The Effectiveness of Suzuki Piano Teaching Method in Adult Beginner Piano Class

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 research thoughts for further research on the use of the Suzuki piano teaching method in the future.


Introduction
According to Uszler, Gordon, and Mach (1991), most adults taking beginner piano classes are college students who are not majoring in music. In college non-music major of adults' piano students, in preschool education programs particularly, adults taking beginner piano classes have limited time available for practicing the instrument. This is due to their course load and the various disciplines covered in the curriculum. For instance, the students have to take singing lessons because being proficient in singing can help them in their careers (Apfelstadt, 1989;Richards, 1999;Siebenaler, 2006). When it comes to preschool music education, researchers have suggested that the curriculum should not only teach music skills related to the instrumental but also encourage students to develop a basic understanding of the fundamentals of music, as well as pedagogical theories (Gauthier & McCrary, 1999;Propst, 2003). In recent years, researchers in China have identified various shortcomings in teaching adult beginners through group piano classes in higher education. Zheng and Zhao (2021) proposed a customized approach to group piano lessons, in which students of different abilities are grouped hierarchically for effective training. Meanwhile, Gang (2020) suggested using interactive AI systems as a teaching tool in piano lessons for non-music majors. He argued that this would help students improve through practice and increase their interest in playing. However, the recommendations of these researchers are only theoretical and have not been empirically tested.
In piano classes for adult beginners, teachers often encourage students to practice playing and to try and understand basic music theory (Roberson, 1987;Udtaisuk, 2005). This can involve reading notation (Thompson, 1936) and engaging in finger exercises (Couperin, 1717;Czerny & Bis`hop, 1848;Hanon, 1986). Taylor (1982) argued that high-quality piano playing requires both physical and mental coordination. Many theories and teaching methods have addressed this issue, such as the sensory-motor approach to music learning that was developed by ( Madeleine Carabo-Cone, 1969). Carabo-Cone argued that teachers should use musical games with specific learning objectives to enable beginners to master the fundamentals of music through touch. The Orff-Schulwerk Approach suggests that rhythm is the most important skill when it comes to learning a musical instrument (Shamrock, 1986). Therefore, teachers should encourage beginners to learn music through rhythm. Jaques-Dalcroze (2014), who developed Eurhythmics, has also stated that rhythm is essential for understanding music. Jaques-Dalcroze's model encourages students to gain an understanding of rhythm and tempo by listening to music (Tabuena, 2021). The primary goal of Eurhythmics was to strengthen students' auditory skills to allow them to synthesize music and internalize their understanding (Findlay, 1995). In response to this approach, more recent scholars have also emphasized the importance of aural skills. For example, Gordon (1999) developed the concept of "audiation" to describe students' interior hearing and aural abilities. In Gordon's view, audiation is similar to language learning.
The Suzuki method also focuses on developing students' auditory skills through rote learning (Americas, 2018;Jones, 1994;Suzuki, 1986). The goal of this is to improve students' physical coordination and help them overcome the difficulties of learning an instrument (Henke, 2021). In addition, the Suzuki method aims to cultivate a general interest in performance and the aesthetic skills associated with music (Suzuki & Li, 2004). To reduce the psychological stress on beginners and ensure they maintain their interest, beginners should be encouraged to develop their playing through attentive listening (Menghini, 2018). The most important ideas contained in the Suzuki method are: (1) parental involvement influences the learning process (Doris & Zhou, 1987;Hermann, 1999); (2) a step-by-step approach helps to put students at ease during the learning process (Arimitsu, 1982;Suzuki, 1982); (3) playing skills can be reinforced through repetition, particularly in the early stages (Bigler & Lloyd-Watts, 2016;Barber, 1991;Kataoka, 1985;Starr & Starr, 1999); (4) it is important to prioritize auditory training (Mills, 1973); (5) teachers should try to cultivate a positive attitude in their students (Keith, 2009); (6) students should gain experience by playing before learning to read musical notation (Henke, 2021;Eubanks, 2015); (7) group teaching is suitable for beginners' classes (Bigler & Lloyd-Watts, 2016;Lange, 2015;Rosenbalm, 2010;Suzuki, 1992).
The Suzuki method uses the mother tongue-based theory, which places great importance on auditory training and playing technique (Barber, 1991;Kataoka, 1985;Menghini, 2018;Mills, 1973). It has been broadly adopted in English language teaching (ELT) (Ball, 2010;Benson, 2005; Gacheche, 2010) and mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) (Lartec et al., 2014;Mahboob & Cruz, 2013;Tupas, 2015). In music, the auditory training involved in learning to differentiate pitches and timbres can help students to create concrete mental images of the notes, thereby improving their memory and aural skills (Castner, 1981). Baber (1991) advocated focusing on this approach during the early stages of learning an instrument. This approach is called the "sound-before-symbol" approach, and it can improve the sight-reading and memorization skills of beginner students (Hallberg, 2014;Yeom, 2015).
Nowadays, international researchers are proposing the Suzuki teaching method as a way of teaching the piano to adult learners (Peak, 1998;Rivera, 2021;Robinson, 2014). Some scholars have recommended using it with adult beginners (Zhou, 2016). However, there is a lack of empirical evidence for its effectiveness, particularly among adults (Jiang, 2018;Zhao, 2012). Using a quasi-experimental approach, this study provides statistical data to substantiate the effectiveness of the Suzuki method for teaching piano to adults. The research question is as follows: what are the effects of implementing the Suzuki method in beginner classes for adult pianists?
In the remainder of the study, the term "Suzuki method" refers to approaches to teaching piano derived from the Suzuki method. The term "conventional method" refers to the teaching method that prioritizes learning musical notation before playing.

