The Suzuki Method of guitar in history perspective

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MINAS GERAIS – UEMG

Introduction
The Suzuki method, also known as the Mother Tongue Method, was developed by the pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998) from 1930. Initially, his ideas were applied to the violin. However, he stated that the principles of this education could be applied to other musical instruments (LANDERS, 1987, p. 25). The method has been an important pedagogical strategy, used by several music teachers, including more recently Brazilian guitar teachers.
The Suzuki Method recommends that children play an instrument in a similar way to the way they learn their mother tongue: first, listen in a family context, repeat what was learned with motivation from parents and then start to speak. In music, students are encouraged to listen daily to the pieces of the repertoire. The teacher promotes many repetitions of the repertoire in a playful way of what he sees and hears to finally perform the piece by memory (BORGES, 1995, p. 148).
Currently, the Suzuki method is used for 13 instruments and singing, in addition to the courses for the program for the teaching of babies (SECE)1, as described in the table below:
Instruments with application of the Suzuki Method:

Accordion (the first book is being developed); Babies (SECE) – there are no publications; there are 5 courses for teachers; Brass – 1 book for trumpet; Cello – 10 books; Contrabass – 5 published books, from the sixth to the ninth are being developed; Flute – 11 books; Guitar – 9 books; Harp – 5 books published, the sixth is being developed; Mandolin – The first book is being developed; Organ – 8 books; Piano – 7 books; Recorder (Soprano and Contralto) – 8 books for each; Viola – 9 books; Violin – 10 books; Voice – 3 books.
Source: Prepared by the authors from data extracted from the site https://internationalsuzuki.org. Access in June 2022.
1Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE), Suzuki Education for early childhood, a program for children from zero to three years.
The Suzuki Guitar School
The adaptation of the Suzuki Guitar School began when the American professor William Kossler2, in 1980, undertook for five years his Guitar Project in Colombia, South Carolina, USA. In 1985, through a scholarship from Rotary International School, Kossler traveled to Matsumoto, Japan, with the goal of knowing personally the teaching at the Institute of Talent Education. His direct experience with Suzuki gave him significant contributions to the adaptation of his ideas. The contact with Toshio Takahashi, author of the Suzuki Flute School, together with other international teachers, transformed Professor Kossler and his conceptions of teaching of the guitar. (KOSSLER, 1986, p.26).
Frank Longay3, another guitar pedagogue, at the same time at the Kossler’s project, shared this same purpose establishing contact with Suzuki teachers, Wampner and Murphy (GENDRON; ROBERT, 2011, p.47).
Kossler and Longay met through the Suzuki American Association (SAA) and in 1986, together with Peruvian teacher Cesar Benevidas, formed SAA’s first international guitar committee, with the direct supervision of Suzuki. Other teachers were added4, such as European guitar players Elio Galvagno from Italy, Philippe Francaise from France and Michael Köppe from Germany, as well as other American teachers, Seth Himmelhoch, Andy LaFreniere, Simon Salz and Erin Johnson, developing ideas on the creation of the method. In 1990, Suzuki was impressed by the performance of Longay’s guitar students, recognizing the good results achieved with the method during the SAA Biannual Conference. (GENDRON; ROBERT, 2011, p.48-49).
2William Kossler (1945 n.1945 – *) Internationally known guitarist as teacher and performer. Master in Perfórmance at the University of South Carolina where he studied with Christopher Berg. Kossler is the author of several publications on guitar pedagogy and his articles have appeared in several magazines American (SUZUKI ASSOCIATION OF THE AMERICAS, 2022).
3Frank Longay (1948 – 2011). Guitarist and educator, was president and member founder of the Committee guitar from the Association International Suzuki and of the Committee from Guitar from Suzuki Association of the Americas. He studied with Rey de La Torre and George Sakellariou. For his dedication to development of the Suzuki Guitar School and by the creation of the Longay Conservatory of Guitar, Longay was honored, in 2006, with the prize Creating Learning Community, granted by the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SUZUKI ASSOCIATION OF THE AMERICAS, 2022).
