do not doubt at all.
They know only how to love and know not how to hate.
They love justice and scrupulously keep the rules.
They seek joy, live cheerfully, and are full of life.
They know no fear and live in security.
A turning point in his life was when, at the age of seventeen, he heard a recording of Mischa Elman playing Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’. ‘His velvety tone… made a tremendous impression on me’. It was this that sparked his enthusiasm and love of music. To begin with he was self taught. However, at the age of twenty-one he studied in Tokyo with Ko Ando, then after about a year and a half he moved to Germany to study with Karl Klinger. He ended up staying in Berlin for eight years.
At the heart of Suzuki’s teaching is what he calls the ‘mother tongue’ method. Around 1931-1932, when he was teaching violin at the Imperial School of Music in Tokyo, he was asked by a father of a child to teach his son the violin. He had no experience of teaching such small children and so he thought extensively about how he was going to go about it. A thought suddenly occurred to Suzuki that ‘all Japanese children speak Japanese!’ He was amazed at how children of five or six could speak ‘the difficult dialects of their respective areas such as the Osaka, Aomori, and Kagoshima dialects without any problem… the children show such a high level of educational possibilities.’ He explains how ‘such a high level of development seemed to show a successful education method which works unconsciously’ and it was this that led Suzuki to develop the ‘mother tongue’ method. He realised how important it was to nurture the child from the earliest age possible, even before the child has been born. He states how ‘talent is not inherited’ and ‘people are what they are as a result of their own specific environments’. During the war, he moved to a nearby city and gave violin lessons to orphaned children. This was when he began to develop his teaching strategies and philosophies. He adopted one of these children, a boy called Koji Toyoda. The ‘Talent Education’ movement started in 1945 at the Matsumoto Music School.
Zoltán Kodály is well-known as a twentieth-century composer, but it is less well known that he was also an ethnomusicologist, linguist, educator, author and philosopher. He was born in the small town of Kecskemét, Hungary, in 1882, and studied composition at the Franz Liszt Academy. In the early 1900s, Kodály and his friend, the composer Béla Bartók, began their expeditions to collect Hungarian folk song material and started arranging and publishing what they found. In his compositions he used the pentatonic scale, modes, characteristic rhythms and turns he discovered in Hungarian folk music. A significant part of his life was spent composing for children. He composed sets of singing exercises to encourage musicianship, the most important of which were the ‘333 Elementary Exercises in Sight-Singing’, and wrote pieces for children’s choruses. He died in 1967.
His strong commitment to music education and the Hungarian musical tradition began when he discovered that students entering some of the top music schools in the country had an appalling level of musical literacy. They were not able to sight-sing, or dictate a simple tune. He also realised they were totally ignorant of their musical heritage, having been brought up in middle-class society and therefore had no exposure to the folk music associated with the rural lower classes. He felt it was his mission to do something about this. He started with improving teacher training:
It is much more important who is the music teacher in Kisvárda [small village] than who is the director of the opera house in Budapest…. for a poor director fails once, but a poor teacher keeps on failing for thirty years, killing the love of music in thirty batches of children.
Having become knowledgeable and passionate about the folk music of Hungary through his collecting, he chose this music as the material through which to teach children, and as a result was able to educate children about their musical heritage at the same time as improving their musicianship skills. He felt that as children naturally learn their mother tongue before foreign languages, they should also learn their musical mother tongue (i.e. the folk music of their own country) before other music. Even though folk music was not originally meant for pedagogical purposes, it represented a living art and fits well into a systematic method for teaching children musical concepts and skills. Kodály insisted on using appropriate folk music with children as ‘a child is the most susceptible and the most enthusiastic audience for pure art… only art of intrinsic value is suitable for children’. In 1923 he began composing works for children suitable for them to sing, in order to help bridge the gap between folk music and art music. Kodály established the first Singing Primary School in Kecskemét in 1950, and since then similar institutions have been established all over the country.
The ‘Colourstrings’ method was formed by Géza and Csaba Szilvay in the 1970s, at the East Helsinki Music Institute in Helsinki. They developed a method based on imitation and imagery, and built up a collection of exercises, illustrations, visual explanations, performing pieces and chamber music arrangements that eventually were published. After having been brought up with the Kodály method as children in Hungary, they incorporated its principles into their teaching. The children’s orchestra, the Helsinki Strings, was formed in 1972 and since then it has performed world-wide and made over twenty recordings.
