Things to Do While Listening To Your Suzuki Recordings
Why are we talking about listening to our suzuki recordings again?
One of the core principles of the Suzuki method and Talent Education is the strong belief in listening. We learn music like we learned to speak - Through repeated exposure, endless encouragement from the first babbles as a baby and on up. Learning goes so much more smoothly the more we can replicate the same enthusiasm, anticipation and determination for our music studies.
The Suzuki Association of the Americas has some great articles on listening available for you here, please check it out if you’d like to learn more about it.
That’s all great, but how do you fit it in your schedule?
While there will certainly be a time and place for score study while listening, but I take a lot of solace in knowing I can do my Suzuki listening at home while completing other tasks around the home. You do not need to lock yourself in a room with your Suzuki book and watch the music together. It has become the easiest part of my practice time with my daughter knowing that I can easily put it on the bluetooth speaker as we do many of our other daily activities.
I hope this list helps make listening feel more easy for you and any young musicians you know, too!
Common activities to do while listening to suzuki recordings
Bake muffins
Play Magnatiles or legos
Cook together
Eat breakfast
Eat lunch
Eat dinner
In the car on the way to school
Getting ready for bed
Set your Suzuki music as your alarm in the morning
Read together
Set a story to the music (Bonus points: Act it out!)
Color together
Bring out the playdoh!
Paint together
Draw together
Cleaning up toys
Doing homework
Take a nap
Play a game like Uno
Dance together
Most of these are activities I’ve used to incorporate more listening in our home life. Whenever I notice we are settling in for one of these activities and we haven’t listening to our recording yet that day, I take a few seconds to pull it up on Spotify or Youtube. Listening to it in the background has had a calming effect on our time together.
If you’d like a printed guide of these ideas and a sheet where you can record your own favorite activities to do while you listen, check out this free printable available here.
Lately I’ve been delighted to realize that I’m hearing my daughter sing Gossec’s “Gavotte” while we paint together or I can hear the songs she’s making up while sing morph into the melody from “Andantino”.
It is my hope that this list will help make listening the easiest part of each music student’s daily routine!
