Welcome to Suzukifiddle.com -- the online home of Monica Perry's Suzuki Violin Studio in Houston, Texas! Please take the time to look around -- the decision that you're about to make about your child's education is very important! Monica Perry's Violin Studio offers both private and group lessons for children 2 1/2 years and up. Relying heavily on the methods developed and promoted by Dr. Suzuki, Monica believes in teaching in a totally Loving, Compassionate and Positive atmosphere. Her goal is to have each and every student LOVE to come to their Violin Lessons...and she believes that it is her responsibility, as many student's very first music teacher, to make sure that each student has an absolutely amazing and fun experience. This is all done, of course, while learning to play an absolutely AMAZING instrument!
For those of you not familiar with the Suzuki Method, please see the Suzuki Page for Information, Links and recommended reading.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Monica at Monica@suzukifiddle.com. She'll be sure to answer any questions that you may have!
Here is a small example of Dr. Suzuki's philosophy of Early Childhood Education, thanks to the Suzuki Association of Americas Website:
For many years, Japanese children sent graduation tapes to Dr. Suzuki so he could hear their playing. He would listen and make comments to the children and then return the tapes to them. Dr. Suzuki encouraged the children and made suggestions for them to improve their playing. But he also wanted children to develop beautiful hearts. He asked them not to hurt other people’s feelings and encouraged them to be kind to everyone—their friends, families, and teachers. On one child’s tape, he said, “You are going to play the music of great composers, and you must try to catch their hearts in the music. You must practice every day to catch the feelings of others without words. Look at your mother and father. Can you see how they feel? Try to see when your mother needs your help before she asks. Then it is too late. If you practice every day, watching not to harm anyone by what you say, and also trying to catch how they feel, then you will develop sensitivity toward the feelings of others. Perhaps later you will also catch the hearts of Bach and Mozart in their music.”
Dr. Suzuki also made these suggestions to children at their lessons. He would ask them to do something special for a friend or someone in their family and tell him about it at the next lesson. Sometimes children would be so excited to report their good deeds to Dr. Suzuki that they could hardly wait to tell him. After his ending bow, one little boy hurried to Dr. Suzuki to whisper, “I polished my father’s shoes without his knowing it!”