Determination of the effects of the etudes written for the purpose of preparation for contemporary Turkish piano pieces on students? performance stages

The present study is intended to determine methods towards writing preparatory etudes for the piano works of Modern Turkish Music, and to find out the effects of these etudes on students? performance stages (pre-preforming with analysis, practicing and performance). An experimental model was used in the study. In the experimental stage, the controlled last-test model was used.The study starts with a review of national and international literature in the field. Next, the first questionnaire was administered to determine the most popular pieces used in piano training at Music Education Department of Gazi University. The second questionnaire was administered to determine the pieces at which the students had most technical difficulty.Next, three works reported having most technical difficulties were analyzed. In this analysis, melodic patterns, musical modes, rhythmic patterns, meters, chordal patterns, playing techniques, sound registers and musical nuances used were determined. Based on the information gathered from the analyses, the principles of writing a preparatory etude for the selected pieces was determined. Finally, preparatory etudes were written for these three works based on these principles.In the experimental stage, the experiment and the control groups consisting of the students with the same technical level were formed. Then the experiment group studied the preparatory etude for 20 minutes a day for 3 days. Next, experiment and control groups? performances at deciphering, practicing and performing were recorded through a video camera. Performance recordings were watched and evaluated by three specialized pedagogues.For the analysis of the data collected for the problems and the sub-problems that the study is intended to solve, SPSS 13.0 package program (The Statistical Packet for The Social Sciences) has been used. For statistical significance, p<0,05 significance level has been selected. Nonparametric test has been preferred because the number of the members of the groups due to be compared in the analysis of the data concerning the study is not as high as required by the parametric tests.It has been concluded in the study that the experiment group students who have been trained with and who have studied the preparatory papers for the work have higher and better performance levels in deciphering, working and playing the work than the control group students.