What a Great Competition
The 2000 Olympics

I was so impressed with the Olympics starting on 8eptember 15, that I watched the games every day. Doing sports is the same as studying music. You have to practice daily with concentration, hard work, and patience.

The gold medallists in Judo were wonderful. Japan has such great young people who have strong minds and strong bodies. How wonderful! I was convinced that Japan has a bright future when I saw them.

The commentator said that flexible finger movement is very important in Judo. That must be true. The tips of the fingers have sensors and can be used for gripping. It is true for the piano, too. Mr. Nomura had all the fingers of one hand wrapped with bandages. The bases of the fingers on the other hand were also wrapped. What mental strength it must take to fight even with so many injuries. We have to admire this strong endurance, which even injuries couldn't defeat.

According to the article, another gold medallist, Mr. Takimoto, fought at the Olympics while mumbling, "I have to grab him tight, move my legs..." and so on. We can learn a lot from his humble attitude even though he is the world's best. What are we doing? We must never forget the basics.

Another medallist, Mr. 8hinohara just missed the gold by the judges' decision. We can imagine how disappointed he was. Admitting his defeat, he said, "IJost because lam weak." He was a real sportsman.

After winning his medal, Mr. Inoue thanked his late mother who raised him. He showed a beautiful and awesome spirit and heart at the Olympic games. We thank you so much!

I listened to the story by Miss Naoko Takahashi, who won the first marathon gold medal. First of all, she thanked everyone including her manaQer, her coach. and those who cheered her. She also mentioned that this gold medal belongs to everyone, not only to her. Then, she said everyone's cheer pushes! her from the back so that she could run so easily. She thanked everyone, instead of saying that she did it herself.

She endured difficult and dangerous practice, but she smiled and said, "That was an enjoyable and fun forty-two kilometers." We imagined how hard it was to reach this point. It was surprising that she was so mature at such a young age.

A nice family brought her up in a blessed environment and, therefore, she was pure and possessed such a strong personality. A person, who is not only smart but also uses her body fully and does her best, is very impressive. It is because she has a good spirit and heart.

Like other times in the past, the host families put in extra effort to make this event happen. With the spirit of - international friendships, they took care of the students for room and board, transportation, and practice. They took on their responsibilities as host families, in spite of language problems. Their children will certainly learn the spirit of friendship due to the devoted actions of these adults.

As the days went by getting closer to the concert, the rehearsal schedule became more intense. Instead of every other day, rehearsals were scheduled every day. It - must have been very difficult for the parents to bring their children to the daily rehearsals. But everybody worked together so hard to make this concert better. I appreciated it very much.

The 10-Piano Concert gave us a valuable experience for not only the performance itself but also an opportunity for people working together with "heart to heart" cooperation. The American teachers who experienced the 10-Piano Concert in Sacramento last year helped us a lot because they found how hard it is to put together.

This world would be a better place if everyone understood their responsibility with their heart and acted accordingly. I fear that Japan might fall when I heard in the news that leaders of the political and economic world are not taking accountability for their own actions.

But when I witnessed wonderful performances of children at the 10-Piano Concert, I was moved. I was shown that these children understood their share of the responsibility and they followed through. This made me feel that Japan will be all right after all.

I recognized this time that the performer's technique improved tremendously from the Twinkle students to the advanced students throughout. However, one thing never changed. Children are not desirous of choosing the right things. Unless someone shows them the right choice intentionally, children won't do it by themselves. Advanced students tend not to get serious with their practice until right before the concert. They know they will be able to play the pieces well when they choose to get serious two or three days before the concert.

Finally the concert day had come. Even though I thought there were places to be improved, many of the people in the audience told me they were moved. Some said they couldn't stop their tears. I was happy to hear their praise. We, teachers, should brace ourselves up for better studying and teaching with more responsibility toward children. Children are wonderful. They amaze me all the time. They improved tremendously in the final three days right before the concert.

I wish from the bottom of my heart, in the 21st century, that the world will flourish because of these young people who understand art.

Truly, thank you everybody!!

