Suzuki Sampler: Cello | Piano | Violin | GuitarSuzuki Sampler: Guitar (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog)
It’s 20 minutes after we’re supposed to have started, and there’s no instructor here. When you consider how rapidly a Suzuki lesson goes, I figured that didn’t bode well for today.
My son Peter and the other student in the class, Georgie, immediately start playing with each other while they wait.
Complicating matters is the fact that I have to leave early, so my wife has to bring our 2-year old along.
The instructor arrives. If she gives her name, I don’t catch it. She begins with the standard “get to know the instrument” demonstration.
The guitar is your friend. Will never fight with you or break up with you. When you’re happy, he’s with you. When you’re sad, he’s with you. But you have to be delicate.
Hmm… I’m not sure that my six-year-old son would understand the concept of “breaking up,” but otherwise the introduction is fine. The instructor shows the guitar’s head and neck, and asks the boys to show their own heads and necks. That’s working out well enough.
Since the boys have seen two other string instruments this week, Peter glances at the handout and shrugs. “You know what, I don’t even need to look at this to know what it is.”
But there are parts of a guitar that don’t correspond to other instruments. For instance, I didn’t know there was such a thing as a “tapping plate”.
Georgie recognizes the bridge, and sings a bit of the cello teacher’s “this is the bridge” melody. He starts tapping the guitar, which upsets Peter, but the instructor says that’s fine.
Now that Peter knows the instructor won’t get mad if he touches the guitar, he’s like a moth to a flame. The instructor keeps shifting it over a few inches, just out of his reach, and Peter keeps scooting after it.
When I leave, Peter and Georgie are learning the letters that go along with the fingers on their right hand — p, i m, a, e. I wonder what the letters stand for, and why there isn’t a mnemonic for it.
I give the camera to Leigh and head off to my meeting across town.
* * *
When I get home a couple hours later, Leigh is on the couch, reading books to Carolyn, and Peter is nowhere in sight. He’s in bed already.
Uh-oh.
Leigh tells me that the lesson was a disaster.
Peter was sticking out his tongue at everybody, shouting “blaah!” and “I don’t care!”. When Georgie decided that he would be a dog for the rest of the night, Peter chased him around and tried to knock down his imaginary doghouse.
According to Leigh, this is the worst she’s ever seen Peter act in public. (He can be stubborn and sullen, but I’ve really only seen him throw one honest-to-goodness temper-tantrum, and he was probably only two then. Now, he prefers to stew over a particular injustice, rather than lash out in general lamentations concerning the injustice of the universe, which is more Carolyn’s style.)
The previous lessons (in cello, piano, and violin) always seemed to teeter on the verge of chaos, but somehow managed to remain coherent. I think that after 20 minutes of playing with each other, George and Peter were too interested in each other to focus when the guitar finally arrived.
According to Georgie’s mom, Carolyn, whose presence we worried would be disruptive, was the only one good enough to deserve to play the instrument.
Definitely a very different article on Guitar lessons. Don’t usually see it from a kids point of view.
Thanks,
Steve.
To answer your question, Naomi, this was a single day in a 5-day series of classes… the idea was that each day of the week kids would be introduced to a different instrument, and then if they wanted, they could sign up for additional classes.
For very young children, the actual lessons can be as short as 15 minutes.
When my son was 6, 7 and 8, he had a half-hour individual lesson and a half-hour group lesson.
Of course it’s a business plan — just like anyone else who tries to make a living as a music teacher, the Suzuki teachers want to expose potential customers to their services. While my son didn’t choose to play guitar, he did say he wanted to play piano, and he’s been taking lessons almost constantly since.
We think it’s worth it. Your mileage may vary.
Having read your critiques I was wondering what your opinion of Suzuki music teaching is now? (With the possible exception of the guitar teacher. Just as well she failed to introduce herself I think).
I wonder why these teachers are using such long lesson times with such young children. Even at school the average lesson is only around 45-60 mins maximum. Do you have any ideas or is it just a “business concept” to encourage you to pay more £?
Huh… I think some of the teachers make up their own little memory tricks, or maybe that’s standard with Suzuki. Anyway, I had to leave early so I don’t know how the finger-letters were supposed to work.
Dennis, You’ve just opened another whole door on experiences to come in child rearing. Mikey bangs on a piano but I hadn’t actually thought ahead to the day he will begin taking lessons. It sounds fun.
And by the way, I took guitar lessons for years and I had no idea that letters went with the fingers of the right hand.
LOL! That’s just what a frazzled dad needs to hear!
I just got back from his final lesson, on recorder and voice. He was a perfect angel. No time to blog it just now, but it’ll come soon.
Dennis, this series has been an interesting and highly entertaining account of Peter’s venture into the world of music lessons and I have enjoyed it immensely, particularly because of the easy style of writing and honesty that you have employed. I hope you are saving this somewhere for Peter to read someday.
But the one thing that I absolutely must comment on: Peter is cute, no doubt; but that head of hair, the lushness, style, all of it–it’s phenomenal! I doubt the girls in his future will care if he plays a guitar.