ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
The Suzuki teaching method was originally designed for teaching the piano to young children. It is a method for teaching young beginners to play instruments, and it emphasizes listening, rote learning, and parental involvement. In China, the theoretical discourse strongly advocates for using it in piano classes for adult beginners, but the practicality and feasibility of this have not yet been established. As a piano teacher, it was common to notice the pressure on adult beginner students. Those pressures were often derived from physical incoordination, difficulties in notation, and keeping a steady and accurate rhythm. The authors wanted to find a suitable piano pedagogy for adult piano beginners for these challenges. The Suzuki Piano Method has achieved significant achievements in teaching children piano beginners. However, the effectiveness of this method in adult piano education required much empirical research to obtain data to support it. The current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the Suzuki piano method in piano classes for adult beginners. Taking a quasi-experimental approach, the study recruited 36 first-year undergraduate students who majored in preschool music education. The participants were divided into treatment (N=18) and control groups (N=18). Then, they participated in an eight-week training program and a post-study performance test. The performances of the participants were recorded on video and evaluated based on a Music Performance Quality Report (MPQR) The results showed that the treatment group achieved significantly higher levels of performance compared to the control group, specifically in musicality, tempo control, note accuracy, and memorization. Therefore, the current study proposes that the Suzuki method could be used to teach adult beginners, even though it is currently primarily used in early childhood music education. In addition, this study provides experimental research thoughts for further research on the use of the Suzuki piano teaching method in the future.
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In-Text Citation: (Liu et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Liu, X. C., Wang, I. T., & Wong, K. Y. (2022). The Effectiveness of Suzuki Piano Teaching Method in Adult Beginner Piano Class. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(5), 118–130.
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