Investigation of different age groups in violin playing ability acquisition

This study tries to find out whether there is a difference in acquisition of violinplaying skills of amateur trainees of different age groups. 50 trainees who exhibitsimilar socioeconomic and cultural characteristics with equal weekly study hours havebeen selected among 137 trainees.This study group is divided in two age groups as 7-11 and 12-18. Having beenapplied a theoretical knowledge test, the trainees were made to practise the first eightmeasures of Maia Bang Violin Method, Part II, Etude No.126 during the seventeenthweek. The performances of the trainees were videoed in the eighteenth week. Later, thevideo records and performance evaluation forms were subdued to the observers toevaluate in two weeks.The results of the theoretical knowledge tests and those of the performanceevaluation of the observers were t-tested by using the SPSS 15.0 computer program.The findings show that there is no difference between the 7-11 age group and 12-18 onein terms of the ability to drop the left hand fingers on the keyboard and to voice thenotes correctly.