Since I want all of my students to participate, I feel it is important that I give them as much information now concerning the cost of the concert and when they should plan to be available for rehearsals. Almost all of them usually plan a vacation in June, July or August.

I have to plan this way for myself as well. In fact, since attending at least one piano workshop per year with Dr. Kataoka has become a priority, I automatically schedule a week or two of workshop time in a yearly calendar which I give to my parents in September. The most important element of my schedule is to plan time for me to attend Dr. Kataoka's workshops.

All of my students are scheduled for the same number of lessons per year. The number of lessons varies between 42 to 44 lessons per year per student. Time away from my students includes workshops and vacation. I usually don't teach when the local school district where I live is off for major holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. This year, I spent almost three weeks in Japan, took a partial week for Thanksgiving and tw6 weeks at Christmas. I plan to not teach one week during Easter break, a possible week to attend a workshop in June with Dr. Kataoka, two weeks in August for the 10-Piano Concert, and a week following the concert for personal vacation.

Of course, I tell my students that the two weeks that they will not be having lessons with me during the 10-Piano Concert, they will be having lessons at the rehearsals. My policy statement states that tuition remains the same for one year and should be paid the first lesson of each month for twelve months. They each may have one to five lessons per month, but the monthly tuition remains the same. I have never had any complaints about this system. Once they have participated in a workshop or 10-Piano Concert, my parents are usually grateful for the opportunity.

I guess I am sharing all of this boring scheduling information with you because many teachers say to me that they cannot attend a workshop because they cannot be away from their students. I personally have not experienced any problem. In fact, I think that many of my parents are glad that I am interested in continuing my education because it has a direct positive effect on their children.

I know it is almost impossible to value something which you have not experienced personally. You do have to take a leap of faith if you have never attended a workshop with Dr. Kataoka. As I stated in a former article, if you are completely happy where you are with your teaching and your students' playing, then you probably would not be interested in a workshop. But if you feel you have room for improvement in your teaching or playing, take the leap! Set aside your own "workshop fund" and start saving and planning now for this summer. Let you parents know your plans. I will see you there!

Every person who has come in contact with Kataoka Sensei knows she is exceptional, extraordinaire, and nonpareil. My first workshop with her was in San Diego in 1988. During this first encounter, with no preconceived expectations or previous knowledge of her work, I was convinced of this teacher's earnestness and expertise. Here was the source, the co-founder of the Suzuki Piano Method herself. I felt so surely that hers was the direction of study I would take to make myself a better teacher. She commanded attention with her very presence. She was relentless in getting the "right" sound from every student and teacher. I loved listening to her demonstration of good tone. She would play the same piece the student performed for master class and have the student play it back. There was always an improvement. At that time, I had a little one, so I couldn't participate in workshops too far from home. But when my son turned six in 1992, I made sure to attend Kataoka Sensei's workshops every summer.

Every time I attended a workshop I wished that all my students and parents could meet her someday. My dream has come true!!! I am so thrilled that she is coming to Orange County. When I was in Japan for the first time last November, I saw how well-loved, and respected she was. Teachers and students come from great distances to have lessons with her. She doesn't have to leave her comfortable surroundings to travel such a long distance to the United States. Yet, she does. We are so fortunate that she is generous with her time and energy. She selflessly shares her wisdom and humor. It is impossible not to sense her love for children and music. Each workshop I am reminded of Dr. Suzuki's tenet: "Everything depends on the teacher." With every workshop we become better teachers for the future generation.

Orange County would like to give a warm welcome to Sensei, and to all who will be a part of this workshop. Don't miss your chance of being in the presence of this great teacher, and wonderful human being!!!

Local Attractions: Six Flags Amusement Park, Shakespeare Festival, Louisville Zoo, Louisville Slugger Museum, Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville Science Center and others.

Special events include: Daily Student Recitals, Welcome Banquet, Pizza and Pool Party, Ensemble Recital.

