Suzuki

I feel like I've got a ticket to share about my son.

On Sunday, my son graduated from his first Suzuki grade for violin.

Wow.

And we actually went to the opera house together to celebrate him.

And she currently does.

Born in Brazil, Vanessa Severo is certified in the Suzuki method.

Vanessa Severo, welcome.

Hi.

Tell us about the Suzuki.

Is that the violin thing children play? No, no.

Oh my gosh.

And it's not the Japanese car either.

That's content.

There have recently been some discussions on Facebook regarding Suzuki teacher training.

And while I have absolutely zero interest in becoming a Suzuki teacher trainer, I have found the comments to be illuminating.

There is just so much misinformation out there, everyone.

You've got to be really, really careful.

An algorithm can tell you what gets attention.

It cannot tell you what your child needs.

I was recently caught up in a discussion on a Suzuki teacher's forum about a teaching segment and what a segment is versus like a lesson.

And especially in that first year, movement and acting are really married.

So that first semester is all about Suzuki and movement class, viewpoints and movement class, and then ensemble building in the acting class, right? We don't do an approach where like, we have to break you down to build you back up.

Like that's not...

That's not helpful to anybody.

This is an intermediate skill that I actually teach in the beginning stages of violin playing.

Here's the reason why is because when I have taught students in the past, let's say Suzuki method, when I teach them to have all three fingers down, it is really difficult for the students to step away from that technique and use independent single fingers.

Right off the bat, I do tell the pupil that you are allowed to hold your fingers down as you go up a scale.

However, when you go down a scale, there are some different rules.

And you want your fingers to be firm, but also have freedom.

You want some of your fingers to have a bit of freedom in order for you to play more advanced repertoire.

And that is where the whole intermediate conversation comes in because in the intermediate stage of violin playing, let's say Suzuki book two and onward, you are dealt with more intervals and more funky string crossings and you want to have as much flexibility in achieving those notes correctly.

One thing that I can think of right now is Hunter's chorus when you play...

But it's true that my mom is a classical piano teacher.

She teaches Suzuki piano.

And I played quite a lot of classical piano when I was a child and through high school and college.

So indeed, there are videos of me playing classical piano on the internet.

Some of my larger pieces are out there.

And actually, if you really do a deep dive, you can find these videos of what are called 10 piano concerts, which are a tradition within Suzuki Piano, where you have 10 children playing the same piece at the same time, which is really a feat of incredible coordination among 10 seven-year-olds, for example.

But these were really pretty cool experiences that I got to have as a child to dive into the world of classical music.

I did a lot of classical music as a child, less as an adult, but, you know, was certainly a really cool part of having a mom as a piano teacher.

And it was keyboard, but it was very musical.

There was a lot of like, listen, sing, play, sort of based on Yamaha, Suzuki, Kodai, a bunch of methods pushed together.

I would have maybe 12 kids in the room.

The parent would be there too with the keyboards along the side.

Sure.

So, um, I started as a little Suzuki kid, um, with Suzuki violin method.

I don't know how many people, I guess, on your podcast started that way, but, um, yeah, probably, probably quite a few.

Um, and so I was mostly working on classical music, but I always had some exposure to folk music and to Klezmer.

Um, I got it, and then I was e- eventually able to extend that grant for a total of two years, so I lived there for two years.

That's really amazing.

So especially, I am super interested in your background because m- most of us start somewhere in the classical tradition, right? Either Suzuki or private lessons, and when I was reading your bio, I really got interested in the fact that you're also a teaching artist, so you not only create your own music, but also teach music, and that's very interesting for me because, um, later on we'll explore a little bit more that, uh, side as well.

Perhaps you can speak a little bit more about your Fulbright research.