Tips to Keep Playing This Summer! With Rosa María from Play Suzuki

When summer arrives, many students put their instruments away, unaware that with it comes a deeper connection to music. To inspire families and students to keep that connection alive during the holidays, today we are fortunate to speak with Rosa María, violist, music educator, and founder of Play Suzuki Studio in Salamanca.

Specializing in the Suzuki method, Rosa María guides children from a very young age on their musical journey, always from a respectful, playful, and deeply human perspective. In this interview, she shares her vision of the challenges of summer, shares practical strategies to maintain the habit, and invites us to experience music as a game, a creative expression... and an act of love.

First of all, tell us a little about yourself, Rosa María. What is your role in the world of music?

I trained as a violist at the Professional and Advanced Conservatories in my city, Salamanca. At 18, when I began teaching my first instrumental lessons, I discovered my true calling as a teacher, and from that moment on, I have continued to teach in both music schools and conservatories.

In 2012, the Suzuki Method crossed my path, and there was no turning back: I specialized as a Suzuki teacher of viola, violin, and Suzuki Early Childhood Education. I am currently fully immersed in the world of musical and instrumental pedagogy with the Suzuki Methodology, developing it in my Play Suzuki Music Studio in Salamanca (Castilla y León).

For those unfamiliar with it, could you briefly tell us what the Suzuki Method is and what makes it unique when it comes to learning an instrument?

The Suzuki Method originated in Japan and was created by violinist and educator Shinichi Suzuki in 1945, the year in which the "Talent Education movement" began (this is how Suzuki named his own Method).

Very superficially, the Suzuki Methodology is a method for learning music and instruments from a very early age (babies through Suzuki Early Musical Stimulation and later instruments, starting at 2.5/3 years old). However, in depth, the Suzuki Method goes much further: it is a philosophy of life that fosters personal growth for all children who begin learning it, and whose secondary effect is the musical and instrumental excellence that can be seen in such young students.

The Maestro himself would summarize it with these words: "Teaching music is not my main purpose. I wish to raise good citizens, noble human beings. If a child hears good music from the day they are born and learns to play it themselves, they will develop sensitivity, discipline, and patience. They will acquire a beautiful heart."

In your experience as a teacher, what are the main obstacles students encounter when summer arrives when they struggle to continue playing their instruments?

Mainly, I think it has a lot to do with children and young people's need to make the most of all the free time they lack during the school year. They currently have much longer working days than an employee at their company. If an adult had those hours, an entire country would have mobilized to regularize this employment situation. However, children are "early birds," spending the entire morning at school and continuing with all their extracurricular activities in the afternoons, followed by endless homework. Just thinking about it makes me exhausted (I'm sure your readers are too, haha).

On the other hand, I think there's also a motivational and discovery component to knowing the reasons to practice during the summer or any other time of the year. That is, if music hasn't yet touched that "button" that connects you with the pleasure and enjoyment of creating something for yourself—intrinsic motivation—then daily practice becomes a series of "whys?", "no's," and struggles trying to convince your children (with ice cream and promises) to practice.

There are many other reasons, of course, and this one seems important enough to highlight here.

Why is it important not to stop playing during the summer? What consequences can a long break have on the learning process?

Instrumental practice requires a physical, mental, and motivational component. Stopping practicing for periods of two months or more causes a loss of agility and strength in the fingers at the muscular level that instrumental practice requires. After weeks without playing, it's very difficult to regain the tuning and rhythm in our first practices, which connects us with demotivation and reluctance. Because before the break, we were at a higher technical level, and now we realize it has dropped significantly. In other words, what was once easy to play, now, after those months of vacation, everything acquired has diminished considerably.

As the Russian violinist Vladimir Horowitz said: “If I don't practice one day, I notice it; if I don't practice two, the critic notices it; if I don't practice three, the audience notices it.”

I smile when I say this phrase because Horowitz was well known for his self-demanding approach during practice and his perfectionism. Without going to these extremes, I would say the consequences are the loss of the opportunity to connect, in such a wonderful way, with the ability to create music and transform it into a pure emotion.

What simple strategies or routines do you recommend to help students continue practicing, even on vacation?

The most important thing is the invitation to stop practicing as an obligation and turn it into a moment of connection with oneself, with family, friends, and with the joy of creating something as beautiful as music. For this to happen, high levels of motivation are required; That's why I recommend 10 simple steps, which I expand on my Instagram account @playsuzuki and share throughout the summer as a "10-week challenge to achieve intrinsic motivation," in which I propose fun games for the whole family.

Since we're targeting a broader audience here, I'll share the ones I consider most relevant for this space:

• Create a cultural environment where quality music, concerts, and visits to theaters, museums, and exhibition halls are part of family activities. Participation in summer music courses is also a must. The proposal is to seek out all cultural activities in which students can participate and immerse themselves in the environment that inspires them to want to connect with music.

