Does anyone have experience with the Suzuki method?

[midnight armadillo]

I just found a Suzuki method school right near my apartment. I am quite interested in both my sons (3.5, 011 months) learning instruments when they're old enough. The Suzuki method sounds quite interesting and they start pretty young. The school offers a bunch of instruments, including piano, violin, and guitar. I started trumpet in the 4th grade, eventually moving on to bass guitar and than to classical guitar.

Does anyone have any experience with this menthod of instruction? How would it compare to more traditional (i.e. 'regular' teachers)?

[Palladin]

1. My mother was a Suzuki method

string teacher in California schools for 25 years. She actually went over to Morimoto Japan to learn from Master Suzuki himself. She trained hundreds and hundreds of young string players in her day. My own daughter did Suzuki method on the violin for 5 years, then moved on to more conventional conservatory-style instruction. The Suzuki method is time proven to get particularly young children playing the violin, in groups, and keep them involved. It will not make a fine player out of someone who does not have talent. If you have a critical mass of Suzuki students in your area so that your children can be involved in group playing, it is a wonderful gift to your children for a lifetime of musical enjoyment. Be sure to be playing good classical music and the grandmaster violinists - Stern, Heifetz, Perelman, Bell, Midori - all the time to your children in any event.