# Suzuki



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Chapter Four - Suzuki.
I spent about 15 months, from May 2012 to July 2013, playing Suzuki - Books 2 & 3 - before deciding that I didn't want to go on to Book 4. The Suzuki books helped me in lots of ways. The chief thing was the accompanying cds. This gave me something to practise with and fit in with - to relax with, and to aim for. Even when I was feeling depressed, stiff or unwell, I soon forgot it when I was playing along with the cd.

There are also some very nice pieces in these books - and some twee ones that were inevitably the Fiddle Guru's favourites. In Book 2, as well as the Infamous Huntsmen's Chorus, there was also the sentimental 'Long, long ago' with a Clever Bowing Exercise beneath it, The Two Grenadiers (Schumann) with its sudden interpolation of La Marseillaise, a pretendy Gavotte by the nineteenth-century A. Thomas, and worst of all the Disney Cackling of Paganini's Witches' Dance. The last one, need I say, was a particular favourite of Fiddle Guru's!  And I don't think I got the piece right more than twice when playing for him in lessons.

Of course, Fiddle Guru was always urging the primacy of dynamics over accuracy - he was & is very fond of quoting Beethoven's 'To play a wrong note is pardonable - to play without passion is inexcusable'. But naturally, being a retired English teacher, I like accuracy. The thing is, if I haven't nailed the fingering and bowing and keep stumbling, that means I just don't have the confidence - or the leisure - to play with passion.

Learning to play the violin feels like one of those variety turns with a line of spinning plates. No sooner had I got the bowing right, than I'd have to think of the dynamics - and then accent that phrase - and try to 'make shapes' with the tune - and as soon as I concentrated on spinning a new plate, the old one at the start of the line would come crashing down!

In Book 3, there is the tired old joke 'Humoresque', and a truly horrible Gavotte by Becker. Needless to say, these were also Fiddle Guru's favourites.

One lovely but ironic thing that came out of Book 2 was my discovery of the French Baroque Composer Lully. Lovely, because in order to get some background on Piece number 10, Gavotte by Lully, I found a cd on YouTube by Jordi Savall and The Orchestra of the Sun King. I put it on my Facebook page and went out - when I came back, John said, 'That Lully is really good.' I played it, and fell in love with the French Baroque style. I felt so at home with it that it is almost as if I was there, in the seventeenth century, and knew Jean-Baptiste - maybe a Marquise at the court of Le Roi Soleil!
Ironic, because the Lully Gavotte in Suzuki Book 2 is not by the old barsteward at all. He was such a greedy git that he claimed a monopoly on all printed music, so this piece was wrongly attributed to him. I found this out when I bought the book that gives the background to the Suzuki pieces. It's such an interesting read that I bought a copy for Fiddle Guru as a present.

More good news and bad news about these Suzuki books. The bad news is that as soon as I could vaguely get through a piece, Fiddle Guru would move me on to the next. I've found this with music teachers in general. They are so keen for you to advance, that they never let you get really good at a piece before it gets dropped and you have to move on. What this means is that they have the satisfaction of seeing you make progress - down to them that you're learning ever more complex music and techniques. What they forget is that the poor pupil always sounds dire to herself, and never gets the satisfaction of feeling that she can play a piece well and has it totally under her control. Over time, this can be very depressing - for the pupil. 

The further good news is that, as I kept all the pieces in a book lesson-ready as long as I was on that Suzuki book, I got very good, at last, on the earlier pieces.
The further bad news is that Fiddle Guru rarely asked for these good earlier pieces. For some strange reason he liked homing in on the problem pieces! 

The Suzuki books have scales and exercises in between the pieces for pupils to cut their teeth on and acquire the necessary skills. But Fiddle Guru found them boring so he ignored them. I could have done them on my own, I suppose - but I was already doing two hours a day on pieces, so I just didn't feel like it. That's the trouble with me - no strength of character. 

At the end of Book 2, I did eventually manage to play the minuets by Beethoven and Boccherini - yes, that famous one! - not too badly. But then it was on to Book 3.

At the end of Book 3, there is a Bourree by Bach that is fabulous & difficult, but because it was so difficult and fabulous, I always crashed in lessons. Fiddle Guru then wanted to leave it, while I always wanted to have another go to see if I could do it. On the occasions when I got my way, I always crashed even more badly on the rerun. So I must reluctantly admit that Fiddle Guru was right!

He had been on at me for ages to play something 'really challenging', the concertos by Seitz which are at the beginning of Suzuki Book 4. I finished Book 3 and duly went ordered Book 4 in readiness. But do you know what - I really dislike those Seitz pieces. I said that to Fiddle Guru in a lesson and he said, 'Let me change your mind' and played them through to me. And of course, as he always does, he plays like an angel. But he didn't change my mind. And that's when I finally decided not to go on with Suzuki Book 4. It was the Peter Principle - people are promoted to the level of their own incompetence - and I chose not to be incompetent.

I emailed Fiddle Guru a list of other baroque and classical pieces that I was willing to have a try at, and he said it was a good list.

So that was that!


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