Over the past couple of decades, my focus as a teacher has been to go beyond creating just performers of classical music. Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s Mother Tongue teaching philosophy has proven itself when it comes to teaching young children to perform difficult classical music. My goal is to apply these principles in an effort to nurture versatile Contemporary Pianists. Together, the following traits lay a strong foundation for musical success.
In these volumes, studied along with the standard repertoire, students, (the very young ones), learn theoretical elements, note positions in all keys, note reading, improvisation and much more. This is accomplished through a whole language approach, involving small steps, imitation, and repetition.
Because traditional theory involves predominantly written exercises, it is limited to older students. Most often, it is studied away from the keyboard as a separate subject, teaching minimal practical usage.
In "I Love to Hate to Practice", exercises a performed on the piano and are much comprehensive than its traditional counterparts. Elements include pentatonic scales, blues scales, modes, 12-bar progressions, and technical exercises are standard. These are barely touched upon in traditional studies.
Back in the days of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, the ability to read, perform, compose and improvise were considered to be of equal importance. The technical/visual (performance) was combined with the creative, (composition/improvisation) to produce multi-faceted musicians. When, the conservatory-based Traditional Musical Educational system emerged, the emphasis was placed on performance, and for whatever reason, the creative elements were eliminated.
In every other art form, students begin to practice their own creative expression right from the very first day. Painting, drawing, sculpture, poetry, drama, and creative writing classes all give students the opportunity to experience the creative process as a normal part of their learning.
The Mother Tongue Method of musical education involves teaching a student to play the piano in the same way as they would naturally learn to speak their language through listening, imitation and repetition, which develops a strong ear, superior concentration and excellent memory.
Musicians have been learning in this way for centuries. The early composers were raised in a musical environment where performance, improvisation and composition were all part of their education.
The world of music has always contained amazing musicians who have had little or no formal training at all. I used to wonder, "How did these people attain such musical prowess..... such advanced musical ears..... a strong working knowledge of the elements of theory..... the ability to improvise..... the ability to compose..... the ability to have musical conversations with others?" Musicians such as these are often categorized as "naturally gifted." While I don't deny this, I also believe much of their knowledge was attained through Mother Tongue learning.
Many classical musicians are lost without a piece of music in front of them. Many contemporary musicians, (jazz, pop, rock, etc.), with fantastic musical ears are lost when they are confronted with a printed score.
Contrary to popular belief, Traditional Musical Education is not comprehensive. Its curriculum is centered around Western classical music's major/minor system, not touching on a vast number of elements essential to the Contemporary Musician.
The elements of contemporary music such as jazz, pop, rock and improvisation are considered to be too difficult for young students by many educators, and those wishing to study these must often wait until they can attend post-secondary educational institutions to do so.
Asking many musicians to improvise often produces a reaction of sheer terror because they have grown up learning to only play other people's music, but have never been taught how to "speak" themselves.
I have spent the greater part of the last two decades experimenting with my students to find ways to incorporate Dr. Suzuki's Mother Tongue techniques into the teaching of a curriculum, which includes skills necessary for today's Contemporary Pianist. As there are no existing "methods" pertaining to teaching these things to young people, I have had to carefully build my own.. The challenge has been to marry what I consider to be the strongest components of Traditional Musical Education, the "unschooled, self-taught" movement, and contemporary disciplines, (jazz, rock, pop, blues) into materials which can be presented in a natural, easy to digest "Mother Tongue" way.
To provide my students with the opportunity to obtain a diverse and comprehensive musical education consisting of the building blocks necessary for today's Contemporary Pianist - to nurture each student with respect and positive reinforcement - to never compare, never judge, but always support.
"Improvisation should be at the core of the music curriculum. It should come first and should remain at the core of music education throughout the later years of increasing expertise. Musicians educated with improvisation at the center will have a better-developed ability to think musically – to deeply understand music as well as be better prepared to interpret written scores."..... R. Keith Sawyer