4The Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA), established in 1971, was the first association founded outside Japan and currently covers all countries in the Americas, including Brazil. (SUZUKI ASSOCIATION OF THE AMERICAS, 2022).
According to Griffin (1989, p.25), from 1988 to 1991, several guitar seminars were promoted and coordinated by Kosller and Longay, resulting in the first publication of the Suzuki Guitar School in 1991.
Volume 1 has a pedagogical approach for children’s starting from the age of three, establishing a technical basis for a continuous learning process. “Prominent pedagogues of the guitar have raised concerns about teaching methods at the elementary levels, as well as about the quality of music available to students” (MERRY, 2010, p. 147). Table 2 below shows the pieces from book 1:
Table 2 – Suzuki Guitar School Book 1 Repertory
Original name
Name in Portuguese
1 – Twinkle, twinkle little star Variations (A, B, C, D, E and Theme);
Variações e tema do Brilha, brilha estrelinha
(folk music);
2 – Lightly row;
Remando suavemente (folk music);
3 – Go tell aunt Rhody;
Conta pra tia Rose (folk music);
4- Song of the wind;
Canção do vento (folk music);
5 – May song;
Canção de maio (folk music);
6 – Allegretto;
Allegretto (composition by Mauro Giuliani [1781-1829] – classical);
7 – Perpetual motion;
Modo perpétuo (composition by Shinichi Suzuki presented in the book for violin);
8- Rigadoon;
Rigadoon (composition by Henry Purcell [1659-1695] – baroque);
9 – Are you sleeping, Brother John?
Polegares (folk music);
10 – French folk song;
Canção francesa (folk music);
11 – Tanz;
Dança (composition by George Leopold Führman [1578-1616] – Renaissance);
12 – Tanz;
Dança (composition by Johann Christian Bach [1735-1782] – classical);
13 – With steady hands;
Com mãos firmes (composition by Frank Longay);
14 – Meadow minuet.
Minueto do campo (composition by Frank Longay).
Source: Suzuki Guitar School (SUZUKI, 1991)
The familiarity and diversity of the repertoire contribute to a greater interest, curiosity and motivation in the children’s world. Book 1 contains 14 songs, seven of which are folk, a Renaissance composition, one from the Baroque period, two from the classical, one by Suzuki and two by Longay. The first twelve songs are solo played by the student. In the last two
pieces, as a new technical development, the students play both the melody and the accompaniment.
In 1991, the guitar accompaniment volume 1 for teachers was published. Figure 1 below shows an excerpt from Purcell’s baroque song Rigadoon with the student part (upper staff) along with the teacher part (lower staff), as an example of polyphonic arrangement:
Figure 1 – Excerpt from the Song Rigadoon from Suzuki Guitar School vol.1
Source: Suzuki Guitar School, revised edition (SUZUKI, 1999).
This arrangement gives many different accompaniments better elaborated in relation to the solo repertoire of the student, providing a more interesting musical listening through the polyphony performed by the teacher.
Twenty-eight years of elaboration of the method were spent from the project started by Kossler in the early 1980s until the publication of the last volume in 2008. From 1991 to 2009, the volumes from three to nine were published, from the basic level to the advanced, from the music Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Variations to Asturias by Albeniz.
Most of the recordings of the repertoire accompanying the books were made by the Greek guitarist George Sakellariou5. With the revised new editions of volumes 1 (1999) and
5 George Sakellariou (b.1964 – *) he is an internationally renowned Greek guitarist. Graduated at the Athens Conservatory and continued his studies with Segovia. At twenty, became professor at the Faculty and Conservatory of San Francisco where he became director of the guitar department. He was Frank Longay’s teacher. Sakellariou
v.2 (2015), other guitarists recorded the same repertoire again, such as Seth Himmelhoch, Andrew Lafreniere, Louis Brown, William Kanengiser and Scott Tennant.
The Method has have contributions from different international teachers and has developed other demands and motivation from the pedagogical community.
Suzuki teacher training
Currently, Suzuki training courses are regulated by SAA and the Suzuki Musical Association of São Paulo (AMS), created in 2010, boosting the production of the courses in Brazil.
