String Pedagogy Notebook

String Education in the United States Prior to 1911

The earliest examples of string education in a class setting date to the 1850s, and were carried out by singing school masters who also taught musical instruments. In the 1800s in America, string education was characterized by private instruction, and isolated, unrelated examples of class instruction. One of the pioneers in the instrumental class movement was Lewis Benjamin, who began teaching instruments in classes in 1847. He published a method book in the 1851 entitled The Music Academy. In 1877, Benjamin began operating a "free violin school" in New York. Benjamin made his profit from the sale of instruments and books to his students. Benjamin's method, as well as other string class methods of the time, were based largely on folk tunes and dance tunes, despite the fact that singing school methods were still largely based on sacred music.

PREV |1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | NEXT