I will now begin a direct comparison of the two methods in relation to specific areas that I feel are important in a child’s development. These are:
The role of the parent in early years
Aural development
Sense of pulse and rhythm
Technical ability
Musicality
Reading and dictation
Grasp of musical concepts
Memorization skills
Ensemble skills
Enjoyment for the child
The role of the parent in the early stages of a child’s life is key to the development of their personality and talents. As Suzuki stated, ‘the destiny of children lies in the hands of their parents’. Suzuki believed that children should be guided through life right from when they are born. It is when children are youngest that they absorb things best, so it is important that the right environment is created from the beginning. In the Suzuki method, the mother is often taught the violin first. When children see their mother playing, naturally they want to play too. ‘Suzuki feels that the three-year-old is most desirous of pleasing the mother and therefore regards this as the best starting age.’ Suzuki stresses the importance of having lots of encouragement from the parent from the beginning, including regular performances at home for the child to get used to being in that situation so it becomes as natural as possible.
In the Colourstrings method, there is also a strong emphasis on ‘the extreme importance of the environment or surroundings for the development of the child.’ The ‘Little Rascals’ series was developed so parents could introduce their children to music at home. It is a collection of bedtime stories that are accompanied by pictures and a CD, so that the child can experience the emotional side of music from an early age. The ‘Singing Rascals’ and ‘Rhythm Rascals’ series are introduced later on in the child’s development. These are collections of songs accompanied by pictures for the parent to sing to the child. There is also a workbook that helps the child to understand basic musical concepts through playful exercises, and a CD for them to listen to.
Aural development is one of the most important aspects of a child’s musical development, but is also one of the hardest to teach. Kodály said that ‘to teach a child an instrument without first giving him preparatory training and without developing singing, reading and dictating to the highest level along with the playing is to build upon sand.’ The two methods are quite different in this aspect. Suzuki stresses the importance of playing recordings of the Book I pieces to the child as early as possible. This develops the child’s ear through repeated listening, so when the child comes to eventually play the piece on the violin they will already have all the music internalized. ‘The child’s musical education, insofar as the development of his ear is concerned, should parallel the manner in which he acquired his mother tongue’. Both methods emphasize the importance of repeated exposure to a limited repertoire, as it is through this that the child will become more familiar with the music and will enjoy being able to recognize a melody. They both use singing to help this as well. In the Colourstrings method, the ‘Rascals’ series encourages the child to sing to begin with by exposing them to their parents’ singing. Eventually, through repeated use the child will begin to sing along. This makes the melodies become more internalized, as the closest instrument to which a person’s ear is connected is their own voice. The pictures that relate to the melodies in the book will also become familiar, so that when the child sees the picture they will hear the associated melody. This begins the development of the child’s ‘inner hearing’ skills; the ability to hear a melody inside your head. The melodies in the ‘Rascals’ series are carefully sequenced. They begin with two-note songs over the interval of a minor third. Kodály’s research shows this is the first interval that Western children can accurately hear and sing in tune, and so it makes sense to use this as a starting point. Notes are added one at a time until they reach the range of the pentatonic scale. A lot of care is taken to make sure that the songs are always sung within the comfortable range of a child’s voice. One of the most difficult intervals for a child to hear and sing in tune correctly is the semitone. This is why there is extensive use of the pentatonic scale to begin with, as it features no semitones. Later on as the child’s ear develops, the major and minor scales are introduced, exposing the child to all the common intervals found in music. The use of the solfa syllables helps children to recognize pitch relations and intervals more clearly. The syllables each refer to a particular degree of the scale. The Kodály method uses the ‘moveable do’ to develop relative pitch, rather than the ‘fixed do’ to develop perfect pitch. This encourages the child to hear how different notes of the scale have different characters, and how they relate to each other. The solfa hand signs, originally developed by John Curwen in the 19th Century, also help the child with pitching. as they give a physical means of recognizing the degrees of the scale. They can also be very useful in developing the inner hearing at a more advanced level. Some Suzuki teachers have started to use Kodály techniques, such as the use of the solfa syllables and hand signs, to develop musicianship skills in their students as well, and many summer schools have a Kodály teacher on the faculty.
