The importance of piano playing skills for the future music teachers’ personal development

Fortepijonas yra vienas iš prieinamiausių instrumentų, ir yra ypač populiari bei tinkama priemonė muzikuojant mokyklose. Muzikos mokytojai be muzikos pamokų dažnai dar vadovauja chorui, ansambliui ir kt., todėl grojimo fortepijonu gebėjimai yra svarbūs įvairioms jo darbo sritims. Pats grojimo fortepijonu gebėjimų ugdymo procesas yra tampriai susijęs su asmeniniu būsimųjų muzikos mokytojų tobulėjimu. Tyrimo problemą apibrėžia klausimas – kiek svarbūs grojimo fortepijono gebėjimai būsimųjų muzikos mokytojų asmeniniam tobulėjimui? Tyrimo objektas – būsimųjų muzikos mokytojų grojimo fortepijonu gebėjimų svarba. Tyrimo tikslas – atskleisti grojimo fortepijonu gebėjimų svarbą būsimųjų muzikos mokytojų asmeniniam tobulėjimui. Tyrimo uždaviniai:

1. Įvertinti grojimo fortepijonu gebėjimų būtinybę ir vertę būsimųjų muzikos mokytojų ugdymo procese;
2. Atskleisti grojimo fortepijonu gebėjimų svarbą būsimųjų muzikos mokytojų asmeniniam tobulėjimui;
3. Išanalizuoti būsimųjų muzikos mokytojų požiūrį į grojimo fortepijonu gebėjimus muzikinio ugdymo procese. Išvados Tyrimo analizės duomenys atskleidžia Kinijos studentų požiūrį į grojimo fortepijonu gebėjimų svarbą. Besimokantieji mano, kad muzikos mokytojai, naudodami fortepijoną klasėje, skatina mokinių susidomėjimą muzika, gali padaryti muzikos pamokos atmosferą aktyvesne, o geri grojimo fortepijonu įgūdžiai leidžia ir pačiam muzikos mokytojui realizuoti savo siekius ir veikia jo asmeninį tobulėjimą. Pasak būsimųjų muzikos mokytojų, grojimas fortepijonu leidžia tobulinti bendravimo įgūdžius, organizacinius gebėjimus, ugdyti toleranciją skirtingiems žmonėms (pagal rasę, tautybę, požiūrį, gyvenimo būdą ir kt.), atvirumą švietimo naujovėms (nauji mokymosi metodai ir būdai, integracija su kitais dalykais ir t.t.) ir kūrybiškumą.

Relevance of the research. The piano is one of the most artistic and satisfying instruments from the viewpoint of broad sound range and being harmonically rich. The piano is the most appropriate instrument for playing school songs, marches, and poly vocalization (Sonmezozs, 2011). Therefore, the level of piano teaching affects the competence of music teachers working at elementary schools and high schools. It is very important for future music teachers to have a good piano playing skills.For future music teachers, besides only being able to give music lessons to students and teach school songs using voice and main instrument, is essential to be able to use the piano effectively, have a good command of keyboard, and to have a good piano accompaniment (Sonmezozs, 2011). Therefore, the music teacher’s piano’s ability level must be very high.Piano instruction course has an important place in institutions that train music teachers. With piano instruction, individuals improve themselves by learning about deciphering, musical hearing, harmony and form and other most important elements of music. Piano is both a solo and an accompaniment instrument (Yazıcı, 2013). Thus, piano is both an area of study and an effective teaching tool as it can be used as an accompanying instrument as well as polyphonic one. Therefore, music teachers must have good piano performance skills to improve students’ learning efficiency and increase students’ interest in learning.Piano is one of the major and indispensable instruments of music teachers due to it having the broadness of the sound structure and ability to be used in different musical fields, as well as it having a big part in listening and understanding music, teaching playing skills and improving polyphony. Piano is an important instrument in training music teachers (Kutluk, 2001). Future music teachers should be able to play the piano effectively in their future professional lives and they should also have good piano accompaniment skills. Piano education is offered to all music teacher candidates at every institution which specialises in training music teachers. With piano education’s help, future music teachers are able to acquire piano playing skills and music knowledge needed for their music education and for music teaching at pre-school education institutions and high school classrooms (Kasap, 2005). After
8finishing piano education process, music teacher candidates acquire basic pre-set behaviors and techniques for playing the piano and use the piano education skills they received actively in their teaching work (Otacioglu, 2005). Music teachers who graduate from music schools acquire such skills as sight-playing, accompanying, transposing, polyphonic playing, cadence playing, analysing, improvising, playing together, and playing the choir and orchestra parts at the piano. All these skills enable future music teachers to use piano more effectively while teaching music to the students, accompanying them individually and accompanying choir, instrument or groups of instruments at the schools they will be appointed to (Kasap, 2005). Therefore, it is also very important that future music teachers have good piano accompaniment skills, so that they can better guide students in vocal singing and organize students’ music activities.Music teachers should have a certain musical literacy. Having the expertise in music education is a part of the teachers’ musical literacy and brings a special mission. The basic skills of music teachers include teaching their students how to play the piano and vocal music (Li, 2017). The ideal piano teacher is seen as a skilled person who masters the instrument in at least one musical style and is able to teach it to students. Piano teachers’ competence should be broad and many-sided, including the ability to apply their knowledge to different students’ levels (Johansen, 2008). Thus, future music teacher not only must have good piano playing skills, but also improve their comprehensive ability, and have a good basic literacy.Cantu (2001) stressed the importance of piano instruction, which is the foundation of music education and plays an important part in instrument training, as well as the necessity for future music teachers to use their instruments effectively and productively in their social and professional lives. Therefore, having good piano playing skills for future music teachers is very helpful and important for personal and professional development. The problem of the research defines the question – what are the reasons behind the importance of piano playing skills for future music teachers’ personal development?The object of the research – future music teachers’ piano playing skills.The aim of the research – to discuss the importance of piano playing skills for the future music teachers’ personal development. 9The objectives of the research:1. To uncover the necessity and value of piano playing skills for future music teachers;2. To disclose the importance of piano playing skills for future music teachers’ personal development;3. To analyse future music teachers’ attitude about piano playing skills in the music education process.The research methods: analysis of scientific and methodological literature; future music teachers’ questionnaires; interviews with music teachers’; quantitative and qualitative (content) analysis of the data.The Master Graduation paper contains: 67 pages, 16 tables, 5 figures and 4 annexes.