Great Review: Introducing the “Book Recital”

            Aside from the "lottery" review system where Dr. Suzuki has children draw review pieces out of a hat to play, I have never read in the journals suggestions on how to assign students review pieces. Therefore, I have developed an organized way of my own to have students review repertoire where the pieces become so well-learned that they "stick" virtually forever. I share these ideas with those who might be looking for a similar program.

            First and foremost, every piece must be absolutely perfect before it can go on the review list. I call this "passing it off" for want of a better term. The piece must be, of course, note perfect, impeccably in tune, all bowings correct, played with a fine tone, and in flawless posture and position. All five conditions must be met. I start the process with “Tukka, Tukka, Stop, Stop." With the littlest ones, “Tukka" can take over a year to perfect, but I prepare the parents and students for my finicky ways with this piece, however tedious it may seem to parents who are not 'Suzuki-oriented." I never hurry students along through the Twinkles, because I want the families to understand the standards of excellence I expect.

            When the student is finally able to play "Tukka" with all of the above criteria, I announce to all in the studio (and in my house) in a loud voice: "Perfect! He passed it off!" Cheers and applause! The student and parents have seen this happen many times with other students and the anticipation has been high from several weeks before. I hand the student a "Review Trail" which I think I got from Jeanne Grover many years ago (see fig. 1).  I date and initial the Tukka box, and the child colors it in.  I explain to the family that when the student "passes off" a piece, that is when we can really start polishing it and learning from it. You learn it, and then you learn from it. The student, for review, must play each piece on his "Review Trail" twice perfectly (absolutely perfectly) every day. We add a new piece to his review list or trail every so often, always with great exuberance, whenever he passes it off.  Each time he gets to color in another box on the trail. Depending on his age and adeptness, (and how much the family listens to the tape, and how motivated the child and parent are, etc.), he passes off a piece every week or month or so; it doesn’t really matter how fast. 

            By the time he gets to "Allegro," he is doing many, many minutes of perfect review practice every day, and I announce that he will only review the Twinkles once daily.  When he arrives at the Minuets, the folk songs also go down to just once a day. At the last piece in the book, he should be reviewing every piece in the book once perfectly every day. 

            By this time, if he has been diligent, he can play the entire book perfectly in one standing.   It takes at least 20 minutes of concentrated effort. When he passes off Gossec Gavotte, (or Minuet 2 for celli), I announce that next week he must qualify for his recital. The family has observed other children do this at lessons, and the anticipation is high, as is the stress level. The child must play the entire book with at least 73% of the pieces perfect. The number isn't magic. It's just the percentage Dr. Irene Peery-Fox used with Book 1. That is, 17 out of 23 in the first book must be played perfectly. (I count each Twinkle, & both Perpetual Motion and the Doubles, and Etude and Doubles each as one.)  It's eight out of thirteen pieces in Book Two. If the child has been reviewing diligently, he can pass off the book in about 25 minutes. It takes weeks of relearning and reviewing if the parent hasn't been insisting on a perfect review DAILY.  

            When the child can pass off the book, he has "qualified" for his recital.  I let the parent plan when and where the recital will be held, (usually at their own home or church) and invite grandparents, school friends, primary teachers, and group classmates (especially) to come. The child makes announcements and programs, which I post on my bulletin board.

            Mother puts an article and his picture in the local newspaper, which I clip and post, along with the student's completed and colored-in review trail. The trail becomes a relic.  I wouldn't throw-away my own children's for any price.  It represents such a lot of hard work. 

            The child gets all dolled up for the important debut on the big night, the family has a welcome and a prayer, and then he proceeds to play the entire book of perfect, polished pieces, with confidence and flair, as Dad or big brother video-tapes it for further study. 

            Playing the recital is actually no big deal, because the child has been doing it for months. He is the man of the hour, and wonderful congratulations are heard from the other parents and violin friends, as well as from his family. It is SO marvelous. I can’t tell you how much this boosts self-confidence and poise. He can only succeed, not fail, because he is so well-prepared.

            Most music students might do a solo recital as a requirement for a performance degree at a University, but our students can perform a half dozen or more solo recitals before they are even  teenagers.  Sometimes siblings play on the recital,or the child does a piano number or whatever for variety. The mama serves refreshments after, the children socialize, the parents talk with each other and get ideas and motivation. The other students look on with a supportive, non-jealous attitude, and realize, "Hey, I can do this. Hey, I want to do this." I require all my students to attend because of the motivating nature of the recital; they don't all come, but many do and are well-rewarded, and become close friends and a tight support group.