The training by the Suzuki method consists of first performing the Suzuki Philosophy course, an introduction to his methodology and required condition for the application of the method to the instrument, with a total of 24 hours, being 15 hours of pedagogy and at least eight hours of observation of classes. The methodology is developed from live classes, observing teachers trainers empowering students who are learning the method. Table 3 describes the content of this course:
Table 3 – Content addressed in the Suzuki Philosophy Course
1 – Shinichi Suzuki’s life and work;
2 – The Suzuki philosophy and the Mother Tongue Method;
3 – The Suzuki Triangle (student, parents and teacher);
4 – Skills development: environment, motivation and practice;
5 – Musical and extramusical contents of the methodology: Character first, skill second6 (SUZUKI, 2012, p.82).
6 – The application of the Mother Tongue Method to music education;
7 – Design and length of classes;
8 – Methodology specific questions: positive approach, tonalization7, learning through listening, postponed reading.
9 – The importance of parents’ attending. Guidance to help children at home and in classes;
10 – Role and responsibilities of Suzuki teacher;
11 – Suzuki Method’s training;
performed in several concert halls in the USA and the world. (SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, 2022).
6Quote widely used by Suzuki teachers which refers to the philosophical concept of their method that, through music, contributes to a wider development of the human being. (SUZUKI, 2012, p.82).
7Name described in Suzuki books which means a set of technical and musical exercises before learning a new piece.
12 – Suzuki associations in the world.8
Source: By the authors from data provided during Suzuki training courses.
After this philosophy course, the teacher can start the Suzuki book courses specific to his instrument. In guitar classes, there are nine book courses in a total of 36 hours of training, including eight hours of observations of live sessions or masterclass and 28 hours of pedagogy. Courses in volumes 1, 2 and 3 must be done in sequence. To participate in them, the teacher needs to be approved in a video-audition and know how to play fluently and refined the entire repertoire of the course by heart. Once successful, the teacher receives a certificate from the organizers and has his course registered with SAA. According to Alvim (2022, p. 77), book courses contain three main components:
(1) Pedagogy: the training teacher reviews the Suzuki Philosophy and analyzes the main pedagogical points of each piece. The teachers experience the techniques presented and have the opportunity to learn the teaching strategies of the skills;
(2) Observations in the classes: teachers observe the masterclasses given by the training teacher to Suzuki students. These classes are an important opportunity to verify the use of teaching strategies. The participants fill out forms in which they record the content, the strategies, the results and their doubts regarding the classes observed.
(3) Performance of the entire repertoire of the volume: the course participant needs to play the entire repertoire for the training teacher. His performance usually takes place individually, out of the course. The participant receives a return from the teacher trainer who scores the positive aspects of the performance and suggests points to be improved.
The content in book 1 course is organized in two categories, as described below:
Table 3 – Pedagogical and technical content in the Suzuki Book 1
Pedagogy
1 – Review of Suzuki Philosophy;
2 – How to work with parents and students;
3 – Analysis of the pieces of the book 1 and teaching strategies;
4 – Reading;
5 – Cumulative learning of the repertoire;
8Suzuki associations in the world: ISA (International Suzuki Association), SAA (American Suzuki Association), ESA (European Suzuki Association), ARSA (Asian Regional Suzuki Association), PPSA (Pan-Pacific Suzuki Association), TERI (Talent Education Research Institute) and AMS (Suzuki Musical Association of Brazil).
6 – Performance in group classes;
7 – Strategies for group classes;
8 – Suzuki communities in the world
Technique
1 – Posture: size of the guitar for children; adjusting the body in relation to the instrument;
2 – Movement and relaxation of the right and left hand;
3 – Rest stroke with the right hand;
4 – Control of the phalanges of the left hand;
5 – Coordination of both hands;
6 – Technique acquired with the Variations of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
7 – Learning the melodies through listening and imitation;
8 – Development of musicality, good sound, basic dynamics and phrasing;
9 – Use of games;
10 – Preparation for Book 2.