Not only do children need to develop a good ear to recognize pitch relationships, but they also must acquire a sense of pulse and rhythm. In the Kodály method, a system of rhythm syllables was adapted from the work of French musician and teacher Emile-Joseph Chevé in the 19th Century. These help children to read and write rhythms correctly. Aspects of the work of the Swiss music educator, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, have been incorporated into the method. This includes stepping the beat, clapping rhythms, rhythmic ostinatos and rhythmic movement of various kinds. The Colourstrings ‘Rascals’ series introduces the child to simple rhythms from the beginning, so by the time they are brought to a more conscious level they are already very familiar with the relative durations of notes. The use of flash cards also helps children with reading rhythms and they can be combined in many different ways to produce longer rhythmic patterns. In the Suzuki method, the pieces in Book I incorporate many simple rhythmic patterns. As the child will have hopefully been exposed to the recordings of these pieces from an early age, they will be very familiar with how the rhythms go, and so will be able to recreate them on the instrument. Again, there is some crossover between the two methods as the Dalcroze techniques and flash cards are also used in musicianship lessons in the Suzuki method.
After having developed some of the basic musicianship skills to an acceptable level in the Colourstrings method, or having internalized the Book I pieces in the Suzuki method, the child is then ready to learn the violin. There are many complex movements and actions associated with playing a string instrument, and the player has to develop a high level of coordination of the various parts of their arms to be able to carry these out. It is useless to try to explain certain technical principles to a child using words, as they will without doubt not be able to understand, and will become confused and frustrated very quickly. Both the Suzuki and Colourstrings methods use imagery to help explain things, for example the ‘Kreisler Highway’ in the Suzuki method, and the ‘bird’ and ‘sun’ harmonics in the Colourstrings method. In his book ‘Musical Performance: Learning Theory and Pedagogy’, Daniel Kohut explains what he calls the ‘natural learning process’. This involves ‘the use of mental imagery, imitation and trial-and-error practice as primary methods of learning’. He attributes this idea to Timothy Gallwey, the author of The Inner Game of Tennis and Inner Tennis: Playing the Game, but goes on to say how:
Suzuki’s philosophy seems to be in basic agreement with the NLP [natural learning process] concept. Suzuki recommends, for example, that children should learn to perform music in essentially the same way they learn to talk: by developing musical conception (mental imagery) through listening, followed by imitation and trial-and-error practice. These procedures represent the essence of what he calls the Mother Tongue Approach to musical learning.
A child who is taught through the Suzuki method will be able to ‘inner hear’ the piece first. The teacher will then physically show the child how to play the piece on their own violin, with the teacher doing the bowing and the child doing the fingers, and will be giving the child verbal instructions at the same time. This creates a visual, aural, verbal and kinaesthetic model for the child to help them grasp whatever they are learning. The combination of different learning styles will ensure that any child will be able to understand, no matter what learning style they prefer. This then needs to be repeated many times in the right way during practice for it to become natural. This is an important part of Suzuki’s philosophy. At the beginning of his book ‘Nurtured by Love’, he talks about a pet parakeet that was taught to say its name:
At first the name Peeko was repeated to the bird about fifty times daily; that made three thousand times in two months. Then, at last, the little bird began to say “Peeko”. If this word had not been coached so assiduously every day, the bird would never have had the “talent” or “ability” to say it.
He goes on to say how this is the same in humans. Children need to repeat things many times until it becomes automatic. As time goes on they will become quicker at picking things up. Imagery is also used to help the learning process, and there is a collection of poems in The Pre-Twinkle Book . This helps to explain the principles in a child-friendly way and further their understanding and conception of what they are being taught.
