Can anyone become an accomplished violinist?

A circle of shell-shocked parents in a mansion flat; a dozen toddlers gripping minute, 16th-size violins, the concentration causing them to sway like drunks; the merciless sawing of their tiny bows; and a noise of indescribable horror – ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ reconceived as the hold music for Hell. These were the group violin lessons I remember (and enjoyed) as a disciple of the world-famous Suzuki method, devised in Japan in 1948 by an unworldly idealist called Shinichi Suzuki.

The principle on which Suzuki hit was that learning music must be analogous to learning a language: just as any child can pick up their mother tongue, no matter how complicated, surely anyone can become ‘fluent’ in a musical instrument if they start early enough. (In one of history’s more cryptic eureka moments, when Suzuki realised what ‘great brains’ toddlers must have, he shouted: ‘Children throughout Japan ALL SPEAK JAPANESE!’)

The Suzuki method tries to mimic mother-tongue acquisition: no sheet music at first, just listening to recordings and repeating them, a bit every day, with a parent as the child’s main coach.