Methodology Participants
A quasi-experimental method was used to examine the learning outcomes of beginners' piano classes for adults. The research was conducted at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Tong Hua Normal University in China. Using purposive sampling, 36 participants were selected from 125 freshmen majoring in preschool music education who had no previous experience of learning piano. Table 1 details the participants' demographics.  Table 1, all the participants were over 18, meaning that they were all legal adults in China. 95% of the participants were women, and 5% were men. None of the participants had any previous experience of learning piano. All the students met the conditions for participating in this study.

Instrument Music Performance Quality Report
The Music Performance Quality Report (MPQR) was pilot tested to assess its reliability. It was developed as a tool for evaluating the performance test conducted at the end of the study. It was based on previous tools that have been used to measure musical performance (Ma, 2005;Thompson & Williamon, 2003). The author modified the evaluation criteria to focus on five aspects of musical performance: musicality, fluency, note accuracy, tempo control, and memorization. These criteria were selected due to their importance for beginners learning piano. The scores were assessed using a Likert scale with seven levels: "very dissatisfied", "dissatisfied", "somewhat dissatisfied", "uncertain", "somewhat satisfied", "satisfied", and "very satisfied". The reliability coefficient of the MPQR scale was evaluated using Cronbach's α (Tavakol & Dennick, 2011). The Cronbach's α coefficient of the five performance criteria was 0.841, suggesting that the criteria have a high level of internal consistency. The consistency of the criteria is related to the content that is measured; the larger the Cronbach's α coefficient, the stronger the internal consistency. Previous studies have suggested that as long as Cronbach's α is more than 0.7, the internal consistency is sufficient. Since the MPQR showed strong internal consistency, the author used the MPQR to measure performance in the test at the end of the study.

Research Design
Since the participants in this study were adult learners with no prior experience of playing piano, it was not possible to collect pre-test data (Shadish & Luellen, 2005). Therefore, the current study is quasi-experimental, using only post-test data (Kenny, 1975). Before the study, the 36 participants were randomly assigned into two groups. The 18 participants in the control group were taught using the conventional method. The 18 participants in the treatment group were taught using the Suzuki method. The study lasted for a total of eight weeks, and each group received two 90-minute lessons each week. At the end of the eighth week, the two groups of participants were mixed for a piano performance test. To evaluate the performance objectively, the researcher invited two associate professors specializing in piano performance and one lecturer from the Music Faculty at Tong Hua Normal University to act as expert evaluators and assess the participants' performances. These three experts provided a blind review of the performances, using the five evaluation criteria. The procedure is shown in the flow chart in Figure 1.

Intervention Procedure
Both groups learned the same pieces of music taken from the Suzuki piano school (Suzuki, 1992). The pieces taught were "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations" and "Cuckoo". Before proceeding with the quasi-experimental research, the author analyzed the textbooks and selected materials that could reasonably be taught. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations" was chosen for the simplicity of its melody, which can be played on one hand, making it an ideal choice for beginners learning the piano (Hallberg, 2014;Yeom, 2015). The piece was designed to teach different musical elements through melodic and rhythmic variations. "Cuckoo" is a two-handed piece in triple meter that requires learners to coordinate their hands (Starr & Starr, 1999) and more complex pulse control. With increasing varieties in articulation, this piece was chosen to test the fluency and musicality of the participants. The teaching procedures are shown in Table 2. Listen to a demonstration of the piece and try to memorize the tracks 3. Gain extensive expertise in imitating musical sounds and a basic capacity for appreciating music 1.
Listen to the demonstration tracks instead of repeated physical practice, which is to ensure the memorization of musical content. not much required, but listen to a demonstration of the piece repeatedly until it is possible to memorize the melody.

