Technical and musical analysis of Erdal Erzincan's baglama openings, creation of exercises for baglama education and its effect on student success

The purpose of this research is to examine Erdal ERZİNCAN's free performances with baglama/saz, that is, the openings, from a musical and technical perspective: to determine the musical mode structure of the performances and their technical playing styles. Based on this, we wanted to create exercises for vocational music education by taking the playing styles of a master baglama/saz player as a reference, thus contributing to the educational repertoire of baglama/saz and contributing to the academic and professional success of undergraduate students who receive vocational music education and whose main instrument is baglama/saz. For this purpose, first of all, the openings performed by Erdal ERZİNCAN in music albums other than his joint works between 1994 and 2018, with the plectrum performance style in the baglama order, were dictated and findings regarding the modal characteristics of the openings and their performance styles or playing techniques were obtained through these dictations. Personal communication was established with Erdal ERZİNCAN, and the research was shaped and supported in line with the master's opinions and suggestions. Exercises aimed at improving technical performance in baglama/saz, based on Erdal ERZİNCAN's performance style, personal style, or attitude, were created by the researcher and applied with the undergraduate students who constituted the study (experiment) group. The exercises were prepared in parallel with the literature review and Erdal ERZİNCAN's opinions. Three folk songs, which included the playing techniques used by Erdal ERZİNCAN in the opening performances examined within the scope of the research and were arranged and noted by the researcher, were performed by 5 undergraduate students who formed the working group before and after the experimental procedure. In the qualitative part of the study in the mixed research model, the maqam characteristics of the openings, that is, the agaz (initial) and decision pitches, their progressions, pitch usage frequencies, and pitch widths, are described and explained in detail, and numerical expressions are tabulated. The playing techniques used by Erdal ERZİNCAN are described in detail through the openings. In the quantitative section, the "Bağlama/Saz Performance Evaluation Form", created by the researcher in line with expert opinions and the purposes of the research, was used to measure possible changes in the performance performances of the participating students at the end of the experimental process. The experimental process was recorded with a video camera. The pre-and post-test performances of the study group students were scored by a total of 3 field experts, one of whom was an associate professor and two of whom were faculty members. The correlation between the pretest and posttest was interpreted using "non-parametric" methods. In light of the findings obtained: It has been concluded that Erdal ERZİNCAN's opening performances consist of different maqam or composition (combined maqam) tunes, and that the maqam structure in the openings considered within the pitch patterns, with the phenomenon of agaz-seyir-karar, matches exactly with the traditional maqam theory and expressions. In his opening performances, Erdal ERZİNCAN uses multiple and different plectrum and finger techniques; 13 different playing techniques, 5 of which are the plectrum technique and 8 of which are the hand (finger) techniques holding the keyboard, and some of these techniques stand out due to their intense use has been seen. At the end of the experimental process, it was revealed that the education and training process and the dynamics that constitute this process make a significant contribution to the acquisition of desired behaviors when planned in line with the goals. It was observed that the exercises created by taking Erdal Erzincan's opening performances as a reference contributed positively to the baglama/saz performances of all participating students.