Teaching in the Present

Teaching in the Present

Ever imagined having a whole new studio created out of what you have learned? The key is connecting your previous studio to your present work, and with the help of technology it is possible to span space and time.

I left Atlanta to move to Silicon Valley in 2006. I packed up all of my musical belongings including 2 grand pianos, a huge file of music scores, books, a 600+ CD collection, stereo system, computer with all the files from my studio and the Atlanta Area Suzuki Piano Association newsletter/website, and boxes upon boxes of video and 8mm tapes. So, I had to ask, Does what I do only exist in one location and how can I evolve my teaching? It was logical being in the Silicon Valley environment to look around and see social networking was going to take off, and with it the possibility of some way to communicate and learn that previously did not exist. After many years of teaching I was not feeling like the new kid on the block, but rather hoping to see things in a time-less fashion. Thus began my quest to mash up that which I had captured on my video camera with some new way of learning that was non-local, and non-time dependent.

I began doing lessons online by exchanging You-tube videos that were uploaded as “private” between myself and the student(s). This helped me continue to mentor previous students and teachers. At that time it was only possible to upload about 3 minutes at a time. This turned out to be useful to me as I had to stick to the point in my teaching. I figured out it was important to practice exactly what I was going to say/play before the video went on in order to get the most on the tape. I would then upload several three minute segments for each lesson referring to the tape they had sent me and giving examples of how/what to practice. Organizing the lesson ahead and practicing it helped me understand how to teach and say less. This learning was very useful.

I also traveled back to Atlanta to teach my former students and others as well. The teachers in Atlanta have been so gracious in having me in their homes, as it would not have been financially doable otherwise. I attempted to get good videos of these lessons, but still was not proficient enough to really pull it all together. The idea was there though and I decided to upgrade my equipment, learn how to use it better, and keep trying.

Meanwhile I had taken a few students at my new home through referrals from other Suzuki teachers. It still wasn’t a “studio” though.

My next big step was to do a website. I took all of my previous writings in newsletters and studio notes and uploaded them onto a blog. I made a video blog and began the arduous process of getting recordings off VHS and getting them onto the blog. This was somewhat random as I did not save the recital programs that went along with the videos so was going on my memory of who played in what recital when. It was however a very interesting process to look back at performances I remembered and to experience them fresh.

My web designer– a former Suzuki piano student – ask me for the current photos for the homepage. This was a new idea to choose photos and make decisions about what I wanted to personally communicate in an online format. I thought that parents might not want their children’s pictures on the homepage, but no one objected. In fact as it turns out they liked it, and love having the performances uploaded so they can share them with family and friends.

I began posting blogs for my parents as a way of doing parent education, and provided links to the Piano Basics Site and other useful resources as well. I put a Google calendar on the website which I can easily update with the schedule, and this also enabled me to let out of town people see when I was available.

The website helped me to enroll a class of Twinkle students ages 3-6. I was thinking about Dr. Suzuki using recordings and decided to see what he had said about recording lessons. “Developing Children’s Ability Using the Suzuki Teaching Method-How we are doing now “ is an article taken from 1977 International Suzuki Conference talk given by Dr. Suzuki on the “latest report on the teaching methods in Japan since the last meeting “

In that article Dr. Suzuki said:

“I consider the invention of the cassette tape recorder as a revolutionary tool for music education and Japanese members are making the most use of them… Our children are supposed to attend their lesson with their own tape recorders so that they can tape the lesson and take the tape home for their practice. Thus I can say that the utilization of cassette tapes in the way stated above has proved to be very effective.”

I decided to upload the lessons to a private blog site. I decided to put them online rather than sending them home with the students for several reasons. First of all putting the videos on the blog made watching them appealing and fairly easy. Next, the parents could gain insight from watching other students’ lessons. Also, I wanted to track progress over time so that it would be possible to see lessons from the beginning of the year to the end. Last, I had the idea that these lessons would be useful for teacher training and teacher research.

At this point technology had changed so that I could upload somewhere around 10 minutes for each clip. So, I still had to cut lessons into parts before I could directly post. I finished the year with all of the lessons, assignments and recitals posted on a private access site. The parents benefitted from the video blog, but to my surprise didn’t really see this as something radical or new.

