Untitled: Why the Suzuki Method is incorrect.

The goal in mind for music education should be music literacy. I think the main problem with music education is the problem that is faced by music more generally. Music as an art compared with reading or writing a language, has not become prevalent in society for one reason or another. The result of this fact is that more extreme positions either demonizing or deifying music notation come to the surface more easily. For instance, if reading and writing were not basic skills taught in most education systems, intransigent pedagogical philosophies would be more prevalent. Similarly we are stuck, in music education, with well-respected pedagogies and teachers that hail or deride music notation.

In reality, both point-of-views are problematic because students that are taught either point-of-view are ill-equipped because they will only know one or the other: to play and not to read, to read and not to create. We cannot imagine a world where there were people that were exclusively readers or exclusively writers, therefore how has music fallen behind?

In response to your comment, we similarly cannot imagine a world where there were students equipped to read and not to write, to speak and not to read, to write and not to speak. And while students might find one to come at first more naturally, we wouldn’t base an entire pedagogy around this occurrence, or think that because of this “talent” they would be ill-equipped to learn that in which they weren’t as seemingly talented for. Doing so would seem negligent and would be the fault of the teacher, not the student for not having the natural ability. Similarly, I don’t think that we should treat music education this way.

 Additionally, all our past experiences and learning styles affect those subjects and skills that we can come to more easily. What makes learning hard is overcoming that arbitrary disposition— creating new experiences and expanding our learning styles and ost importantly: finding the teachers that can enable us to do so.

allofthismusic:

Interesting thoughts.  I think that we have to balance reading skills with aural skills.  The ultimate goal is to be able to turn symbols on a page into sounds both in our minds and through our instruments.  Also, which method is most effective also depends on the student and their learning styles and previous experiences.

berglar:

It’s true that this very sentence has been ingrained in me by my Pace Piano teacher, Yoko Jimbo since I was a wee young one. But yesterday I realized that the idea that Suzuki is the wrong way and that Pace is the right way was never logically bridged in all that time.

First, a quick intro:

As…

Untitled: Why the Suzuki Method is incorrect.