JACQUELYN DILLON: AN INNOVATIVE FORCE IN STRING MUSIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to provide a history of Jacquelyn Dillon’s life, career, and influence on string music education. Although this study covered Dillon’s childhood and education, the primary research questions centered around the regional and national aspects of her career and the impact of these events on string music education in the United States. The most important contribution of Jacquelyn Dillon’s career involves her usage and promotion of the heterogeneous string classroom teaching method, especially with beginning-level strings classes. Throughout her early teaching career, Jacquelyn Dillon explored and refined her skills teaching large heterogeneous classes. Dillon’s early teaching experiences, coupled with her work in the music industry, allowed her to turn the organization and development of a public school string and orchestra program, using the heterogeneous method of teaching, into a process that anyone could replicate. Dillon was the first to provide a highly detailed, step-by-step approach to developing and teaching string and orchestra programs at all levels in her book, How to Design and Teach a Successful School String and Orchestra Program. This text was the only one available at the time to provide a comprehensive approach to every aspect of the public school orchestra program. She then carried the process one step further in offering the Strictly Strings method book series, which contained a sequential approach to teaching beginning-level strings in a heterogeneous classroom setting. At Wichita State University, Jacquelyn Dillon built a string music education program that gained national recognition as being on the forefront of change for teacher training procedures. It was through her work, that Wichita State University became known as one of a few select institutions that were producing quality string music educators in the United States during this time. Jacquelyn Dillon is one of many individuals who have shaped the field of string music education to its current form. Her lasting contributions and resulting influence on the profession have made Jacquelyn Dillon deserving of a place in the written history of string music education in the United States.