This year I have a new class of Twinklers and another Twinkle class blog. The video makes the lessons feel important. The students accept the video as a normal part of the studio. The parents use it as a resource- of course some more than others. I found a video upload site (vimeo.com) that enables me to upload videos of any length, so that I can upload the lessons without cutting them into parts.

Overall recording the lessons has been an important part of making the lessons present and focused. Why would this be? The video is like an outside awareness watching and makes everyone just a little more “self-aware.” It is possible that this recording of the event could make people “self-conscious”, but I have not found this to occur. It is a good point to continue to research the effects of recording going forward.

Meanwhile I have continued with online lessons. It is now possible to upload any length lesson on www.vimeo.com and keep the videos private.

I have been able to do Graduation Evaluations this way as well. This has been useful for training students and teachers. I am amazed at the impact the online environment has had on the studio environment. In reading back over Dr. Suzuki’s writing about the use of cassettes in order to find the quotes for this article I noticed that Dr. Suzuki also discusses his “Practice with me” tapes he recorded for students to listen to spots and play with him at home. I am thinking there is a way to use this idea with the online lessons.

Perhaps one of the most important parts of playing music is that it only happens in the present moment. We can practice and prepare, and we can remember. But the experience itself happens in real time. The present moment experience of music making combined with the time-less perspective of playing masterpieces of Bach and Mozart teaches us about time-fullness.

The online access provides a means of experiencing the teaching-learning–performing cycle in a condensed aural/visual format that can span lengths of time and provides a time-fullness experience. The online lessons and performances are now a vital part of the music environment for the students as well as providing a means for reflection and perspective as a teacher. When I watch myself teach I can evaluate its effectiveness by the result of how the child responded. This is so useful as a present moment reflection, and provides a history, a connection to the work that goes on over many years of learning and teaching and learning. The significance of this change in the way teachers and students learn will be evident over time. First, we have to experience it,

Craig Timmerman writes this about Dr. Suzuki in his book Journey Down the Kreisler Highway:

“The answer to ‘When is Suzuki’ is, of course, “Now’ Suzuki is always now. That is why he is always here. I think that this may be one of the reasons that it is so very special to be in the presence of Suzuki. When he gives you his attention he gives 100%, and the results are incredible.”

I have been able to make lots of changes in my new studio that were difficult to enact in my previous studio. For example students come in groups for their individual lessons so that observation is a natural part of each weeks time in the studio. I have developed the habit of performing for my students because without advanced students to model it was necessary. I have learned how natural and invaluable my performing is to the students and parents. So, all of these little changes are part of the bonus one gets from making a big change. Craig Timmerman writes about his move to another town and how it affected him:

“It is such a wonderful aid in looking at things with fresh interest, It helps keep me in awe and wonder; discovering new things every day. Looking at normal and mundane things with fresh eyes makes life itself inspiring. Whether in the land of blue earth or blue grass, a tree never stops changing; it is always growing.

“The only constant is change”, and yet the only change is the deeper awareness of the constant, the basics.

On the Rhythm – Part 1: Feel it

Children can clap the beat to music when they can feel the pulse. This is an important part of being able to play with good rhythm. Clapping and dancing to the Suzuki music are natural ways for children to connect with the beat in the music they are learning to play. The twinkle variations are a wonderful way to learn to feel beat/rhythm with a good tone on just one note.  This is a good example of an integral learning experience where the student can feel the rhythm/beat, hear the tone, and connect this with the tactile sense in the finger. 

When we clap the beat to music we are feeling music that is already on the rhythm, already made.  This is much easier than creating the correct steady tempo oneself.   The ready position is the best way to enable the student to play with good beat.  This is because in ready position the body is balanced and still.  When a conductor is going to start an orchestra they first raise their hands in gesture to have everyone’s attention and stillness on the ready.  Next the conductor gives an indication of the rhythm with just one beat, such as an up feeling for example, and then the first sound is the down. Everyone can play together on the rhythm this way.  This is the “go” part of practicing with students.  Please observe in the lessons how to say go effectively so that the child can play with good rhythm.  The “go” needs to be in tempo of the piece.  This one signal teaches the child to play with rhythm.

