Children between the ages of 3 to 6 years old need special skills before embarking on a successful attempt at playing the violin. We can not simply shove the violin into the child's hands and ask them to hold it and play. We are obliged to begin where the child is at in their development and bring them to the violin step by step. In this way, he/she will learn to play just as they learned to walk and talk.

One day, Dr. Suzuki was seen standing outside a classroom door, his eyes closed. When asked what he was doing, he replied, "I am mentally preparing myself for the five-year-old mind. I want to come down to their physical limitations and up to their sense of wonder and awe."

People often ask, "Does it not require a lot of patience on your part to work with children who are so young?" I often reply, "No, It requires my curiosity." The teacher of the young child needs to be constantly curious about the true nature of the child and their developmental needs. You must look for 101 ways to learn "Twinkle" better.

Children learn by doing. We can not talk at a child in order to convey information. We must devise an activity that allows one to experience the knowledge we want them to have. Children need to move and feel, hear and smell in order to remember their experience.

Listening is Magic. All of the children in the Suzuki Program are required to do listening at home. This includes a CD of the Suzuki version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" which includes 4 rhythmic variations which the child must internalize before they can apply them to producing a tone on the violin. In order to do this, one needs to listen to consecutive repetitions of these variations on a daily basis. While listening to music in this way, the young child does more than memorize a piece of music. According to recent research, we may be changing the way in which a child's brain processes information and thus change the way he learns. I observe that, children who listen in this way develop a longer attention span and better concentration.

Children need both movement and stillness to prepare their bodies for learning. By working with the foot chart, children find their bodies. Just holding the violin requires an awareness of balance and good posture. The young child needs to find his feet on the foot chart many times. It becomes a wonderful game because children like to show what they can do with their feet. Walking is a significant part of one's development. Many times, Dr. Suzuki said to me, "Walking is bowing and bowing is balance." I soon discovered that you can only play the violin as well as you can walk.

Children learn a concept through the use of larger movements before they are introduced to the smaller movements which they need in order to master the violin. By contrast, the tempo of the variations children learn from the Twinkle CD are very short patterns at lively tempos chosen to match a shorter attention span and a preference for "heart beat" tempos. Everything is done with the purpose of feeding their senses with what they need in order to assimilate information. If we did not do the large movements with the ball first, a child's nervous system might not detect the change in direction one must feel later when moving the bow. The whole body of a great violinist must move and feel the nuances of bow movement. The child is able to develop this sensitivity to a high degree. By moving up and down with the ball, the child's whole body experiences the movement of the bow arm. When all the variations are mastered, one is able to remember the movements needed to slide only the hand up and down the arm easily. A child learns direction of movement first and then length of the strokes. Ultimately he becomes able to do it rhythmically in time with the recording. By the time he is bowing on his shoulder with the bow, he has many of the skills necessary for playing the first variation on the violin.

It is important to realize that the violin is supported by the shoulder and the chin. The arm must be completely free and flexible for moving fingers across the fingerboard. In the first stages, children demonstrate that they can balance the box violin with their chin. They are not distracted by the temptation to play on the real instrument until this skill is mastered. They must be able to keep the violin side of the body quiet while the bow arm is moving. For a 3- year-old, this is a significant task in their development.

When the real violin is introduced, it is very important that the size of the instrument is correct for the child. The elbow must remain comfortably close to the body so that the fingers can be relaxed when the time comes to use them. I tell parents that their "child's body is a delicate musical instrument." Any unnecessary tension caused by placing a violin on the child's body is likely to affect their bow arm as well as the flexibility of their fingers in the violin hand. This will be heard in the tone and limit one's musical sensibility. Before the fingers are used to play the melody, all the bowing variations that were learned in the first stages will be mastered on the "E" string and then on the "A" string.

Everything we have done up to this point to prepare the body is for the purpose of making a beautiful tone. The first experience of putting the bow on the string has been awaited with eager anticipation. We want the first sound that the child makes on the string to be one that inspires many future attempts. All the work that has been done to bring a child to this moment should be rewarded with success.

By listening to music first, just as children listen to language from the womb, our children learn to play naturally as they would speak their own language. The child is encouraged and allowed to repeat an activity as often as they need to. Children have the rest of their lives to learn to play music. The goal of the musical experience is not to learn a piece of music but to discover the skills that one can bring to playing music on the violin. -Cynthia Faisst _

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