The Colourstrings method draws on many aspects of Suzuki’s philosophy. It uses the ‘natural learning process’ as well, but takes it to a higher level. It incorporates diagrams and exercises into the pieces to assist the child with certain technical problems, two of the most important and original being the extensive use of natural harmonics and left-hand pizzicato. So long as the violin is in tune, it is easy to play a natural harmonic in tune and make a good sound. This helps the beginner in the early stages to pitch notes on the instrument, and also helps their confidence as the harmonics are easy to play (requiring far less finger strength than ordinary stopped notes) and make a good sound. They also make the child more familiar with different positions on the fingerboard, and prevent the child from habitually gripping the violin neck (a common problem amongst beginners). Left-hand pizzicato is used to strengthen the fingers, especially the fourth finger which always needs more attention and training, and to help in the formation of a good left hand shape. Colourstrings children usually have little trouble finding notes with their fourth fingers as they have used them so extensively in the pieces involving left-hand pizzicato. It also helps with finger independence, as the child is required to pluck with each finger, and this helps them when they come to play pieces in which all the fingers are involved in stopping the notes.
It is equally important to develop musicality as well as technical ability. Suzuki recommends children listen to only the best artists as early as possible to develop good musical sensitivity. This is also reflected in one of Kodály’s most famous quotes that ‘only the best is good enough for a child.’ A way to develop this is through the use of improvisation. Both methods encourage the children to make up their own simple improvisations from early on in their development. For example, they use rhythms they’ve learnt in different combinations to make up their own short rhythmical motif. This encourages the children to be creative and to not rely too much on copying whatever their teacher has done. Improvisation also helps to develop confidence in their understanding of musical concepts, as they have to put what they’ve learnt into practice. The Colourstrings ‘Rascals’ series has images and stories that relate to specific melodies, and this helps to make the connection between emotions and music from an early age. Géza Szilvay states how the colours in the books help the child:
Sounds can be compared to colours that likewise influence the emotions (the analogy sound – vibration – colour). By using different components simultaneously the influence of emotional life can be increased and the interest in the arts can be aroused and maintained.
There is a book called Stories of Composers for young musicians about composer’s lives for Suzuki children, which is used to make the learning of pieces by different composers more fulfilling. It encourages the child’s imagination and helps them to make up their own musical stories later on in their development. The Suzuki method has often been criticised for producing children who all play very mechanically and in exactly the same way. This is a misconception. The Suzuki method teaches a very specific technique, so as a result children will look very similar when they play. As they get older, children are allowed to make their own decisions for themselves so their individuality is gradually allowed to shine through.
Musical literacy is essential in a child’s musical development, as this enables the child to interpret the markings on a page and convert these into sounds on the instrument, rather than having to imitate somebody else. There has been much criticism of the Suzuki method over the years as the children don’t start reading music until about the age of five or six. The problem arises from the fact that at the age of three or four, when a child would normally start their Suzuki lessons, they don’t have the basic brain/eye coordination to be able to cope with reading music on the stave. The early material is taught by rote and children aren’t required to learn their pieces from the music until a much later stage. There is of course going to be a period of time when Suzuki children will have far superior playing skills compared to reading skills because of this, but as they develop their reading skills will eventually catch up. They have various books that help children’s reading skills, such as I Can Read Music. Colourstrings children on the other hand usually start learning the instrument at the age of five or six, and have already developed good musical literacy skills from their musicianship lessons, so it is not such a problem. Concepts are introduced through a carefully sequenced process of ‘hearing, singing, deriving, writing, reading and creating’. This helps to develop greater understanding, helping the child’s confidence levels with using what can be very complicated ideas. The colourful pages in the Colourstrings books are made to be child-friendly. The staves used are much bigger than the standard size usually found in printed music, and to begin with only incorporate one or two lines to simplify reading. Each string on the violin has its own colour, rather than calling each string by its note name, and this makes it much easier for a child to understand. The material includes many diagrams and symbols to demonstrate techniques and musical concepts, and incorporates colourful illustrations that are familiar to the child from the ‘Rascals’ series. ‘By using colours, reading music becomes not a burden for the child but a pleasant challenge.’