When children first learn to play the right hand melodies in Book 1, they find the pitch (notes) first. They may be finding the correct notes totally by ear, or with the help of a parent singing the pitch. Part of this learning of the notes is getting the correct fingerings. Next, they can develop the ability to play the notes with the feeling of the rhythm.

Feeling deep and light sounds is important for the natural flow in the music in the same way that inflection is important in speech. The best way to help with this is to sing the pieces with a natural emphasis on the metrical placement (first beat in each measure) as well as the rising and falling of the melodic phrase.  A good way to practice is to sing along with the disc using the solfege, humming, or singing “la la la”.  So, the singing is not just for learning the pitch/notes, but also will help the child feel the rhythm, and connect with the broader feeling of the meter and phrases in the notes they are learning to play.

The phrases are the equivalent of sentences.

In this regard, words to the songs are ok to sing too, especially for fun while not at the piano.  It is best for children to understand the language of music without actual words.  So after the notes can be played with some fluency, singing along by humming/solfege/la-la as your child plays will help your child play in a good tempo which is not too fast or too slow, and has natural emphasis on the deep and light sounds, and breadth on the phrases.

When the teacher plays with the student at the lesson it also helps them to play with the steady rhythm.  This may be more difficult for them than playing by themselves because they have to keep the tempo on the “hard part”.  This process helps the parent and child understand where to focus more time and energy in the home learning. So, in the learning at home, please practice extra on the parts where the beat/rhythm is not felt.

Most importantly continued listening to a piece after the notes are learned is the most important tool for helping the child progress from just the notes to playing and feeling the rhythm. Lastly, it is important that the teacher and parent do not give the child too many instructions that may take away from their natural ability to feel the beat because they are thinking too much as they are playing. This way they can play by heart.

Previous blog on the same subject with more explanation of meter and research on babies and rhythm:

Twinkle Lessons: On the Rhythm

The Talent Education Code- part 4 – Feel to learn it

This is the forth in a series of blogs which are an in depth analysis of Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code as it relates to the "Talent Education method" developed by Dr. Suzuki.

 In the section on "Learn to Feel It" as a part of "deep practice", Daniel Coyle tells about how he observed students at the Meadowmount music camp in a class entitled “How to Practice”.  They are asked to listen to a violin that is out of tune and connect with how that feels:  “If you hear a string out of tune, it should bother you, Skye told them, ‘it should bother you a lot. That’s what you need to feel. What you’re really practicing is concentration.  It’s a feeling. “(1)

“Feeling it” is the way children learn naturally. The baby learns to walk by learning to feel its balance. Feeling is a term which includes the input from the senses such as hearing an out of tune violin, taste, tactile, physical feelings and visual input, It is the awareness directly from the environment without explanation.   In the book Sensibility and Education  Dr. Kataoka says:

“Children live in the world of feelings, and they feel things directly with their intuition…(Let us) try to understand the world of children’s sensibility and make an effort not to destroy it…(2)

Connecting feelings with learning engages the student. This does not mean we spoon feed feelings, but rather that we enable children to connect their feelings with their learning. By focusing the students awareness on the quality of the sound we enable them to “feel” the music through their senses, aural, tactile, and even the aural connection to the visual.  By properly sequencing skills with just the right amount of challenge to feel accomplishment and develop skill, the child can associate the learning with a deep concentration and sense of success. Focusing on tone while developing skill will enable the child to produce the highest quality tone as pure communication This will motivate, involve, and inspire the student in deep practice.

When listening to a great pianist, one of the most striking and distinctive elements in their playing is their ability to directly communicate through the sound.

Their learning has involved putting their own sensibility/feeling into the music. There is  a physical sense of touch connected with the quality of the sound, an aural understanding of the patterns of the music into patterns, phrases, and sections, and an ability to communicate deeply, individually, and directly through the language of music.

