Essays in the Theory and Practice of the Suzuki Method
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation speaks to an audience of string pedagogues inside and outside the Suzuki community to offer a richer understanding of how the Suzuki Method fits into American educational and string-pedagogical practice. The first chapter presents a history of the Suzuki Method and the current global state of Suzuki theory and practice. This introductory chapter frames the two chapters that follow; it provides the background information necessary to understand them. The second and third chapters each address an aspect of the Suzuki Method that is widely misunderstood by the string-pedagogy community, including the Suzuki community itself. While chapters 2 and 3 of this dissertation can be understood as free-standing essays, their topics have been carefully chosen to complement and intersect with each other. Chapter 2 examines the Suzuki Method's cultural relationship to Japanese and Western educational traditions. Taking a historical look at Suzuki's philosophy and pedagogy, this chapter aims to correct an unbalanced view that circulates in the American music-education and Suzuki communities about the appropriate social and cultural contexts for Suzuki's pedagogy, namely the view that the Suzuki Method's Japanese origins preclude an affinity with American educational norms. This chapter examines previously undiscussed elements in Suzuki's intellectual and cultural biography, and it illuminates the fact that Suzuki had extensive exposure to American and European Progressive educational traditions, which were prevalent in Japan during Suzuki's formative years. With new evidence about Suzuki's intellectual biography in hand, it becomes possible to re-examine elements of Suzuki's educational philosophy to show that the Suzuki Method has organic affinities with Western educational theories and methods. Unlike previous research which has attributed Suzuki's philosophy and certain of Suzuki's pedagogical devices to an exclusively Japanese mindset, this chapter suggests th…
abstract: This dissertation speaks to an audience of string pedagogues inside and outside the Suzuki community to offer a richer understanding of how the Suzuki Method fits into American educational and string-pedagogical practice. The first chapter presents a history of the Suzuki Method and the current global state of Suzuki theory and practice. This introductory chapter frames the two chapters that follow; it provides the background information necessary to understand them. The second and third chapters each address an aspect of the Suzuki Method that is widely misunderstood by the string-pedagogy community, including the Suzuki community itself. While chapters 2 and 3 of this dissertation can be understood as free-standing essays, their topics have been carefully chosen to complement and intersect with each other. Chapter 2 examines the Suzuki Method's cultural relationship to Japanese and Western educational traditions. Taking a historical look at Suzuki's philosophy and pedagogy, this chapter aims to correct an unbalanced view that circulates in the American music-education and Suzuki communities about the appropriate social and cultural contexts for Suzuki's pedagogy, namely the view that the Suzuki Method's Japanese origins preclude an affinity with American educational norms. This chapter examines previously undiscussed elements in Suzuki's intellectual and cultural biography, and it illuminates the fact that Suzuki had extensive exposure to American and European Progressive educational traditions, which were prevalent in Japan during Suzuki's formative years. With new evidence about Suzuki's intellectual biography in hand, it becomes possible to re-examine elements of Suzuki's educational philosophy to show that the Suzuki Method has organic affinities with Western educational theories and methods. Unlike previous research which has attributed Suzuki's philosophy and certain of Suzuki's pedagogical devices to an exclusively Japanese mindset, this chapter suggests th…
author: Eubanks, Kara
keywords: Music, String pedagogy; Suzuki method; Violin etudes; Violin pedagogy; Violin performance
date published: 2015-09-30T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:00:35Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York