Dr. Suzuki developed his teaching philosophy because he wanted to open a world of beauty to children by creating an environment that enables them to learn music the same way that they learn to speak their native language. He wanted to teach children how to play music in the same fashion using listening, positive reinforcement and repetition. Before a child says his/her first word he/she is listening and observing people speaking all around him/her. Then when he/she says that first word there is a lot of praise from parents grandparents etc. Then he/she doesn’t just stop saying the word, they repeat it over and over again until he learns another word and another, building a repertoire of words.

The Key aspects of the Suzuki Method are:

Parental Involvement Parents attend lessons, take notes and act as “home teachers” during daily practice. The teacher and Parent have a very special relationship both working to build a positive environment for the child. The “Suzuki Triangle” is PARENT, TEACHER, and CHILD.
Beginning Early Beginning music study early is important for developing the mind and motor skills. Listening to music can begin as soon as a child is born and lessons can begin as early as 2 or 3 years old. But remember it is never to late to start learning. Even an adult can begin taking lessons.
Listening Listening to all kinds of music is important, beneficial, but listening to the Suzuki CD of the pieces the student is learning is of utmost importance. Students will be learning by ear and listening to the CD is like the listening and repetition involved in language learning.
Repetition Repetition is essential to to the learning process. Students do not learn a word and then discard it. They instead add it to their vocabulary. The same goes fro the piece they learn. They do not learn a piece and then discard it, they add it to their repertoire.
Praise Sincere praise and encouragement should be given for the effort to learn a musical instrument. In the Suzuki Method each step is small and completed to mastery before moving on to the next step. Each student will learn differently, so in order to set up a positive environment encouragement at each step is very important.
Playing in groups Part of the process is playing with other students. Group classes are just as important as the private lessons. The students learn form group playing both in class and performances and are motivated by each other.
Repertoire The repertoire in the Suzuki books is graded. Each step or piece having an important role in the learning process. All the students learn the same repertoire and then are able to play together in groups as mentioned earlier.
Delayed Reading Just as children learn to speak before they learn to read a book, in the Suzuki Method the students learn the basic skills of playing the instrument before they learn to read music. They DO learn to read music just after they are comfortable playing the instrument.