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Teaching with the Suzuki Method leads to success for child musicians

Jared and Grant Restel practice with Sister Marcella Steffes.

The room is piled high with the tools of the teacher's passion: instruments and cases, sheet music, music books and music stands. A newspaper article about a past student is prominently displayed on the wall. Sister Marcella Steffes emerges to welcome two students into her office. They are brothers. They are cellists. And at the ages of 7 and 8, they are little boys.

It's here, at Viterbo University, that Sister Marcella tutors children as young as 4 using the Suzuki Method-a teaching philosophy developed in Japan by Shin'ichi Suzuki. Suzuki is known as the pioneer of the notion that any pre-school age child can play the violin if learning steps are small enough and if the instrument is scaled down to fit his or her body.

"The Suzuki school was not to make concert artists out of them, but to develop beautiful human beings," Sister Marcella explains. "His whole idea was to develop the child's personality and their respect for others."

The development of that personality and respect . . . the "beautiful heart" as Suzuki called it, begins with the care of the instrument, says Sister Marcella. "We're very fussy about how they handle the instrument in the beginning, how they pick it up, how they set it down, that sort of thing. But it's not just the music, it's the way they respond to their teacher and in respect for their parents. And usually it helps to bond parents and children very well. A lot of mothers will say they feel that they are relating to their children much better."

Teaching with Suzuki is unlike other kinds of music lessons; it starts with no instrument at all. Students first learn by listening to the music on CD and practicing hand movements. "Before they hold the bow there are a lot of little exercises they can do. For instance, you use images a lot for the little ones. For the right hand bow hand, you would make a little rabbit. And the rabbit has to eat, has to wiggle his ears." Those hand movements make the transition to an instrument much easier. "When they put the hand on the bow, it's kind of natural. Otherwise, they hold it like a club."

Rhythms are learned through clapping or hand-shaking, the latter technique Sister Marcella developed herself. She teaches them four different rhythms, with the help of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. But don't be deceived; those beginning lessons-though simplistic-lay the groundwork for much more. "It's kind of amazing; those rhythms cover music that's quite advanced. The second is the basis for syncopation, which isn't easy," says Sister Marcella.

Her work with the Suzuki Method has yielded great results, even a legacy. Though the goal is not to create child prodigies, Sister Marcella's students have gone on to win competitions; play solo with symphonies; claim prestigious scholarships and attend Ivy League schools. Several have gone on to become music teachers themselves.

What does she think makes a great teacher? "I think it takes a lot of patience and that comes natural to me. I just can be fairly patient with most things that go on. Patience and perseverance. Don't give up when they don't have their bow positions right. Try again next week."

That philosophy has paid off in many instances. "Suzuki always said there isn't any student who can't learn. Every student can learn. And I believe that, but each one's at a different pace." For one student, her patience with him made all the difference. "He started out scratching and kind of slow, very ordinary. I just took him at his pace and eventually he developed into this wonderful violist. Even as a math major he was accepted at Harvard for viola, and that's really rare."

Currently, Sister Marcella teaches 35 students from her office at Viterbo, where she's served in various teaching roles since 1968. For 22 years, she has spearheaded the local Suzuki Festival she founded. She also regularly brings students to nursing homes during the holidays to perform. As of next year, at the age of 82, she intends to reduce her hours at Viterbo to three-fourths time. Budding musicians interested in claiming a coveted spot on her schedule should have mom or dad call Sister Marcella at Viterbo University.

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