Students and instructors opinions about piano instruction*

Abstract

This study examined the opinions of the students and piano instructors in the Turkish Education Faculties' Fine Arts Instruction Departments' music instruction programs about piano instruction. The study data were collected using a questionnaire administered to the piano instructors and the students who took lessons from them. The study results indicated that the piano lesson should be included in the whole undergraduate process to achieve the target behaviors. Regarding the content of piano lessons, the piano instructors emphasized that the lesson content should be increased to improve piano playing skills, develop deciphering, teach technical and musical skills, improve its usability in the teaching profession, impart a broader piano instruction, and teach students about the piano repertoire of all periods in history. The study found that the instructors and students also emphasized the importance of a piece's harmonic structure, tonality, and tonal context as well as its form, sentences, divisions, and musical language regarding the improvement of technique and musicality when studying musical works (for example, etudes, sonatinas and sonatas). Another study finding showed that the most difficult lessons, according to the instructors and students, were chord clusters with three and four consecutive notes, using two techniques with two hands (for example, legato with one hand and staccato with the other) and finger numbers.Key words: Music instruction, music instructor, piano instruction, piano instructor. INTRODUCTIONEducation plays a major role in directing and advancing societies. Based on the description of the term "education," music instruction is described as "teaching individuals particular musical behaviors through their own experiences in a purposeful and methodical way, or individuals' process of changing, transforming and improving musical behaviors through their own experiences in a purposeful and methodical way" (Uçan, 1994). In music instruction, pre-service music teachers learn how to distinguish musical sounds and how to hear them in ear training, how to use their voices in the most effective and accurate way in voice training, and learn about their instruments in addition to the necessary playing skills in instrument training.Instrument training requires students to work carefully and in a planned and disciplined way, and make E-mail: beste@balikesir.edu.tr.Authors agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License sacrifices. It is important to convey the discipline and patience necessary to play an instrument as part of instrument instruction so that students proceed with the correct technique (Çilden, 2003). Instrument training is one of the most essential and meaningful dimensions of music instruction at all levels, whether general, amateur or for professional purposes. Instrument training is an essential part of both general and professional music training, and it has different functions in music in...

A Phenomenological Study of the Learning Issues and Teaching Strategies in Piano Teaching in China

“…In pursuit of this goal, teachers provide targeted strategies to facilitate this improvement, with Babacan (2014) proposing that students should be instructed on the proper application of these strategies. Kilic (2016) underscores the importance of integrating both technique and musicality in piano playing skills. To cultivate technique, students must develop discipline and patience, while musicality necessitates creativity and critical thinking to achieve musical interpretation.…”