Suzuki Therapy

Suzuki Therapy: How music lessons can help cure our modern-day anxieties, distractions, and other first-world maladies.

In today’s age of social media and cell phone addiction, when community is shaped by your Facebook feed, and a time when kids and adults alike are experiencing an inability to be alone brought about by technology, how could you expect someone to tolerate sitting down at an instrument every day? To tolerate spending time alone every day? To feel proud having devoted an entire hour to a passage of music when there are texts to answer, instagrams to post, and your teachers and bosses expect to be able to reach you at all times?

So many chronic mental health issues in today’s society can be addressed in music lessons. We all know that music study improves self-esteem, it teaches overcoming obstacles and setting goals, and it brings respect and a loosening of ego into daily life. This is how you can focus that power to make a more lasting impact.

To have your students participate in the research, please have them fill out the following survey. Survey: The Perks of Studying Music.

To participate in an online and ongoing happiness survey yourself, go to https://www.trackyourhappiness.org/

Suggested Reading

Barron, Carrie & Alton. The Creativity Cure. Scribner:NY, 2012.

Burkeman, Oliver. The Antidote. Faber & Faber: NY, 2012.

Cognitive Neuroscience of Music, The. Peretz, I & Zatorre, R (ed), Oxford U Press, Y, 2003.

Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code. Bantam Books: New York, 2009.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow. HarperCollins: New York, 1990.

Davis, et al. An Introduction to Music Therapy. McGraw Hill, 1999.

Duke, Robert. Intelligent Music Teaching. Learning and Behavior Resources: TX, 2005.

Dweck, Carol S, PhD. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books: NY 2006.

Goleman, Daniel. Focus. Harper Collins, NY, 2013.

Gunatillake, Rohan. Modern Mindfulness. St. Martin's Griffin: New York, 2017.

How to Memorize Music. James Francis Cooke. Theodore Presser Co.: Philadelphia, 1948.

Levitin, Daniel. The Organized Mind. Dutton: NY, 2014.

Levitin, Daniel. This is your brain on music. Dutton: NY, 2006.

Miles, Elizabeth. Tune Your Brain: Using Music to Manage Your Mind, Body and Mind. Berkley Books: NY, 1997.

Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology, The. Hallam, Cross & Thaut, eds. Oxford U. Press: Oxford, 2009.

Suzuki, S. Ability Development from Age Zero. Alfred Publishing, New York: 1981.

Suzuki, S. Nurtured By Love. Alfred Pub., USA, 1983.

The Child as Musician; A Handbook of Musical Development. Gary McPherson. Oxford U. Press, NY, 2003.

Articles, Websites, and Links:

Teaching Lessons for Children with Special Needs
https://nafme.org/teaching-lessons-children-special-needs/

The Benefits of Playing the Piano
https://ogdenpianogallery.com/the-benefits-of-learning-to-play-the-piano/

Could Playing Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker improve kids’ brains? https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141223132546.htm

How Music Could Improve Language Skills https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141223132546.htm

Music Lessons Improve Children’s Cognitive Skills and Academic Performance https://neurosciencenews.com/music-cognition-academics-8689/

Benefits of Music Education
https://www.slps.org/site/default.aspx?DomainID=2046

The Decline of Play and the Rise of Children’s Mental Disorders https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201001/the-decline-play-and-rise-in-childrens-mental-disorders

"Develop Grit" Esther Fellows. American Music Teacher. Feb/Mar 2019.

Smartphones causing kids to experience altered childhood
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/smart-phones-causing-kids-to-experience-altered-childhoods#2

How negative is your mental chatter?
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sapient-nature/201310/how-negative-is-your-mental-chatter

Working with your hands—the secret to happiness? https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/08/working-hands-happiness-burkeman

Creativity, happiness, and your own two hands
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-creativity-cure/201205/creativity-happiness-and-your-own-two-hands

Handiwork: How busy hands can alter our brain chemistry https://www.cbsnews.com/news/handiwork-how-busy-hands-can-alter-our-brain-chemistry/