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History of String Education in the United States.

The history of strings in the United States started as only instruments learned through private

lessons with a personal tutor. It really began to grow when around 1850 a man named Lewis

Benjamin began teaching strings instruments as a class. In 1877 he wrote the first methods book;

it was called The Music Academy. He primarily based his teaching on fold and dance tunes, even

though most of the vocal methods were still done through religious music.

After the civil war in the United States, public interest in the strings instruments grow. This can

mostly be attributed to the increase of Traveling bands and orchestras. Large festivals and

celebrations also drew public interest to the instruments. Around this time conservatories began

to increase based off the European conservatories. These schools taught in classes as well, and

taught art music. Many students were admitted to these conservatories, but only the best

graduated. This quickly led to controversy, and the conservatories lost popularity for enrollment.

In the early 1900s, public school classes for strings began to pop up in the Midwest. These

programs gained popularity, and slowly spread. Joseph Maddy became the first instrumental

music supervisor in 1918 when he convinced George Eastman to purchase $10,000 worth of

instruments for Rochester Public Schools. He later founded the National High School Orchestra

in 1926, and this sparked school administrators interest I the idea when they performed at the

American Association of School Administrators in 1927. The Administrators were amazed by

the kids working together, discipline of the program, health, and useful recreation which were all

important values of the time.


Administrations then began to start music programs in their own districts. With this increase in

the amount of people doing these instruments, people began to turn to developing new pedagogy

and improving the quality of curriculum and instruction.

The last topic mentioned through the history of strings comes in the form of three people. Their

names were Samuel Applebaum, Paul Rolland, and Shinichi Suzuki. Applebaum went to

Juilliard. He then taught for 35 years. His biggest contribution was writing materials for use in

strings classroom. He worked on and/or edited over 400 methods books, chamber music

collections, solo collections, and pedagogical materials for strings. He was known for his ability

to put into works and simplify strings pedagogy. Rolland was trained as a concert artist in 1930

and became the head of the strings department at Simpson College. He made contributions in

pedagogy based on movement and balance in string playing.

Suzuki was a Japanese music educator who was labeled as one of the most influential

pedagogues of the 30th century. He developed the talented education method. He believed that

talent was developable. A quick summary of his method was to immerse the child in it from a

young age so they develop the interest, to start them early, give them appropriate rep, listen to

music often, undergo instruction, delay reading of music till the child is older. The interest grew

in him when he toured the US in 1964. His method has been adapted for many instruments, and

even universities and professional orchestras have begun using his method.

Overall the final note of the article mentions how as time goes on programmings are diminishing

and many things are changing to even further that. The call to action is that what we need now

are the best educators we can get for this subject.

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