Shinichi Suzuki: The Man and His Philosophy

by Shinichi Suzuki, Evelyn Hermann

Shinichi Suzuki has been described as a humanitarian as well as an educator and musician. As a young man, he observed that children absorbed their spoken language based on their environment. This led him to adapt his teaching of music to the same method, that which is called the Mother Tongue Approach." Through listening to the sound of music, very young children soon imitate the tones they hear. Suzuki believes that talent is not inherited, but is a product of environment, and that every child can perform music just as he or she has learned to speak, if the proper teaching approach is used. Revised in 1995, The Man and His Philosophy contains many new photos, some of them depicting the many "firsts" in the Suzuki world, such as Dr. Suzuki with his first students, plus many more. This is a complete history of the Suzuki movement, in words and pictures, from its beginnings to the present day."

232 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1981

About the author

Shinichi Suzuki (鈴木 鎮一 Suzuki Shin'ichi, 17 October 1898 – 26 January 1998) was the inventor of the international Suzuki method of music education.

He developed a philosophy for educating people of all ages and abilities & is considered an influential pedagogue in music education of children.
Suzuki often spoke of the ability of all children to learn things well, especially in the right environment, and of developing the heart and building the character of music students through their music education.

Before his time, it was rare for children to be formally taught classical instruments from an early age and even more rare for children to be accepted by a music teacher without an audition or entrance examination. Not only did he endeavor to teach children the violin from early childhood and then infancy, his school in Matsumoto did not screen applicants for their ability upon entrance.

Suzuki was also responsible for the early training of some of the earliest Japanese violinists to be successfully appointed to prominent western classical music organizations.
During his lifetime, he received several honorary doctorates in music including from the New England Conservatory of Music (1956), and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, was proclaimed a Living National Treasure of Japan, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Agnė Pasaravičienė · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book covered some fundamentals of Shinichi Suzuki life, as well as the story of his movement called Talent Education. An author gathered lots of relevant information regarding this movement: philosophy, guidelines of educational methods, some specific instructions and explanations for violin teaching methods.