Source: By the authors from materials provided during Suzuki training courses.
The teacher can participate in the Extra Teaching Strategies course for pedagogical development in which the teacher must display an excerpt of his own class up to 20 minutes. The best of this is the experiences shared between participants. (MONTANARI, 2019, p. 35 and 104).
Another extra course, called Pre-Twinkle, has eight hours in length and contains a new repertoire and teaching activities to be developed before the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Variations. With the Covid-19, starting in August 2020, courses that previously could only be attended in person, began to be remotely offered, allowing more teachers to have easier access to this training.
Training courses are important for guitar teaching, as Berlin (2021, p. 11-12) points out:
[…] Despite an abundance of guitar method books and a growing number of guitar curricula, there are few resources to guide guitar teachers who need to supplement these or to develop their own curricula. Furthermore, little has been written pertaining to guitar repertoire and pedagogy for very young students.
The Suzuki Method of Guitar in Brazil
In Brazil, the first Suzuki Guitar course took place in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, during the VII National Meeting of the Suzuki Method, during July 13 and 21, 1996, taught by the French professor Phillippe Francaise (SAITO, 1997, p. 10).
After the regulation of Suzuki courses by SAA and Suzuki Musical Association of São Paulo, the guitar courses are offered in a frequently way in Brazil. In 2014, American training teacher MaryLoo Roberts takes the guitar book 1 course, promoted by the Suzuki Center of Campinas. MaryLoo Roberts and Diana Chagalj (Argentina) have taught Suzuki courses at Brazil.
Table 4 presents the list of training courses for teachers of the Suzuki Guitar Method promoted in Brazil from 2014 to June 2022:
Table 4 – Suzuki Guitar Courses List in Brazil (SAA/ AMS)
No.
Date
Course
State
1st
10 to 17/10/2014
Guitar Book 1
Sao Paulo
2sn
24 to 29/09/2015
Guitar Book 1
São Paulo
3rd
30/09/2015 to 04/10/2015
Guitar Book 2
São Paulo
4th
09 to 16/07/2015
Guitar Book 1
São Paulo
5th
15 to 16/07/2016
Teaching strategies
São Paulo
6th
15 to 20/07/2016
Guitar Book 3
São Paulo
7th
11 and 14/11/2016
Teaching strategies
São Paulo
8th
01 and 02/05/2017
Teaching strategies
São Paulo
9th
03 to 08/07/2017
Guitar Book 2
São Paulo
10th
08 and 09/07/2017
Teaching strategies
São Paulo
11th
10 to 14/07/2017
Guitar Book 4
São Paulo
12th
20 and 21/08/2017
Teaching strategies
São Paulo
13th
10 to 15/02/2018
Guitar Book 1
Santa Catarina
14th
13 to 17/07/2018
Guitar Book 3
São Paulo
15th
18 to 19/07/2018
Teaching strategies
São Paulo
16th
20 to 24/07/2018
Guitar Book 5
São Paulo
17th
27/01/2019 to 01/02/2019
Guitar Book 1
Santa Catarina
18th
03 and 04/02/2019
Teaching strategies
Santa Catarina
19th
04 to 08/02/2019
Guitar Book 2
Santa Catarina
20th
15 to 19/07/2019
Guitar Book 6
São Paulo
21th
20 and 21/07/2019
Teaching strategies
São Paulo
22th
22 to 27/07/2019
Guitar Book 1
Minas Gerais
23th
29/07/2019 to 02/08/2019
Teaching strategies
Goias
24th
27 to 29/01/2020
Teaching strategies
Santa Catarina
25th
29/01/2020 to 02/02/2020
Guitar Book 3
Santa Catarina
26th
18 to 22/01/2021
Guitar Book 4 – Online
Santa Catarina
27th
24 to 30/01/2021
Guitar Book 1 – Online
Minas Gerais
28th
06 to 14/07/2021
Guitar Book 1 – Online
Santa Catarina
29th
27 to 31/07/2021
Guitar Book 7 – Online
São Paulo
30th
22 to 30/01/2022
Guitar Book 1 – Online
Santa Catarina
Source: Prepared by the authors from data provided by SAA and AMS.