Data Collection and Analysis
To ensure that the experiment was objective, the participants were not told which group they were in or the purpose of the research. To ensure consistency in the teaching, both groups were taught by the same instructor.
The data were collected and analyzed after the performance test. Participants played the two pieces from memory. The three experts evaluated the participants' performances using the MPQR. The final results for each participant were based on the average of the three scores given by the three experts. The mean values for the data were used for subsequent analyses of inferential statistics (Nachar, 2008). Owing to the small sample size, the Mann-Whitney U-test was applied. In addition, a nonparametric test was conducted on the two independent samples. The following hypotheses were proposed: H0: There is no significant difference between the Suzuki method and the conventional method.
H1: There are significant differences between the Suzuki method and the conventional method.
The specific steps in the process were as follows. First, two sets of sample data were used. The control group samples (X) were assumed to be X1, X2..., X18; the treatment group samples (Y) were assumed to be Y1, Y2..., Y18. They were mixed and sorted in ascending order to obtain the respective rank of each data point. Second, the ranks of X1, X2..., X18 and Y1, Y2..., Y18 were averaged to obtain two average ranks. If the data results displayed a difference between the average of the two groups, the value of each group of samples in the two groups was generally small. In contrast, the value of the other group of samples was generally large. After averaging and observing the rank, it was possible to infer how much each group had achieved: the higher the rank, the better the performance result, and vice versa (McKnight & Najab, 2010;Nachar, 2008). It was also possible to judge whether there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups by assessing the approximate probability via a p-value (Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)) obtained from the test results. The p-value was less than 0.05, so there was a significant difference; therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected (Schunacher & McMillan, 2001).

Results
The Mann-Whitney U-test showed the higher the average rank of the two groups, the higher their score in the performance criterion.  Table 3 shows the results from the Mann-Whitney U test. In terms of musicality, the average rank of the control group was 10, and the average rank of the treatment group was 27; there is a large gap between them. In terms of tempo control, the average rank of the control group was 10.5, and the average rank of the treatment group was 26.5. In terms of note accuracy, the average rank of the control group was 13.83, and the average rank of the treatment group was 23.17. In terms of fluency, the average rank of the control group was 15.19, and the average rank of the treatment group was 21.81. In terms of memorization, the average rank of the control group was 13.36, and the average rank of the treatment group was 23.64.
The average rank of the treatment group is greater than that of the control group. There is a statistically significant difference between the results. The results of the Mann-Whitney U test are shown in Table 3. The p-values of the five scores for the MPQR demonstrates the following: there is a statistically significant difference in musicality (p = 0.00 < 0.05), so the original hypothesis (H0) is rejected; there is a statistically significant difference in tempo control (p = 0.00 < 0.05) and note accuracy (P = 0.006 < 0.05), so the original hypothesis is rejected; there is no statistically significant difference in fluency (P = 0.057 > 0.05), so the original hypothesis is maintained. There is a statistically significant difference in memorization (P = 0.001 < 0.05), so the original hypothesis is rejected. Of the five elements in the MPQR, fluency is the only one for which there is not a statistically significant difference between the two teaching methods.

Conclusion and Discussion
According to Williams (2000), the most obvious distinction between the Suzuki method and the conventional method is the auditory learning process. Prior research has noted the effect of auditory training on physical coordination, arguing that it can improve the quality of teaching and make it less stressful for adults who are taking beginner piano classes (Kataoka, 1985;Udtaisuk, 2005). Based on previous findings, the Suzuki method, which focuses on auditory training, has been used to teach children taking beginner piano classes. However, researchers have not agreed on whether the Suzuki method should be used to teach adults (Jiang, 2018;Menghini, 2018;Talent Education Research Institute, 2018;Williams, 2000).
The conventional teaching method teaches multiple skills related to performance and music theory. This can make the learning process less efficient (Henke, 2021). In contrast, the Suzuki method focuses on one element at a time, and learning develops from auditory understanding. This allows students to develop their physical coordination before focusing on theory. In this study, participants in the treatment group exhibited significant improvements in musicality, note accuracy, memorization, and tempo control. They did not show a significant improvement in fluency. This was probably because the beginner's piece was fairly simple. From this, we inferred that participant were able to achieve fluency by practicing repeatedly. Future studies should examine intermediate and advanced pieces to determine the effect of teaching methods on fluency. For the moment, it is not clear whether the Suzuki method remains viable for learners who are not beginners (Eubanks, 2015).
There were several limitations to this quasi-experimental research study. First, the students were asked to listen to the demonstrations every day; however, the frequency and length of time they spent listening were not monitored. Therefore, these variables were not considered. Second, owing to the small sample size and the lack of external validity, the results cannot be generalized (Gribbons & Herman, 1997;Hill, 1998;Schunacher & McMillan, 2001). Third, this study only used the Suzuki method and only selected two tracks from Suzuki Piano School Volume 1. Hence, future studies should look at later volumes to assess the full benefits of the Suzuki method.