Discovery & Play
Children learn naturally from the moment they begin to become aware of their world through discovery and play. Children learn much more in the first few years of their lives, but walking and speaking are big milestones. They may get some help learning these, but most parents don’t instruct their children or try to motivate them in their learning process. Rather, the child sees others walking and talking all around them, so they become curious. And then they try to do what they see—trying to stand up, trying to make sounds, and so on. They do this again and again and again—which is practicing. Parents’ involvement is for the child both discovery and play. This process is not only about them learning skills, but also about developing relationships of trust and good feelings.
Environment
Virtually all the great musicians and composers we celebrate today grew up in a musical environment. Woflgang Amadeus Mozart, probably the most famous child music prodigy of all time, often hung out in the room where his father, a court musician, was practicing or rehearsing an orchestra. The mother of the young genius Jacob Collier was a violinist, conductor and music professor. He has said, “We sing Bach chorales together as a family—it’s just so much fun!” Playing around a rehearsing orchestra or a singing family enabled them to use their nautural way of learn, discovery and play. Their foundation was laid in the same way as their foundation for walking and speaking.
Putting It Together
Shinichi Suzuki, creator of the Suzuki method for learning to play the violin, observed, “Man is a child of his environment.” Like all living things, we must adapt to the environment we are in if we are to survive. Human beings come into the world with a phenomenal ability to adapt—far beyond that of any other living thing. And this is driven by our in born desire to discover and play with what we find in our environment. This is their natural way of learning. Our job, then, is not so much to instruct or direct or control—although those things have a place—but rather to manage the environment to which they are adapting.
“Teaching is not telling. Teaching is creating an environment in which the student learns what the teacher wants them to learn.” ~ Francis Clarke, creator of The Music Tree piano method.