All workshop sessions will take place at Concordia University, a private Lutheran institution nestled in Irvine, which in spite of increasingly urbanization, has retained its small campus feel and lush green areas. It has an improved Student Union cafeteria and dormitories. Concordia University is only five miles from the John Wayne Airport (also known as Orange County or Santa Ana airport), and fifteen miles from Disneyland, Knotts' Berry Farm, and Newport Beach. Car rental is not a necessity if you are just coming for the workshop. Shops (supermarket/deli/restaurant) are within walking distance from the dorms.

Please come and be part of the workshop. Be there to attend the BANOUET honoring Kataoka Sensei on Friday night, the PARENT TALK on Saturday afternoon, and the FRIENDSHlP CONCERT on Saturday evening.

It is not too late to make plans to bring students! There are a limited number of openings remaining in all levels of the repertoire for students of teachers who regularly study with Dr. Kataoka and who have attended rehearsals for at least one 10-Piano Concert. Please call Linda Nakagawa for details. Students must be accompanied by their teachers and be old enough to stay with a host family without their parent. Homestay will be provided. These students should plan to have a lesson on the piece they will perform at a Piano Basics Workshop in the spring or early summer of 2001. Teachers are also invited to bring an entire pre-rehearsed group of ten students on a single piece.

Teachers may stay at the Homestead Village Guest Studios, which offer reasonable rates for rooms with kitchen facilities.

All teachers are welcome to observe rehearsals for a fee of $275 or for $60 per day. The registration fee for performing students is $150. If received by June 15, these fees will be listed in the concert program as donations under your name.

You are all welcome!! Dr. Kataoka says that observing these rehearsals is the best way to study Suzuki Piano Basics. COME TO SACRAMENTO!!

The most important aspect of students listening to the Suzuki repertoire is repetition. Students need to hear pieces they are working on many hours each day. Remember the endless tape? It was used for students to hear the same piece many times. It would only record a short amount of music, and it would not rewind. If you accidentally hit the rewind button the tape was history. Making the recording was a tedious process of counting seconds. The endless tapes had poor quality sound and were generally unreliable.

Today, we have the repeat button. No other feature on a listening device has made it so much easier for parents to create the optimum environment for their child to listen. This feature is generally available 6n disc players and standard on the multi-disc players.

The second option is the multi-disc player. Students need variety and inspiration in listening. It is important for students to hear pieces they will be learning in the future, and pieces they are going to hear at a concert given by an artist. Multi-disc players can help provide selected listening from several discs. With the program option on multi-disc players, it is possible to choose tracks from several discs to be played in succession. You can check your manual for directions on how to set the program. Generally, you push program followed by the disc and track number, then enter. You repeat this process for each piece.

For example, you may take two or three pieces from the end of Book 2, a selection of the pieces from Book 3, and then Turkish Rondo from a third disc. Families with two or three students in Suzuki piano can really benefit from programming the disc player. The program feature will hold up to 32 entries on most multi-disc players. If you then push the repeat button while the program is running, it will play this selection of pieces all day.

They hold from 3-300 discs. Multi-disc players are now available in integrated (boom box) as well as in component systems. Component systems provide a larger storage capacity and better sound quality, but require a larger investment. The purchase of a multi-disc CD Player will encourage the collection of a listening library, and help parents adapt to their child's listening needs as they progress.

The third option for the creation of customized listening is the CD-RW (Read-Write). This technology for creating music discs is now readily available on home computers. It provides teachers and parents with the tools needed to create individual CDs specific to the needs of your students. Just like the programmable discs players, you can choose the exact pieces to be played. The advantage of the CD-RW is that you can create actual discs which can then be played in any number of different places: car, bedroom, portable CD, kitchen, etc. A CD-RW allows you to:

1. Read and store CD music files from discs onto your computer
2. Create custom playback lists from the stored CD files
3. Record or "burn" the play lists onto a recordable CD.

Each track or piece on the CD is stored as a file. You can then choose which pieces you want to record onto a custom CD. The blank CD-RWs (recordable discs) are readily available at discount, music and office supply stores for $1-$2 each.

Most of the newer home computers come with a CD- RW already installed. If you don't have a CD-RW on your computer, you can purchase one to add to your system. They can be installed inside your computer (internal) or be connected by a special cable to sit on your desk. The prices range from $150-$300. All the packages come with software for reading and making your own custom CDs.

