Shinichi Suzuki, who died aged 99 on Monday in Matsumoto, Japan, was a remarkable teacher who realised that, just as very young children can master language, other complex skills like music can be learned by children at an early age.
He recognised that children are surrounded by their native tongue from birth and learn to speak by constant repetition and parental encouragement, and applied the same principles in the Suzuki Method.
His pupils, who tend to start at the age of three, first learn to play music by ear. Learning to read it comes later, mirroring the way children learn to speak and read their own language. Aptitude was a term Suzuki felt could be applied to almost every child.
His abiding concern was with human values. He radiated good humour and playfulness. Until he was in his late 70s he would often end a teaching session by jumping from the stage and landing on his knees, to the horror of many adults but to the children's delight.
He was a devotee of strong cigarettes, which he stored in has violin case. He lit them constantly but rarely actually smoked them.
Shinichi Suzuki was born in Nagoya, Japan, in October 1898, the son of a violin-maker. In his youth he was a champion baseball player, but after teaching himself the violin, he was encouraged by the Marquis Tokugawa to continue his music studies in Berlin, where he became a pupil of the eminent violinist Karl Klinger.
Albert Einstein was Suzuki's guardian during this period. It was the start of a lifelong friendship. They played chamber music together.
Suzuki, who spent eight years in Germany, met his future wife, Waltraud Prange, a concert singer, in Berlin. In 1928 he converted to Catholicism and they married. They returned to Japan where Suzuki was appointed to the Imperial School of Music.
By the 1960s his reputation as an educator had spread beyond Japan to the United States, Europe and Australia.
In later years he travelled extensively and saw his principles adapted for other musical instruments, notably piano and flute. Today there are more than 8,000 Suzuki-trained teachers and more than 20,000 students in some 40 countries.
There must be thousands of musicians around the world for whom Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and its many variations (the first piece in the Suzuki repertoire) bring back memories of learning from the method. Today it is even played electronically at the traffic intersections in Matsumoto, Suzuki's home. He found this highly amusing.
It would be wrong, in any assessment of Suzuki's outstanding career, to underestimate the contribution his wife Waltraud made to his success.
Much to their sorrow they were unable to have children, although after the war they informally adopted Koji Toyoda, who is now concert master of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.