• Support from all family members: It is very important that everyone pull in the same direction, supporting students during difficult times so that progress can be easily sustained over time. Therefore, offering concerts to family members in a fun way, including creating beautiful invitations to the concert in the garden or porch seats, could be a fun strategy to implement in the summer. And thus, applaud and support all the progress made and the efforts made. 

• Include the instrument and music as part of the family: If both are important to the family because they are part of the children's educational priorities, just like any other subject taught in elementary school or high school, the children will want to value the value placed on them, and resistance will decrease significantly. As an activity for this challenge, the proposal would be to draw a picture in which the instrument is included in the family unit. The child can draw themselves giving a concert to the family and then add a soundtrack to that drawing by creating a song that doesn't exist anywhere, only in their imagination.

Ultimately, try to guide children so that music and the instrument become the activity they do every day and for which they are accepted, for who they are (just as they are). Inviting parents to put aside judgments and labels to accompany them on this difficult path that instrumental learning entails. I am sure that by changing the way we look at our children, valuing their efforts and progress, the journey will become much easier.

What role can families play in supporting and motivating children who study music in the summer?

Well, as I mentioned before, families play a fundamental role. Hence the great responsibility of being parents and the enormous value I place on the families at my studio for being so. Teachers, parents, and students form an equilateral triangle in which we all pull in the same direction so that the child builds his or her learning from love, security, and trust. These three things are the key to instrumental learning.

Families are the ones who accompany, support, and encourage their children toward success, toward life. Your opinion is crucial to them. A single word of disapproval is a reason to abandon practice halfway and not want to return the next day. Therefore, learning to use language based on honest expression, leaving aside judgments and labels, greatly helps them develop emotional security. That is, children contribute to us and to themselves simply by giving from the heart instead of doing what we ask of them out of fear, guilt, or shame.

It's a language and a way of understanding education that requires a 360-degree change because we have all been raised with these three premises. However, when we learn to communicate from a place of nonjudgment, honest expression, and expression of our emotions and needs, the level of connection with our children changes exponentially. And so does, of course, our daily practices.

Can you think of any creative ideas or different activities for playing in the summer that would be more fun or motivating?

We can add a few more things to the strategies proposed above. As I said, motivation is fundamental. Every student is motivated in their own way, and there are no good or bad ones, better or worse; each way is unique.

Children motivate themselves by playing songs they know they will play in the future. They also do so by playing songs by their favorite singers or cartoons from TV. Others, with a tremendous imaginative capacity, love inventing songs and experimenting with new ways to get sounds from their instruments.

Some children only learn when they are in a group, and being alone in their room, practicing, connects them with a loneliness that causes them to begin to develop a disconnection and rejection of the instrument and music. For them, playing with other children is a very good idea and a very positive strategy.

Other children are motivated by being leaders, which is why practicing as a friend's teacher, or even as a special moment, with their parents, helps them a lot. There's nothing more fun than realizing you know more about music than your parents and that you're the one who can teach them how to hold the bow or how to place their fingers on the piano keys.

Some children go into great depth with their practice and require more time to fully understand what they're playing. For them, listening to many versions of the piece they're learning or knowing who composed it is very important for their motivation.

Parents know their children best and are the ones who can determine these things. And, without a doubt, sharing that quality time with them will be the best of all.

What basic materials or tools should a Suzuki student pack when going on vacation?

For Suzuki children, the one thing they can't do without is their Suzuki CD.

Of course, traveling with the instrument on vacation is always a must. Sometimes instruments come with low-quality cases, and they can suffer greatly in the summer due to the heat. Therefore, having a higher-quality case can save us from a few unpleasant surprises.

For bowed string instruments, humidifiers are essential in summer. They keep the instrument at an optimal humidity level, thus preventing possible breakage due to dry air. Therefore, it is highly recommended not to leave the instrument in the car, especially if it doesn't have a humidifier.

Of course, it is important to have spare strings, rosins, a metronome, and a tuner. And, of course, a music stand for students who already know how to read music.

For these students, in particular, purchasing new sheet music outside the Suzuki repertoire, such as Folk Music or music for duos, trios, quartets, or even contemporary music, is also a fantastic option.

What would you say to a student who is hesitating this summer between continuing to play or putting their instrument aside until September?

I would tell them what I tell the little ones in my studio: that music is a gift for human beings, and having the ability to create it with an instrument is, if anything, the greatest of gifts.

If you are able to connect with this and enjoy it the same way you enjoy painting or drawing because you know that, whatever you do, when you show it to your mom or dad, they'll love it, then keep playing. Play and create the musical drawing that makes you happy. Music is a cure for the soul; you just need the strength and courage to make yourself heard.

Let your music speak to everything you can't express in words.

Thank you, Rosa María, for this generous and meaningful conversation. We're left with a powerful idea: playing in the summer doesn't have to be an obligation, but rather a way to connect with oneself, with others, and with the joy of creating.

To all the families who support their young musicians: your role is key. And to the students who are wondering whether to continue playing during the holidays... remember that music can also be a game, an invitation to express yourself as you truly are. This summer, even if it's just for a few minutes a day, keep playing to keep growing!