The Suzuki Method
Suzuki Piano
Key principles of the Suzuki Piano Method include active parental involvement. The parents of younger students should be their daily practice partners. In addition, listening to recordings, repetition, encouragement, individual theory sessions, along with learning a carefully constructed repertoire, are essential. Reading of music is delayed until the student is mentally and physically ready.
Suzuki Association of the Americas website: Every Child Can Learn!
"More than fifty years ago, Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki realized the implications of the fact that children the world over learn to speak their native language with ease. He began to apply the basic principles of language acquisition to the learning of music, and called his method the mother-tongue approach. The ideas of parent responsibility, loving encouragement, constant repetition, etc., are some of the special features of the Suzuki approach."
"Parental Involvement As when a child learns to talk, parents are involved in the musical learning of their child. They attend lessons with the child and serve as “home teachers” during the week. One parent often learns to play before the child, so that s/he understands what the child is expected to do. Parents work with the teacher to create an enjoyable learning environment.
Graded Repertoire Children do not practice exercises to learn to talk, but use language for its natural purpose of communication and self-expression. Pieces in the Suzuki repertoire are designed to present technical problems to be learned in the context of the music rather than through dry technical exercises.
Delayed Reading Children learn to read after their ability to talk has been well established. in the same way, children should develop basic technical competence on their instruments before being taught to read music."