An understanding of musical theory is needed to be able to convert the markings on the page into musical sounds. It is common practice for theory to be taught separately from the music, but this is arguably a huge pedagogical mistake, as it destroys the child’s understanding of the relationship between them. It can also be taught in a very dry, uninteresting way and this can discourage the child from learning. This means that a lot depends on the teacher and whether they are able to explain things on a child’s level, which is what Suzuki teacher training explains. Suzuki children are taught musicianship skills in their group lessons. To begin with, the teacher introduces a concept to the child so they are not conscious of it. Gradually things are brought to a sub-conscious level before finally the child is fully aware of what they are doing. The child is introduced to concepts in a natural and enjoyable way, and this assists their learning. An example of this in the Colourstrings method is how children first learn to sing songs with the words, then with solfa syllables, and then eventually will be able to recognise intervals such as so – mi as a minor third. For Colourstrings children, the theory is incorporated into, and made a part of, the initial learning of the music. ‘The child’s solfege and theory needs are integrated into the instrumental tutor books.’
In order to perform effectively as a soloist, it is essential to have good memorization skills. Suzuki stresses the importance of this and insists the child learns all their pieces from memory. Listening to the recordings is the first stage in this process, so when the child comes to play it on the violin, they already know it from memory by ear. He demonstrates how children can be nurtured to develop good memory skills from an early age. ‘After the first piece is internalized, train some more and add the next piece. Master it and add the next. Keep every piece learned so that it can be played at any time.’ The ‘review’ is an important part of Suzuki training. This is where the child takes a lucky dip, picks out one of their pieces that they’ve already learnt, and has to perform it there and then. This ‘pyramid’ approach encourages the child to build up a large repertoire of music. Suzuki children are taught words that fit with the tunes they’re playing, and may use different colours and names for different sections of a piece. This helps in the memorization process. In the Colourstrings method, not so much attention is given to memorization of their pieces, but instead the children develop their memory skills through exercises that are part of their musicianship sessions. Learning songs by rote encourages them to remember small sections of music at first, no more than a bar long at a time, and this is gradually built up to learning entire songs by memory. Rhythm flash cards also help memory skills, as they can be used in a way that requires the child to read the current card whilst remembering and performing the last one. Children are encouraged to do solo performances in public from memory, but it is not compulsory unlike the Suzuki method.
The value of group lessons is addressed in both the Suzuki and Colourstrings methods. Children usually have a combination of individual lessons as well as group lessons. The group lessons help children to develop their ensemble skills, so when they eventually come to play in orchestras or chamber ensembles, they will be used to playing with other children and will have learnt the skills required to play in that situation. In the Suzuki method, there are arrangements of Book I and II pieces with string ensemble accompaniment. Many Suzuki teachers make use of the wide variety of pieces arranged and published by other string teachers, such as Mini Quartets for 4 Violins that are readily available. In the Colourstrings method, there are many arrangements of familiar tunes from the ‘Rascals’ books that the children can learn to play. These include duos, trios, quartets and orchestra arrangements so the child has the experience of playing in many different types of ensemble. ‘The versatile ensemble-playing scheme makes what was traditionally individual playing become instead a social activity.’
One of the most important aspects of teaching is to keep motivation levels high amongst students. Daniel Kohut states, ‘without genuine motivation, there will be no practice. Without practice, no progress will occur, and thus no learning. Without learning, the teaching-learning process finds itself at a dead end.’ He explains the two types of motivation, internal (or self-motivation) and external, of which the former is the most important. One way to encourage high levels of internal motivation is to make the learning process enjoyable. Both Colourstrings and Suzuki methods are very successful at doing this. Games have been developed that teach the child something specific, but at the same time they let the children have fun in what they’re doing. Group lessons are a useful setting in which motivation can be improved. When a child sees other children doing something, they will want to join in. Having slightly more advanced children in the group helps the less able to develop, and gives the more able a sense of satisfaction as they demonstrate to the younger children. No child is made to feel inferior in this process. The pace is kept very slow at the beginning and each child is allowed to go at their own speed.
To conclude, both the Suzuki and Colourstrings methods are highly effective ways to help children in their development. One of the most important things to remember about both methods is that the aim is not necessarily to produce exceptional musicians, but to assist the development of children through music. Suzuki says ‘the purpose of Talent Education is to train children, not to be professional musicians but to be fine musicians and to show high ability in any other field they enter.’ The motto of his school as a child was ‘first character, then ability… this principle has been a light to my path all my life and is written on my heart.’ Géza describes how ‘Colourstrings is a family-centred and a child-centred educational philosophy, programme and technique which, with the help of music, desires to strengthen a happy childhood. A happy childhood makes a happy adulthood possible.’