            In addition, I present the student with a small trophy that reads: "Name, Suzuki Violin Book I, and the date".  I attend them all, especially to have my own children hear the fine work played.                                      
            Incidentally, I charge ten dollars for the recital, (about twice what the trophy costs), but another teacher I know charges the price of two lessons for it.  I found I had to charge, just to keep up. Nowadays, we have about two recitals a month in my studio. Incredibly, my children and students LOVE the trophies. I don’t know why. Probably a small bust of a composer, a classical CD, or the like might work better; you decide what you like best. I always use the last lesson before the recital for a practice with the accompanist. The accompanist must come to the lesson. This is a crucial skill to be developed; that of working and rehearsing with a pianist. I save five minutes at the end of that lesson to give a preview for the first piece in Book Two, an incredibly exciting event.

            Working his way through Book Two, each time the student passes off a piece, I take two Book One pieces off his review list, so that gradually, about three-quarters of the way through Book Two, he is reviewing only Book Two, plus an occasional old piece. After having done a year of concentrated review practice on those old pieces, they will come back almost instantaneously.  I have a Book Seven student who can play any piece in the books, any time, because of good review work through the years.

            Soon the student is playing all of Book Two every day, and by and by, passes off his book and qualifies for his next recital. 

            When I started this system many years ago, I really sweated playing six concerto movements in Book Four.  Could it be done? But to my surprise and pleasure, all of my upper book students have played a Book Four recital, all six concerti movements.  You should hear a Book Six recital. Fabulous!   It is a marvelous and satisfying way to do business. 

            By the way, I do a form of specialized review in addition to this general review, that of Technique Builders, i.e., small excerpts of technical material from pieces which the student must practice daily. At each lesson I hear as much review as possible, especially from students who are inclined not to review.   

            Some parents think progress should be gauged by what piece the student is studying, rather than how well the old pieces are played. These are the ones that must be educated and helped to change their attitude. For example, if a student is learning May Song, at every lesson I will hear every single piece from Tukka on before I listen to May Song. If he is on Etude, he will start at Allegro at the lesson. At Gossec Gavotte, I will hear all of the Minuets and Happy Farmer. In Book Two, I try to hear the last two or three "passed off" pieces before we ever get to the new piece, every lesson! 

            Likewise, in the upper books, I always listen to the most recently "passed-off" piece first. At small group classes, I like to hear about 1/4 to ½ book from each student. By the way, I have drawn up "review trails" to the first four books, but after that the students make their own, sometimes on the computer, coming up with some ingenious inventions. I always insist on their passing off each piece; however, in the upper books, with older students, they can pass off certain pieces using the music; e.g., some sonata movements in Book Six and Seven are used as “reader” pieces. They can still perform these at their recital if they want, using the music, but it isn’t necessary. 

            I have the student keep the trail in a plastic slipcover in his notebook so I can see it at each lesson. At a glance, I can tell where he is, what previews he has worked on, etc. It can bring back what happened at the last lesson, even for a bad memory like mine. 

            You need to know that learning pieces this well takes a little longer, and students may not progress through the books as fast as some. But this review process, along with monthly performance classes prepare students so that anything they play sounds great, and they are ready at the drop of a hat to play forty-five minutes of prepared, polished, memorized, solo pieces, anytime, anywhere.

            Graduation recitals are nothing to prepare for, because he has been playing the graduation piece perfectly, daily, for months.  Students can play for church, ASTA festivals, rest homes, my own student recitals, auditions, etc., with very little  preparation. They always sound great and prepared. People think they are geniuses.  They have success experiences constantly because they are well prepared. This is also the reason that there is never any anxiety or fear before a recital or performance. 

            No student can just breeze through this process, but all children can do it. It took one little girl over three years to do her Book One recital, but she got a new dress, and her mother had her portrait done up with her violin, and a neighbor sent flowers and wrote a lovely note. All of her friends and family came and listened to a well-prepared recital. The next morning she announced that she wished she could play a recital every day. My own little boy took nearly five years to play Book One, but then did Two, Three, and Piano Book One within one year. It doesn’t matter how long, as long as it boosts self-esteem, excellence, motivation, and good will. 

            After a student plays a Book Recital, he is SO excited to “plow through” the next book.  And, of course, the first pieces in the new books are always a little easier than the final piece in the previous book, so they are going eighty miles an hour right away. It's very exhilarating and so rewarding! It takes real effort and determination on the part of parents, teachers, and students, in order for children to be trained this well. It is so much easier to work at the new piece only and push ahead into new literature. This system gives parents an organized way to assign review and follow-up with their children. Older children can do review on their own, and even little children can do the review routine with the CD while mother is working with another child, if s/he has been trained to do it regularly.  But of course, it works better if mother can perform“quality control”. 

            I heard at an Institute once that mindless review is worse than no review at all, but I don’t believe it.  Naturally, we want children to be thinking and striving to play perfectly and musically, but just the time involved and the playing of the pieces themselves does wonderful things for the memory, fluidity of playing, and the making of pieces “automatic”. I think that some review is definitely better than no review at all, and lots of review is infinitely better than just some, and an organized manner of practicing lots of review can work miracles.  

            I’m a believer! Happy reviewing!

Denise Willey