When practicing with your child, keep listening for good tone, and bring awareness of the feeling of the good tone into the practice.  Allow this to be the focus and it will take the student into a state of deep practice/concentration that connects the tone with the broader patterns of the sound as well as the physical motions,  In this same way they will be able to understand the visual picture of the music: the score; as it relates directly to the sound without any extra explanation. Thus we are enabling optimum learning by keeping the child connected with their sensibility.  Dr. Kataoka says:

“People who reach adulthood with their sensibility intact can make correct judgements about everything; this is because their natural sensibility has not been destroyed. It is because they can listen to the voice of God."(3)

1. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, p. 90-91

2. Sensibility and Education, Dr. Haruko Kataoka, p. 14

3. Sensibility and Education, Dr. Haruko Kataoka, p. 17

A previous blog from January 2009 which is also about feeling music:

"The Integral Learning Perspective- Learning to Play by Heart"

Other Blogs in this Series:

The Talent Education Code Part 1

The Talent Education Code Part 2

The Talent Education Code -Part 3

 

The Importance of the Beginning

The beginning of the school year is a very special time for children.  There is a sense of excitement and readiness for learning in the air.  So, it is the parents and teachers responsibility to provide the best possible environment that preserves this readiness, nurtures awareness and supports optimum learning.

When we give children our full attention, they feel acknowledged, empowered, important, and nurtured. Attention is totally different from judgment. With total attention we bring awareness to the child. Ultimately this awareness that develops through our attention enables the child to change and grow.
As Dr. Kataoka said:

"We must, with effort and perseverance, patiently nurture the ability to concentrate, listen and differentiate."(1)

In the lesson and at practice the parents main job is to put total attention on the child. For example, if a parent is texting, e-mailing or other forms of non-attention to the lesson, the child has less awareness for learning. Part of the room is focused on something else. When it is the parent or the teacher that is thinking about other things, it becomes especially difficult for the child to remain focused. If another child is playing with a toy during the lessons it is distracting.   However, if the adults are focused on the lesson, the child can still concentrate. If another child is reading a book, they are engaging in a similar kind of focus, so it is much easier for the child having the lesson. Ideally, when everyone is watching the student have a lesson, the child can really concentrate well. The child loves this experience and learns to communicate to the other people in the room through the sound of the piano.

The same kind of attention is valuable at home. In the book Journey Down the Kreisler Highway (2) violinist and Suzuki teacher Craig Timmerman writes:

"Your children will always carry the memory of your working with them each day of their childhood. Can you imagine the warm memory that will be theirs to carry around in later years when they leave home? That memory and knowledge will provide a security and appreciation that will be deeply rooted...It seems that there is always a special bond within families who give this kind of gift to their children. Undoubtedly it will take years for your children to fully appreciate the gift you have given them, but when that realization does come, what strength it will have."

This "special bond" is nurtured by the attention and focus of the parents without judgment on both their child's home practice and lesson times. It is important to distinguish between attention that develops awareness, which fosters intrinsic motivation; and attention that accompanies judgment (be it positive or negative) which is a type of extrinsic motivation. In one of my earlier posts, "Affirm, Motivate, and Inspire" (4) I discuss how extrinsic rewards diminish motivation:

"I believe this is partially because the child looses their sense of autonomy and feels controlled rather than nurtured and supported. The question then is not whether to use a "carrot or a stick" to influence a child's behavior, but how can we preserve and nurture intrinsic motivation?

At the beginning of the school year, children are ready and eager to learn. We nurture that motivation by having the highest quality music and music experiences in the daily environment. This includes observing other students lessons, group classes, individual lessons, home listening/watching videos, practice, and attending concerts, 

We maintain this desire to make music by listening and noticing as the child is learning.  Then, as we give the child an affirmation or acknowledgment of what we are observing it increases their ability to learn and improve without the emotional roller coaster of good and bad.  The acknowledgment of what they are doing correctly provides them with the valuable feedback that enables deep concentration and learning. This is Positive Affirmation. We will be discussing how to use language in a way that supports this way of working with your child at the parents meeting.
 
The intention for the New Year is the development of awareness through optimum learning.
The resolution for the New Year is to provide an environment which preserves and develops intrinsic motivation. 

"It is the readiness of the mind that is wisdom." 

Shinryu Suzuki (6)

Bibliography/links
1. From Piano Basics Newsletter Volume 2.6 November/December 1997
in the article "Prince Shotoku and Pianists"
 
2. "Journey Down the Kreisler Highway-Reflections on the teachings of Shinichi Suzuki" by Craig Timmerman published 1987.

