Violin teacher Yoko Waynen knows what it’s like to start playing early. At age 3 in Nagano, Japan, she was a student herself at the original Suzuki school, “The Talent Education Institute.”
“My teacher in Japan was so strict that at first I didn’t like it,” she says. “I really wanted to quit.” As the youngest of three siblings in a musical family – her sister played the piano, her brother, the violin – it would have been difficult to quit. “But my Mom was clever,” Yoko recalls. “She said I couldn’t quit until I finished the first book, but that after that, it would be up to me.” With Volume 1 completed, young Yoko had developed both the interest and the confidence to continue. The rest is history!
At Cape Symphony Preschool, Yoko instructs 4 and 5 year-olds in violin though the Suzuki method. This teaching philosophy is grounded in the idea that all children are capable of learning music, and that they do so in the same way they learn language: first, by ear. Very young students start with violins as small as 1/32 the size of a full-size instrument. As they grow, they move up to the 1/16, then the 1/10 sizes. In addition to their individual lessons, Yoko’s young students participate in a group class to experience the joy of making music together.
While every lesson is positive and encouraging, Yoko finds that there is not one right way to approach all students. Her own parents and teacher were very strict, she reflects, and parenting in Japan is more similar from one family to another than it is here. “In the United States, things are more informal,” families have widely different ways of being, and “every student has a different relationship with music.” Yoko strives to meet each student where they are.
Do Yoko’s students ever surprise her? “Many times! Kids love to surprise me with what they can do! They’re very happy when they finish a new song.” That’s true for students of all ages, actually. “I love teaching older students,” she says. “I respect them a lot for starting something new.”
Starting new things is fun for Yoko too, especially in the kitchen. “I love cooking! The kitchen is my happy place,” she smiles. “I love to experiment and make anything from scratch. Recently, I’m making yogurt.”
Asked what she’d like her students to gain from their lessons beyond skill at the instrument, Yoko stresses the importance of practicing every single day. That self-discipline serves students well in many areas, throughout their lives. The mutual respect and politeness of the teacher-student relationship is also important to establish early. “It’s not just about music,” she says. These are foundational habits for a lifetime of successes.
***
Yoko Waynen is accepting new violin and viola students of all ages for private lessons at Cape Symphony’s Barnstable campus. Email