The least expensive CD-RWs are usually slower to Read and Write CDs. The more expensive ones are faster in their recording capability and some can read a new type of music file that can be obtained on the Internet called MP3. Faster CD-RW drives also produce fewer errors when recording CDs.

To choose a CD-RW you will also need to know the interface that your computer can support. The main interface types are IDE, EIDE, ATAPI and USB. You can find this in your manual or you may ask a sales person at your computer store.

The initial investment in time, energy and money will pay off as you are able to provide the highest quality listening choices. Some of the best discs for our students are unavailable/out of print discs. You can save these discs on your computer and burn them onto new discs. One last example is the Haydn Sonata #48 performed by Lili Kraus which is currently only available on cassette. It is actually possible to get the cassette recording of this put onto a disc, stored in your computer, and then burned onto as many copies as you would like. There will be more on this process in the next article.

(This information is for educational purposes only, and not for resale; web editor's note: be sure to follow applicable copyright laws)

This article continues an ongoing series about the editions of the Suzuki Piano School. There is a great deal of confusion among teachers, students, and parents due to the various editions in print at this time. Suzuki Piano Basics teachers wish to continue following the fingerings and phrasing of Dr. Haruko Kataoka, the co-founder of the Suzuki Piano school.

For Volume 2, we will be comparing the Zen-On edition and the Warner Brothers (W.B.) revised edition. Both contain helpful explanations before any musical notation appears. The Zen-On edition has Dr. Suzuki's written explanation of the general principles of the philosophy, listening, tonalization, daily practice, memorization, review, reading, developing musicianship, and observation. The W. B. Edition has an introduction for parents and teachers stressing the importance of on-going training in the Suzuki Method for teachers. This is a welcome suggestion for continuing to raise our standards for the future. It would be wonderful to have a preface including these parts of both editions under one cover.

Next, each edition contains a page introducing a C (Do) Major Scale. The Zen-On edition also has a Preparatory Grace Note Study. Dr. Kataoka does not assign introductory exercises before pieces; however, a scale routine is started when a student begins Volume 2, and the technique for playing grace notes is studied in Ecossaise. (For detailed information on this topic, Dr. Kataoka's books, How To Teach Beginners and The Method of Training Beginners may be purchased from the Suzuki Piano Basics Foundation.) [Web editor's note: the online of How To Teach Beginners is located at https://core.ecu.edu/wilburnk/SuzukiPianoBasics/KataokaSensei/HTB.htm.]

In the Zen-On edition, Measures 1-4 of the Right Hand are completely legato, not breaking the slur at the end of Measure 3 as printed in the W.B. edition.

In Zen-On, the fingering of the Left Hand on the 2nd beat of Measure 3 is the fingering Piano Basics teachers follow. This would place finger 2 on Re (so the thumb is free to play the top note of the next chord in Measure 4) and finger 5 on 501. This is a better choice than using the thumb three times in a row as in the W.B. edition.

There is slight difference between the editions in the Left Hand rhythm of Measure 4. Zen-On has a quarter note tied to an eighth note and W. B. has a quarter note followed by a quarter rest. This difference is inconsequential.

Zen-On also has the last note of the phrase in each hand marked staccato in Measure 8 and W.B. has them marked as quarter notes with no staccato. In this case, W.B. is the one we teach.

The Right Hand phrasing of Measure 17-18 of W.B. has the slur carried across the bar line rather than breaking the legato after the eighth note of the 2nd beat of Measure 17. Again W.B. is the one to follow. In Measure 19-20, the Right Hand legato should also be carried across the bar line.

W.B. has the 3rd finger play Mi in the Right Hand of Measure 3 but Zen-On has this note played by the 2nd finger. Dr. Kataoka's students place the 2nd finger on Mi.

Both editions agree that the Left Hand of Measures 9-16 have a slur over a group of eight eighth notes; however, Dr. Kataoka teaches one long phrase from Measure 9-12 and Measure 13-16. The legato is only broken at that point since the Left Hand has to leap from the Treble Clef to the Bass Clef.