3. From this blog "Core Suzuki Piano", the article "Affirm, Motivate, and Inspire" published January 2010

4. "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by Shunnru Suzuki, page 113

The Talent Education Code - Part 3-

This is the third in a series of blogs which are an in depth analysis of Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code as it relates to the "Talent Education method" developed by Dr. Suzuki.

The Three Rules of Deep Practice:
Chunking, Repetition, and Integral learning

Myelin is what physically increases in the brain when ability is developed, and "deep practice" is how to optimize this process.  Part 1 of this blog-series discussed how myelin wraps around the neural circuits in the process of developing accuracy and speed in neural pathways.

In part 2 "deep practice" was discussed as the most efficient and effective way to build the myelin around the neural pathways for developing talent. Deep/deliberate practice involves full concentration on accomplishing a defined goal that is within reach, and getting constant feedback through the process.   In deep practice on the piano using Suzuki principles of learning, the student will practice a small spot(s) that contain the core feeling/technique of a piece many times.  There is a clear goal which has been practiced and learned at the lesson, and at practice the student gets feedback in the form of the quality of the sound produced as well as the outside perspective from a coach/parent. 
By practicing these small parts, the student is learning to "chunk" together patterns and understand their relationships to each other.  This is pattern recognition, a critical component of Ability Development. (1) Daniel Coyle defines this as the first of three rules on deep practice:  "Chunk It Up"   (2)

The second rule for deep practice is repetition.  Daniel Coyle differenciates deep practice from mere repetition because it involves the learner in the "Sweet spot edge of your capabilities, attentively building and honing circuits."  (3)  Rote repetition without engagement is not beneficial and potentially harmful. It is repetition done with the engagement of the learner in the process to fine tune each repetition, and to provide self-correction each time so that the thoughts/ movements become increasingly precise.The repetitions need to  keep the interest of the students and yet not be too hard to make them tired quickly.  Here is where a master teacher comes in to understand the sequencing of learning in relationship to building foundation skills and directs the learning in a way that challenges the student and also enables them to succeed. It is then the parents job to understand the subtleties and priorities of an assignment, and follow through.

Deep practice then means doing targeted specific repetitions that engage the learner in an integral learning experience  The important point is to let the student experience what they are trying to learn rather than tell them about it or about how to do it.  In music study, this will allow them to hear the sound as it's own language without words in the way.  This is possible because the sound has already been internalized through listening.  Next, help them be able to make that sound by using their body in the most natural way through demonstrations by the teacher, and key words that are associated with the movement at home. Connect the sound quality with the specific movements you observe and help the child to develop this awareness. This ability to play with a beautiful sound using a natural balanced position will be reinforcing to the child.  Dr. Kataoka says:

"If a child starts piano lesson at age 3 or 4, he or she should always learn what a good sound is, along with how to enjoy it. The teacher's primary task is to instruct how to make good sound because music starts with sound, and sound exists in the world of sensibility." (4)

Honor the child's feelings about the number of repetitions, and affirm the process rather than the result. In this way the goal is the practice experience itself.  Allow the mental/reading concepts to come at the child's own pace, preferably later. 

Deep practice is the center point of integral learning where the mental(aural), physical, emotional, and inspired aspects are in harmony, and the myelin wraps around the circuits to provide a clear path for the message connections between the mind and body, and a good feeling becomes associated with this as well.  When we can find this center point of learning, ability develops deeply, and at a much more rapid pace.
These concepts of core education and Integral learning will take us in the next blog to Daniel Coyle's third rule of deep practice: "Learn to Feel It"

1. Blog on pattern recognition written in April 2010:
   Ability Development and pattern recognition
2.  The Talent Code by Daniele Coyle, p.79
3. The Talent Code by Daniele Coyle, p. 88
4.  Sensibility and Education by Dr. Kataoka, p.54

Blog on Integral Learning written November 2008:
Spot Practice to Enable Integral Learning 

Other Blogs in this series: 

The Talent Education Code Part 1
The Talent Education Code Part 2
The Talent Education Code Part 4

The Talent Education Code -Deep Practice -Part 2

This is the second in a series of blogs which are an in depth analysis of Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code as it relates to the "Talent Education method" developed by Dr. Suzuki.

