Suzuki Parents Guide
Dear students and parents,
Welcome to our QMA Suzuki Kids Program. We are thrilled that you and your child are ready for your musical learning journey together. There is lots of information and preparation to do before you are ready to start playing. Let’s be patient and get ready for every step so we will be going in the right direction.
Getting an Instrument: How to get a Piano/Keyboard or Violin/Cello rental
Items needed for Suzuki Methods learning
Suggested reading for Musical Parenting
What to expect for the first 3 months of learning
About Violin and Cello Rental
We work with Paul Effman Music for all instrument rentals.
Paul Effman Instrument Rental Packet - Please read their terms carefully
To rent an instrument:
Select District as “Private”
Select School as “Queens Music Academy”
Select the instrument
Fill out the details required and select “Free School Delivery” as your delivery option.
In the “Notes” section of the form, please note that you want home delivery and provide them your address. Please note, cellos cannot be shipped - we however can pick up cellos from their Lagrangeville location.
Submit your rental form.
Physical rental forms are available at our office.
Keyboard Suggestions:
List of Items Needed for Students
Similar items should suffice but please share with us where you found those similar items.
For Cello Students:
Collapsable stool of 9' inch like THIS ONE
a cello strap that you can purchase from Terra Nova like THIS ONE or a wooden one like THIS ONE
Make a bow: using a stick and Lego piece or eraser taping together
For Violin Students:
Make a box violin: use a paint stirrer and little flat box and masking tape or duck tape to decorate. INSTRUCTIONS HERE
Foot chart
Make a bow: using a stick and Lego piece or eraser taping together
For All Students:
A three-ring binder filled with blank paper to draw
A notebook for you to take notes
A recording device to record homework to watch at home
Books:
Primary
Theory
Cello: ABC Cello Book 1 here
Violin: ABC Violin Book 1 here
I Can Read Violin Book 1 here
I Can Read Cello Book 1 here
Piano: theory; John Thompson ‘s Easiest Piano Course part 1 here
Recording and Backing Tracks: Here are the links where you can listen to mp3 files for each instrument so it can be played with any bluetooth device in the house and in the car.
Violin Book 1
Cello Book 1
Piano Book 1
Metronome + Tuner like this Korg TM60 (When your student is preparing for middle and high school All-Region or All-State contests, students are not allowed to bring any smartphone devices into the audition halls. Therefore I recommend students still have a traditional device like this one to get used to tuning and counting.)
For Apple devices, I recommend this app Tunable
Rosin
Suggested reading for Musical Parenting
Nurtured by Love by Shinichi Suzuki
To Learn with Love by William Starr
Helping Parents Practice: Ideas for Making it Easy, vol. 1 by Edmund Sprunger
What to expect for the first 3 months of learning
Wait until the lesson starts to open the case - Do not expect your child to know how to play a song after the first lesson and want to practice on her own right away.
Note-taking is crucial for starting lessons - Students need to practice at home correctly to ensure good progress. To do that successfully, having a consistent helper daily can truly set the foundation well. One practice partner(usually one of the parents and preferably the same person) should attend each lesson to take notes. If that is not possible, either the student or the teacher will need to spend time taking the notes for the student, which will slow down the progress.
Weekly homework should be recorded for viewing at home or on the road during a vacation to ensure home practice is accurate. A recording device is highly recommended for taking lessons. The student’s practice partners are expected to figure out how the technology works to make it easy for the students to watch the instruction videos at home daily and using practice app or login on the practice log book
Musical Environment & Life Skills
Month 1:
Listen to the Suzuki soundtracks daily.
Getting to know the new teacher, setup and lesson routine. Only one teacher in a lesson.
How to take notes and use the home practice chart.
Greeting bow (“I am ready to learn”) at the beginning and a thank you bow at the end of each lesson.
Parents learn every step the student is learning to be the collaborator for daily home practice.
Encourage students’ independence.
Learn the names of instrument’s parts and strings, instrument care, and the function of the bow. Draw the instrument.
Learn rest position, ready to pluck, make up songs using open strings, count and clap.
For violin or cello students:
Bow hold and cello/violin hand shape preparatory exercises.
Bow hold: Magic Circle, pencil bow hold
This is how I hold my bow song
For cello student:
Cello hand shape: Ski-pluk, knuckle knocks
I love my cello very much
Posture song: feet on the ground, knee square knees, back straight, neck tall and I’m ready to fly!
Home practice routine starts small. *Short focused practice time (no more than 5 minutes each segment of practice) combined with a large variety of games and activities.
Performance & concert étiquettes.
Month 2:
Review and refine everything learned in Month 1
Refine posture
For Violin or cello student;
Bow hold: “twinkle” bow hold
Cello hand shape: cello hand finger pluck
Flower Song
Twinkle Variations: recognition and application
Home practice routine: the focused practice segments should be extended naturally to 8-10 minutes.
Encourage students to chart their own practice.
Month 3:
Review and refine everything learned in Month 2
Twinkle Top (the first 4 notes of Twinkle)
Three Blind Mice
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Bunny Song
“Cheese” part of Twinkle
“Bread” part of Twinkle
Complete Twinkle Variation A bread part