We’ve had a lot of questions at the office lately about digital downloads of Suzuki Method recordings.
As retro as a cassette tape?
First, a little background. Bear with me if you’re an old hand and have heard this before.
The Shinichi Suzuki’s approach to music education (the Suzuki method or Talent Education) is supported and guided around the world by the umbrella International Suzuki Association, of which there are five regional associations, including the Suzuki Association of the Americas. The ISA was designated by Dr. Suzuki as the sole authorized organization that can grant rights to the use of his name and the marks “Suzuki,” “Suzuki Method,” and other similar terms throughout the world.
Some of these rights are granted by the ISA to Alfred Music Publishing, the sole publisher of the Suzuki Method repertoire materials outside of Japan—which is to say that any actions regarding the availability of digital downloads go from the ISA through Alfred to distribution channels like iTunes and Amazon. From a recent update to the SAA office from Alfred:
Many Suzuki audio recordings will soon be available for download from sites such as iTunes and Amazon. Recordings for over 50 of the most commonly used books will be sold. These will be sold by album as requested by the ISA. Unfortunately, Alfred doesn’t control the timing of the release of the music on external sites so we are unable to provide a date that these will be available. Continue to check your favorite site.
Soon to be available are:
Bass School 1-3, Cello School 1-8, Flute School 1-5, Guitar School 1-9, Harp School 1-2, Soprano Recorder School 1-2, Viola School 1-8, Violin 1-8, Solos for Young Cellists 1-2, Solos for Young Violists 1-2, and Solos for Young Violinists 1-6.
We hope this answers some of your questions. Right now, it looks like we just have to be patient. (We are looking into the piano recordings.)
Another couple of updates from Alfred:
AMPV numbers
Beginning in 2010 Alfred began a new system to make it simpler to tell when corrections or changes to a book have taken place. Any time a correction is made to a Suzuki method book, Alfred inserts an AMPV (Alfred Music Publishing Version) number on the title page above the copyright. This will allow teachers and retailers to check the version that they have. If any further corrections are made, the number will be increased. Not all volumes have this AMPV number. Only volumes that have had corrections or are new since 2010 will have this. Later this winter, a list will be released detailing the latest AMPV number for those volumes.
Viola Volume 9
Viola School Volume 9 is available in several formats including the book, the CD, and as a book and CD kit. The repertoire included is Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 5, No. 3 (J. Hummel/D. Preucil), Andante e Rondo ungarese, Op. 35 (C.M. v. Weber/D. Preucil), and Sonata in A minor, D 821 (F. Schubert/D. Preucil).
Duets for Violins
The popular book Duets for Violins (0093S) has been updated. The music now correlates with the revisions and corrections that have been made to the Violin Volumes 1, 2 and 3. The updated volume carries a new subtitle: Updated to correlate with the Revised Editions and an AMPV number of 1.0 on the title page.
Violin ebooks
Ebooks are now available for Violin Volume 1, Viola Volume 1, Cello Volume 1, and Bass Volume 1. The violin ebook contains only English. Soon to be released will be an ebook in each of the other languages normally found in the violin book. Each ebook includes the complete music and text of the print book as well as the audio, which is linked to the music. These multi-touch books can be purchased on iBooks and read on iPad® and Mac.®
RSS feed
©2024 Suzuki Association of the Americas
Comments
Nederland, CO
7 posts
The demand for digital recordings has been extraordinarily strong in my studio. Quite confounded why it has taken so long for this to be released.
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.—Buddha…
Provo, UT
10 posts
The demand for digital piano recordings has been very strong for well over a year. New students are unable to find an affordable CD player in town now. You can still find them online, but not in any of the big box stores. This has been extremely difficult for young families who only use digital music.
Some of the young families don’t even have a way to burn a purchased CD to iTunes! They are using tablets and straight digital, so they have to a friend send them the mp3. I hate to think we are promoting music piracy, but that is what is happening in many cases.
I am concerned that it is taking so long to provide the recordings for the piano program.
5 posts
I am beginning to have real issues where piano students are not able to listen for a while because they no longer have CD players, and now some computers (tablets and laptops) are coming out that also do not have CD drives, so they can’t even put the CD on their digital playlist that way. It is a real need.
5 posts
The sooner the better for digital recordings. This is the way our families operate now.
Marquette, MI
67 posts
From an economic accessibility viewpoint, I work with many low income youth who are more likely to listen on their phones whenever they want versus having a working CD player or computer. A lot of the kids have Smart phones they get free with cheap “no contract” plans from MetroPCS. And in general, CDs get lost while youth RARELY lose their phones ;-)
Lynchburg, VA
4 posts
I’m in the situation now where iTunes has disabled my own purchased and previously uploaded copies of Kataoka playing Suzuki piano book 1. My own four children and my students are all in the same boat: no recordings available except on a retro CD player. We’ve looked in Walmarts and Goodwills to find CD players, to no avail. I’m reluctant to change our habits and invest in a new antique system from Amazon. I’d prefer if the SAA or Amazon or even iTunes had their own recordings available for download. This would make things so much easier! Let’s hurry up this process!
Lynchburg, VA
4 posts
Is the webmaster aware that all the links to download recordings here on this site are broken? They result in error messages from iTunes.