 Myelin wrapping around the neural circuitry is the "what" of developing skill/talent.  Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code,  uses the analogy of a broadband internet connection versus a dial-up modem to compare heavily myelinated neural connections versus neural connections with little myelin.  So, the myelinated connections allow much more information at a much higher rate to be transmitted. Deep/deliberate Practice is the "how" to develop skill and myelinate the neural circuits.

Daniel Coyle traveled around the world to study "hotbeds' or places where many people develop a high ability in the same location.    In an article from the New York Times published in 2007, (The Talent Code was published in 2009),  Daniel Coyle talks about his visit to the Spartak Center for tennis in Moscow where a large number of super "talents" have come out of Russia.  Coyle says: 
"To put Spartak's success in talent-map terms: this club, which has one indoor court, has achieved eight year-end top-20 women's rankings over the last three years. During that same period, the entire United States has achieved seven."(1)

The Suzuki movement was ignited in the United States when Dr. Suzuki* held the American tours and brought his young students to America to perform.  A poster from a concert held in downtown Atlanta in 1988 is on the side of this blog.  Dr. Suzuki created a "hotbed" for developing talent in the small town of Matsumoto, in Japan.   About environment Dr. Suzuki said:
"What does not exist in the environment will not develop in the child. By no means only words or music, but everything, good or bad, is absorbed by the child." (2)

What Daniel Coyle observed in the environment at the Spartak Center in Moscow and other sports and music talent hotbeds he traveled to is what he defines as "deep practice".

According to K. Anders Ericsson, the author of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, every talent is the result of a single process: deliberate practice. He defines this as individuals engaged in a practice activity with full concentration on some point to improve their skill. Thus, deliberate practice means working on technique using constant critical feedback from observations as well as those of a coach/teacher. K. Anders Eriksson  defined this kind of deliberate/deep practice as distinctly different and more effective than simple repetition or spending time doing an activity.
"Deliberate practice differs from the mere experience of doing the task in many different ways. Perhaps the most striking way concerns the mental attitude of the individual. During deliberate practice the individual has the goal of improving some measurable aspect of their performance. For example, a recreational golfer aims their putt toward the hole on the green and either misses or drops the ball in the hole. Every time the golfer putts the ball, it is a different situation and the golfer would not know whether the mistake was caused by their putting technique, the slope of the green, the resistance of the grass, or whatever. During deliberate practice on a practice green, the golfer has the opportunity to make the same putt many times (Ericsson 2001)."*(3)

This idea of practicing the same putt many times is part of what Daniel Coyle defines as the first component of "deep practice"  and calls it  "chunking it up".  Basically this means that the practice is one definable part of the whole process of playing golf and that this allows the golfer to focus and build the myelin around the cirucits in that particular movement. He includes in this idea absorbing the whole concept/piece/"chunk" and then dividing it into it's  smallest possible parts.  "People in hotbeds deep-practice the same way a good movie director approaches a scene -one instant panning back to show the landscape, the next zooming in to examine a bug crawling on a leaf in slo-mo." (4)

In the Talent Education method, students listen to performances of the music they are studying as well as to performances by the best artists and the highest level compositions, such as Mozart concertos.  A unique benefit music has for developing this "sense of the whole" is that the music can be going on continuously and absorbed subconsciously without any effort or time consumption. Coyle cites examples of various successful sports players and teams that watch videos of the best teams and players. K. Anders Ericsson says:
"When you put yourself in the same situation as an outstanding person and attack a task that they took on, it has a big effect on your skill."  (5)

As an example of breaking skills into "chunks",  Daniel Coyle discusses the students at the Meadowmount School of Music playing sections of their piece in rhythms or with stops on certain notes on the beat, and how this practice distinctively develops the myelination of those notes together as a smaller chunk. This is an important way of practicing scale type passages. It is important for students to practice with stops on the beat, in phrases, in sections, hands separate, etc.  This breaking down is the crucial balancing component to absorbing the whole. Suzuki students practice spots that are patterns such as the alberti pattern.  ( Left hand: Do-So -Mi-So). Also, the "Twinkles"*** are themselves a whole study in the"chunking"  of rhythmic and melodic patterns for the child to absorb.