In Measure ii of the Right Hand, W.B. has staccato markings. Zen-On has quarter notes with no articulation marking. Dr. Kataoka very carefully teaches these notes legato.

The remainder of the piece is basically the same as the beginning.

In Measures 10, 12, 16 and 18. W.B. has a few Right Hand notes printed in parentheses. Zen On does not have these notes printed at all and Dr. Kataoka does not teach these notes.

In the Right Hand and Left Hand of Measure 10 and 16, both editions have the first eighth note of the measure slurred to the second. Dr. Kataoka teaches all the eighth notes on the first and second beat staccato.

There is also a difference between the two editions in the slur of the Left Hand of Measure 13-14 (including the pick-up note to Measure 13). Rather than play these notes with a break in the legato between beats 2 and 3 and beats 4 and 1, Dr. Kataoka only breaks the legato between measure 13-14 but teaches her students to make this break as inconspicuous as possible. The fingering she teaches in the Left Hand of Measure 14 is 5-1 (Ti flat - Sol, 4-2 (Do - Mi), 1 (Fa). Then, the three chords can be played legato. W.B. has the fingering of 5-1, 5-3, 2.

As you can see, both editions are sometimes accurate but neither one is really a failsafe guide for information about fingering and articulation used by Dr. Kataoka. The next part of this ongoing column will include Bach's Minuets 1, 2, 3, and Bach's G Minor Minuet.

This is my second trip to Japan for the 10 Piano Concert. I am very happy I had the opportunity to stay with the Ohwa family again. Mr. And Mrs. Ohwa take such good care of me and my roommate Ben.

After my first Ten-Piano Concert in 1999 I became very motivated to practice. In a few years I would like to come to Japan and study with Dr. Kataoka, so I started learning Japanese in September 2000.

Even though I don't see Dr. Kataoka often, she is one of the most important people in my life, and I am grateful that she is part of my life.

Thank you. I can't wait until the next Ten-Piano Concert!!

For the past 13 years my son Rate, daughter Celine, and I have been coming to Matsumoto, from Sapporo in Hokkaido, for piano lessons. Generally we come once every other month. For many years we came by ferry boat, a full day and overnight rocky boat trip,' plus a 7-8 hour car drive, depending upon snow conditions. Inevitably that first piano lesson was a disaster, because we were still somewhat seasick and we had wobbly sea legs. In the past few years we have come by plane from Sapporo to Nagoya, then transferred, with heavy luggage, to a bus and finally to a train. This voyage took one full day. Luckily, now we have a one and one-half hour direct flight from Sapporo to Matsumoto.

I mention all of this because of the extraordinary amounts of time and energy we have spent just getting here, not to speak of the money.. but it has been worth everything, because we have been blessed to take lessons from the greatest piano teacher in the world, Dr. Haruko Kataoka, at the apex of her understanding about how children learn and how parents struggle! One cannot put a price tag on these experiences.

During our 13 years of SuzukiIKataoka piano lessons we have had moments in which we have all been unenthusiastic about practicing the piano. But, we have a family rule that every day we must, at least, touch the piano for 515 minutes, even during vacation trips. Many days we have practiced in hotel conference rooms, bars, and lobbies.

These days, however, Celine seems to enjoy practicing, perhaps because she is in competition with her brother, perhaps because the Haydn Sonata No. 48 and the Mozart Sonata K. 330 are so beautifully and naturally compelling, but most likely because Dr. Kataoka exudes deep love and understanding of music AND of HUMAN BEINGS ALL OVER THE WORLD. Her passion flares within us after each lesson and bums until we can return to her.

Congratulations are in order tonight to all of you: students, parents, and teachers for a smashing international friendship concert. Once again we recognize that music is, indeed, the most international language.

On your birthday, Dr. Kataoka, we offer congratulations to you, our brilliant teacher and unique mentor. You have given us ALL the precious lifetime gift of music. May you celebrate many more happy birthdays, and continue to inspire children, parents, and teachers all over the world.