Music Lab at the Suzuki School of Newton
Solfège and theory (named at SSN comprehensively as Music Lab) are necessary elements of good musicianship. As with learning to play an instrument, it is best learned by doing. Therefore, great attention is paid to sensory development. As always, the learning triangle of teacher, student, and parent is an integral aspect of Music Lab at the Suzuki School of Newton.
As in learning an instrument, the solfège and theory curriculum follows a child's natural process of learning. Each skill has been broken into its smallest component parts. Students are encouraged to practice each component consistently. As Dr. Suzuki discovered, the result is that any child, regardless of aptitude will naturally learn.
In addition to instrumental and group lessons, solfège and theory classes provide another format where students have an opportunity for social interaction with other young musicians studying a range of instruments. Students are placed with others of a similar musical level. The classes provide them an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of music: ear training, rhythm, notation, and composition separately from the task of learning the techniques involved in their instrument. Ultimately these
instructions reinforce each other, leading to an appreciation and understanding of the music the student makes on his or her instrument.
The ultimate goal of Music Lab is to produce a musician who can tune his or her own
instrument, play and sing in tune, play complicated melodies and rhythms, understand the underlying structure of the music that they are playing, and read music fluently in several clefs. In other words, supplement and expand the music skills learned in their individual and group instrumental lessons.
Great attention has been taken by the faculty to develop a curriculum in which skills are consistently reinforced as well as explored from a variety of different angles. As the material gets more advanced, the curriculum changes to fit the different styles of learning used by various age group. For example, while in the beginning of the curriculum, emphasis is placed on games and other fun activities, as it progresses these pastimes give way to a more structured, academic and cognitive approach to the material.