 About the Spartak tennis team Coyle says:
 "At Spartak it's called imitatsiya-rallying in slow motion with an imaginary ball.  All Spartak's players do it, from the five-year-olds to the pros."(6) 
Slowing down enables students to increase precision and develop a perception of the interlocking skill circuits. Dr. Kataoka called this "slow-motion" practice.  So, from the beginners to the advanced pros, everyone is practicing and observing others practicing  (no private lessons at Spartak) the simple movements very precisely over and over again. In studying Piano Basics with Dr. Kataoka**, teachers would play the Twinkles for their lessons as other teachers observed, and worked on the most basic skills of posture, ready and tone. Teachers in Piano Basics still study in this same way.
In describing chunking Daniel Coyle says:

"The goal is always the same:  to break a skill into its component pieces (circuits), memorize those pieces individually, then link them together in progressively larger groupings (new, interconnected circuits)"(7)

Dr. Kataoka  when instructing students and parents on how to practice used the term "part by part".  It makes sense in terms of building myelin for students to build these parts as overarching waves or "nesting" with the bigger ones encompassing the smaller ones starting from a single tone, down-up feeling, or slur and adding the bigger wave to a measure or pattern, to a phrase, section,  whole movement,   to the whole piece. Each part is in turn practiced to build the correct technique to produce the best sound.

In short, technique is established through deep practice, and this is what Dr. Suzuki meant by "Ability Development", what Dr. Kataoka instructed teachers and parents how to do at every lesson, and a critical component of core education.

Daniel Coyle relays his encounter with  77 year old coach Larisa Preobrazhenskaya of the Spartak team: 
"Technique is everything,"  she told me later, smacking a table with Khrushchev-like emphasis, causing me to jump and reconsider my twinkly-grandma impression of her. "If you begin playing without technique, it is big mistake. Big, big mistake!"(8)

References:
1. "How to grow a Super Athlete" by Daniel Coyles, New York Times Magazine, March 4, 2007
2.  Nurtured by Love, Dr. Suzuki, 1983; Page 12
3."Discovering deliberate practice activities that overcome plateaus and limits on improvement of performance" - K. Anders Ericsson-from International Symposium on Performance Science 2009- Keynote Paper
4 The Talent Code by Daniel Coyles, 2009; Page 80.
5. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyles, 2009; Page 80
6. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyles, 2009 ; Page 82
7. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyles, 2009;  Page 84
8. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyles, 2009;  Page 83

 *         For information on the Suzuki method Click here
**    For information on Dr. Kataoka and Piano Basics Click here
*** The "Twinkles" are the beginning pieces for all instruments in the Suzuki method.  They involve the twinkle melody with rhythms on each note.  They are used to teach how to produce tone with good technique on each note/finger.

Interesting Links:
"The Brains Behind Talent"  -a short New York Times Video on Doug Fields head neuro-scientist at the The National Institute of Health explaining myelination with an example of himself and his daughters.
"How the Brain Works": Great Video series from UCLA Neurobiology department

"White Matter Helps Brains Learn, Erik Vance- Interesting article in The Scientist on research done on myelin.

Other Blogs in this Series:
The Talent Education Code Part 1
The Talent Education Code Part 3
The Talent Education Code Part 4

The Talent Education Code-Part 1-Myelin

This is the first in a series of blogs which will be an in depth analysis of Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code as it relates to the "Talent Education method" developed by Dr. Suzuki.

When Dr. Suzuki named his school the "Talent Education Institute" in 1946, using the words "talent" and "education"  together was basically considered a contradiction of terms. Talent was considered inborn and you either had it or you didn't.  Education was for learning - reading, math and other subjects. Even as late as the early 1990's when I was traveling to Japan I read in a guidebook about the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto as "education for the talented". Dr. Suzuki  used the term "ability development" to help with this misunderstanding.  When he was asked in an interview with Isako Itano in the book Where Love is Deep about the word talent he says:

"I used the word in the sense that talent is something to be nurtured, but since it's inconvenient if we are misunderstood, in the future I would like to eliminate the word talent and simply call it education, when common sense changes enough to allow me to do so." (1)

