The function of performance experience in instrumental training

The aim of this study is to contribute to instrumental training process by presenting the functions of performance experience in instrumental training classes. In the study, the whole process of performance (pre-performance, on-performance and post-performance) was included and the functions of performance experience in instrumental training classes were examined process-focused. This study, apart from the existing literature, is significant by examining the performance experience not only as a musical activity or an assessment device in education, but also with its functions effecting and leading the instrumental training process. The study examined 9 students of 'Music Education Department' of 'Fine Arts Department' of 'Buca Faculty of Education' of 'University of Dokuz Eylül, İzmir,' who took third-graders Individual Instrumental Course (violin) in the years 2015, 2016. In the study, the "phenomenologic method", which is one of the qualitative methods, was used. The data were collected through the interviews made by the researcher. In the light of the data analyzed by the Content Analysis, the themes related to the performance experience and the codes connected to those themes were reached. The study concludes that the performance experience, with the awareness it caused in the participants, makes the instrumental training process more effective. "Metacognition" which means a person's awareness of his/her ability to control those processes and his/her ability to control those processes (Flavell, 1971) enables the teachers and the students to see to what extend the education given is effective and by causing an awareness in them, of their own skills leads educational activities to take place on a problem-solving basis. By performance experience, an awareness of instrumental training processes, learning strategies and the students' own individual skills is provided. In the study, the expectations of the participants from the individual instrumental course and the instructor's attitude were found to have a significative role on the matters of anxiety, motivation and awareness of the participants about the performance experience. In addition, by arising awareness in the participants, the performance experience was observed to cause a positive rise in the motivation of all the participants, to help to provide anxiety control and to make the instrumental training process more effective. The study emphasizes that the use of the performance experience only in the exams as an effective tool causes a big gap in 'Music Education Department' of 'Fine Arts Department' of 'Faculty of Education'. It also emphasizes the encouragement of all the students, regardless of their personal objectives and expectations, about the performance experience and the importance of the performance experience as a tool which will cause awareness in the students about their development in the instrumental training and the opportunities in their professional career. To make the instrumental training more effective, the study, related to the students' individual developments in their private instruments, advises various ways and activities in which the performance experience can be applied. Key Words: Music Education, Instrumental Training, Performance Experience, Metacognition.