From the data brought by Table 4, we can observe relevant aspects, such as:
(1) Significant growth in the offer of training book courses from 2014, when the courses began to be regularized by SAA, as described in Graph 1 below:
Graph 1 – Number of Suzuki training courses (books) between October 2014 to June 2022
Source: Prepared by the authors from data provided by SAA and AMS
(2) Thirty Suzuki guitar courses were promoted in Brazil in just an interval of eight years (2014-2022), of which twenty were books and ten of teaching strategies;
(3) Only the states of São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Minas Gerais and Goias have already promoted these training courses.
In Table 4, courses of the training course (books 1 to 7 – last offered in Brazil until June 2022) and the enrichment course called Teaching Strategies were included. From the total number of courses, we would have an average of 3 Suzuki guitar courses produced annually in Brazil.
From the data collected by the four producers9 of Suzuki guitar courses, we can state that:
9Producers: Rafael Andrade do Suzuki Center for Music Education in São Paulo; Daniel de Lima of the Daniel de Lima Guitar Studio in Santa Cantarina; Adriano Assis Suzuki Center of Goiania in Goias and Adonay das Neves of the Ecos Centro Musical in Minas Gerais.

More of half of the Brazilian states have at least one guitar teacher who works with the Suzuki pedagogy and has already done at least the training course of book 1, as described in Figure 2 below:
Figure 2 – Map of Brazilian states with Suzuki guitar teachers between October 2014 and June 2022
Source: Prepared by the authors from data provided by the producers of Suzuki guitar courses in June 2022.
Fifteen Brazilian states have Suzuki guitar teachers, among the regions:
(1) North: Acre, Amazonas and Para.
(2) Northeast: Bahia, Ceara and Sergipe.
(3) Central: Goias and Federal District.
(4) Southeast: Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
(5) South: Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
All this previous information reinforces the panorama marked by Afonso and Aguerra (2020, p.5):
[. . .] it is important to point out that the Suzuki method approach to guitar in the Brazilian reality has presented excellent results that can be observed by the increasing number of teachers interested in training by the method.
Table 5 presents, in the form of a timeline, the general history of the Suzuki method of guitar, from the beginning of the elaboration of the method to the current Brazilian context:
Table 5 – Historical overview of the Suzuki Guitar Method until June 2022
Source: Prepared by the authors.
Conclusion
The elaboration of the Suzuki guitar method took twenty-eight years, from the project initiated by Kossler and Longay in the early 1980s, until the publication of the last volume in 2008. This process was collective, since it had the contribution of European and Latin American teachers. Over the years, the method has managed to enjoy so much worldwide recognition that, even after so many decades of its creation, it continues in the process of expansion, renewal and development.
With the elaboration of the method, a teacher training program was implemented. The Suzuki Method is one of the few methodologies that has such an organization, offering courses in which are reviewed the aspects of Suzuki Philosophy, analysis of the main pedagogical points of each of the pieces of the book, the teaching strategies for these points, besides also serving as a technical review for the participant teacher. This process fosters an important basis, covering pedagogy, observation of classes and performance, allowing the teacher to have tools available to face the challenges during the teaching of the instrument to children.
From 2014, training courses began to be offered in Brazil frequently, with the regulation of SAA and the Suzuki Musical Association of Brazil. This pedagogy contributed to a specialized vision of the children’s musical universe. In this sense, Suzuki’s methodological language was better integrated into the child’s degree of understanding in several modalities, such as: application of more interactive games, use of rhymes, daily relationships for explanations about musical forms, memory, styles, according to this technical terminologies in terms of their children’s loci. Far beyond the resources and pedagogical materials offered, there is the process of continuity of these actions inspired by these resources, since Brazilian teachers are encouraged to create and develop their own ideas from their particular sociocultural qualities.
We can see from this work, the small impact of the Suzuki method of guitar in the northeast and south-central regions of Brazil, which demonstrates that this methodology is promising in order to expand in a country which the guitar stars so many sociocultural scenarios.
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