Recent research about learning continues to support Dr. Suzuki's belief in "ability development" through the right environment.  In particular Daniel Coyle's book The Talent Code:  Greatness isn't born. It's grown. Here's how.  details how the brain develops, and how to maximize the learning process.  The book is based on neurological research about how myelin forms in the brain, and what it's function is to learning.  "Revolutionary", Dr. George Bartoklis, professor of neurology at UCLA  told Daniel Coyle: "Myelin is 'the key to talking, reading, learn skills, being human."(2)
About that Daniel Coyle says:

"The revolution is built on three simple facts.  (1) Every human movement, thought, or feeling is a precisely timed electric signal traveling through a chain of neurons - a circuit of nerve fibers.  (2) Myelin is the insulation that wraps these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy.  (3) The more we fire a particular circuit, the more myelin optimizes that circuit, and the stronger, faster, and more fluent our movements and thoughts become."(3)

Dr. Suzuki says:  "Ability equals knowledge plus 10,000 times." (4)  Knowledge is the mental aspect of acquiring talent.  Talent is the ability to do  in the present moment that which one knows. Through "10,000 times",  the myelin wraps around the neural circuits and creates ability. Again Daniel Coyle says:

"Skill is myelin insulation that wraps neural circuits and that grows according to certain signals."(5)

When myelin wraps around the neurons with each repetition to develop pathways, or skills is exactly what Dr. Suzuki parallels in his statement: "Ability develops ability"(6)  and gives the example of lanquage aquisition in babies. Once the pathway is developed, through intended repetition the skills become easy and fast.

Actions are electrical impulses sent along chains of nerve fibers  that are connected together by synapsis. When you intend a movement the brain sends a signal through the chains of nerve fibers to your muscles.  Different skills have specific pathways -"sort of like a string of Christmas lights".(7)

The next important concept about skills is that the more we develop a skill circuit, the more "automatic" or without conscious thought it becomes. The more we can process in our subconscious minds automatically the more complex skills we can do.

Myelin or "white matter" is the phospolipid membrane or dense fat that wraps around the nerve fibers preventing the electriacal impulses from leaking out.  Since around the year 2000 many studies have come out with research regarding the role of myelin in the brain, and the increases in myelin linked with increases in various skills.

"Myelin quietly transforms narrow alleys into broad lightning-fast super-highways...Tennis players, singers, and painters don't seem to have much in common but they all get better by gradually improving timing and speed and accuracy, by honing neural circuitry, by obeying the rules of the talent code- in short by growing more myelin."(8)

Myelin grows.  It can be nurtured and directed to develop talent. This is Dr. Suzuki's "law of ability".
Next, is to figure out how to optimize this process.

1. Where Love is Deep-The writings of Shin'ichi Suzuki, p. 111
2. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle p.32
3. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle p. 32
4. Every Child Can produced by the Suzuki Association of the Americas, p. 9
5. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle p. 33
6.  Ability Development from Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki p.6
7.  The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle p. 36
8. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle p. 41...p.7

Other Blogs in this series:

The Talent Education Code Part 2
The Talent Education Code Part 3
The Talent Education Code Part 4

Masterclass Workshop with Cathy Hargrave

Date:  April 9 and 10
Location:  Core Suzuki Studio

I am very pleased to announce that Cathy Hargrave will teach master class lessons for the studio and also for students from around the Bay Area in the Core Suzuki Piano Studio on April 9 and 10.  
Parents can sign-up in the studio for their time.  Teachers who are interested in observing and/or having students for lessons can contact Leah Brammer.
  
About Cathy Hargrave:
Cathy Hargrave is one of 24 pianists world-wide who was granted a teaching certificate by Dr. Shinichi and Dr. Haruko Kataoka, the co-founder of the Suzuki Piano Method. She lived in Matsumoto, Japan four years for the purpose of studying the pedagogy of Suzuki Piano first-hand with Dr. Suzuki and Dr. Haruko Kataoka. For over 30 years, Cathy has taught Suzuki Piano to children and teachers. She has been a frequent guest lecturer/clinician/SAA teacher trainer at workshops, national, and international conferences throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada, Japan, and Russia. She is author of the book
Reading Music by Ear.   She maintains a private studio in Rowlett, Texas.