Can we make our own lifestyle of our choice? How can we teach our children to make and choose a cheerful, friendly, and loving lifestyle? This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote or other thought from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy or writing. … Continue reading "Reflections — Choosing a Lifestyle"

How do we stay motivated to practice and learn? What is motivation anyway? Is it something we can build within ourselves? How? This episode looks closer at what it means to be “motivated” and explores some simple techniques to build or stay motivated. Perhaps the issue is as simple as techniques to build up momentum. … Continue reading "065 TSP Motivation | Let’s Build Momentum!"

How does love pay dividends and interest? How can we develop and expand our ability to express love? How can we teach our children to improve this ability? This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote or other thought from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s … Continue reading "Reflections — Love Pays Dividends"

Dr. Suzuki advised self reflection for parents and teachers as a way to become better parents, teachers, students, and people in general. But how do we do “Self Reflection”? What does self reflection look like? What tools should we use? This episode examines the possible answers to this question and suggests some interesting experiments that … Continue reading "064 TSP Self Reflection | The Cold Shower Experiment"

Dr. Suzuki wrote about the importance of searching for life’s truth, goodness, and beauty. How can we help our children search for and find these things? This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote or other thought from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy or … Continue reading "Reflections — Searching for truth, goodness, and beauty"

A listener writes to ask how to answer the question of why we advocate an early start to music education. The episode discusses Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy and observations about the importance of starting early in education and relates research regarding the brain development of babies in the first three years. Here are links to the … Continue reading "063 TSP Let’s Get an Early Start in Music Education | The Brain Tank is Full!"

Dr. Suzuki frequently stated that parents must reflect about everything that the parents do in order to see if the parents are modeling the desired character traits that the parents wish their children to develop. This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote … Continue reading "Reflections — Parents Must Reflect!"

Summer Daze is a challenge for teachers, parents, and students. We lose momentum, focus, and interest. We get out of our regular routine and fall into a rut of drifting aimlessness. Is this a good thing? What things can we do to change this? Today’s podcast episode offers some ideas to help solve this summer … Continue reading "062 TSP The Summer Daze Challenge"

What is a parent’s responsibility? Dr. Suzuki thought that the child’s fate was in the hands of the parents. What does this mean? It means that parents need to examine the excuses that parents make. This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote … Continue reading "Reflections — Parental Responsibility"

A parent’s most important lesson can take place when a student wants to quit. How can a parent (and teacher) guide a student in this area to build character? Here are some of the resources I mentioned in the podcast episode: http://teachsuzuki.com/052-tsp-why-study-music/ Smiling Your Way Through Violin Practice (or How Not to Quit) If you … Continue reading "061 TSP Give it Back! | A Parent’s Most Important Lesson"