Nurtured by love & violin lesson

Another interesting book I read recently is called "Nurtured by love" by Shinichi Suzuki (translated by his wife). Suzuki's father owned the largest violin factory in Japan in the early 1900s in Japan. Suzuki started learning violin when he was 17. After 8 years of music stuides in Berlin, he returned to Japan (with his German wife) and started teaching kids violin and later started the "Talent Education" school. There are no chapters in this book and the events are not in sequence. There are snippets of information, thoughts plus stories under many headings so the book is hard to read at times. I also jumped from story to story and didn't read the book in sequence.

Suzuki believed talent is not inherited and it can be developed through education. He taught young kids to play violin through what he called the 'mother tongue' method - repetition and listening. He believes 'character first, ability second' and learnings should be made fun. There are many touching and inspiring stories in the book including how Suzuki taught a blind boy and a girl with epilepsy to play violin. I like the story of 'two girls raised by wolves' (I later googled and found scholars debated the trueness of this story). I also like the story of Suzuki's encounters with Einstein. Einstein was my childhood hero and when I learned that he played violin since six and said 'I know that the most joy in my life has come to me from my violin', I wanted to learn too. And when Lara showed an interest in violin, I jumped at the opportunity.

I did some research, talked to a few violin teachers in the area and took Lara and Sam to an early childhood music class. One of the violin teachers I talked to invited us to observe a lesson. Lara held the cupboard violin and pretended she was playing it while the lesson took place. I was surprised she sat through the 30 minute lesson. She showed great excitement watching kids playing the same music on youtube later that night.

I got the violin book/CD and lined up the first lesson. Lara will start with 20-minute lessons, and see how she goes. Next step is to hire the violin!