Comparative analysis of the approaches used by prospective music teachers in Turkey in practicing the piano works of contemporary Turkish composers Feyza SÖNMEZÖZ

This study determined the levels of recognizing piano works of contemporary Turkish composers, the importance of practicing these works and difficulty in playing these works by the prospective music teachers in the Departments of Music Education in Turkey. Furthermore, this study performed a comparative analysis on the opinions of the prospective teachers who have played the works of contemporary Turkish composers during their piano education and those who have not in recognizing these works and considering their practice necessary. The sampling of the study consists of a total of 166 prospective music teachers in the first, second, third and fourth grades. The study utilized a general screening model and the data analysis of the study was performed through SPSS 21.0. 37.3% of the prospective music teachers carried out a study on the piano works of contemporary Turkish composer while 62.7% of them did not. Furthermore, the study concluded that recognizing the piano works of Contemporary Turkish Composers, considering the practice of these works necessary and having difficulty in playing these works by the prospective music teachers do not vary according to the type of high school that they graduated from and their grades and that the levels of recognizing the piano works of Contemporary Turkish Composers and considering the practice of these works necessary do not vary according to whether they have played these works before or not.


INTRODUCTION
The acquisition of technical and musical skills required in piano education is considerably important and essential in the training of music teachers.In order to enable the acquisition of these skills, prospective teachers are expected to perform various studies and exercises as well as to have a repertoire of the works from Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern Period.In the piano lessons done in the departments of music education in Turkey, a large majority of the works of these periods is generally composed of the examples of classical music.As indicated in the course descriptions in the course contents of undergraduate program, there are also the E-mail: sonmezozf@gmail.com.
Authors agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License works of Turkish composers among the works of contemporary period.However, it was observed that the practices of Turkish works are not done at the desired level and are less included than other works.This is due to various technical challenges in the works of Turkish composers and the structures of the melodies of these works do not meet the expectations of the prospective teachers.
According to Karahan (2009), although the studies, exercises and activities have a great importance in the technical development of students and acquisition of certain musical structures during piano lesson, there are a few works that can be used for educational purposes in the Department of Music Education.There are no exercise books except those on practicing contemporary Turkish music; and the books containing certain modal sequences and exercises are not included in the repertoire of the piano education in the department of music education.This is because they are too high and brief in introducing modal sequences.Therefore, classical music has a great place in the piano education of prospective music teachers, but the repertoire of contemporary Turkish music is only at the introductory level (Karahan, 2009).
As Dicle states, the greatest challenge in searching for appropriate works in training music teachers and deficiency accompanying the challenge were the availability of a few works that originated from Turkish music with the motifs unique to Turkish music.It was revealed that though the works of certain composers can be utilized, most of the works created for artistic purposes are composed by means of high level techniques, which result in the lack of their wide use in education (Aydıner and Albuz, 2009).
The challenges in performing the works of contemporary Turkish music include rhythmic and modal structure, finger substitution, regional factors and various technical difficulties unique to instruments (Parasız, 2014).
The study by Yokuş and Demirbatır (2012) revealed that the piano works originating from Turkish folk music are not included at the desired in the institutions training music teachers, that the available sources have certain difficulties particularly in terms of piano education for beginners and that the number of sources is not considered sufficient and is difficult to access.In that study, 63.6% of the piano faculty members considered the piano repertoire of Turkish Composers "partially" sufficient or "below" the sufficient level and stated that these works have particular technical challenges for piano students, which shows that these works are not sufficiently practiced.Karahan (2008) found that students have difficulty in playing piano with odd meters such as 10/8, 9/8, 7/8, 5/8, and the modal sequences and chord patterns of contemporary Turkish music (Karahan, 2008).
It can be concluded that the use of the piano works of contemporary Turkish music is relatively limited in the undergraduate programs of music teaching due to these difficulties.On the other hand, the works of contemporary Turkish composers have an important place in elementary music courses.The education on these works received by the music teachers who graduated from the institutions training music teachers and their ability in transferring them to their professional life are of great importance for elementary school students to familiarize with their own culture.In other words, the ability of prospective music teachers in recognizing and playing their own national music is crucial in training qualified students in elementary music courses.
Music educators today have a responsibility and a unique opportunity to introduce their students to art music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.Elementary and secondary school students should know that composers are living and working in their communities.They should be aware of the diverse styles and genres of contemporary music and have an opportunity to play works of new music (Costes, 2005).Aydıner and Albuz (2009), in their work titled, "Rendition of pieces by Turkish composers and music instructors in piano lesson", evaluated first and second grades students in terms of whether they performed Turkish piano works or not; it revealed that approximately half of the students (56.53% first graders and 48.50% second graders) did not perform any Turkish work.
The aim of this study is to determine the level of recognizing the works of contemporary Turkish composers utilized in piano lessons, to determine whether these works should be practiced or not and the challenges encountered during the practice by the prospective music teachers in the departments of music education in Turkey.A comparative analysis was done to know whether there is a significant difference between the opinions of the prospective teachers who got involved in Turkish piano lessons and those who did not, in order to know the necessity of the practice.
This study is of great importance since it evaluates the approaches used for the practice of the works of Turkish composers by prospective music teachers during the piano lessons.
Accordingly, the relevant sub-problems are as follows.Is there a significant difference between the prospective teachers in considering the practice of the piano works by contemporary Turkish composers necessary in terms of the type of high school that they graduated from? 7. Is there a significant difference between the prospective teachers in having difficulty in the practice of the piano works by contemporary Turkish composers necessary in terms of the type of high school that they graduated from?8.Is there a significant difference between the prospective teachers in recognizing the piano works by contemporary Turkish composers in terms of their grades?9. Is there a significant difference between the prospective teachers in considering the practice of the piano works by contemporary Turkish composers necessary in terms of their grades?10.Is there a significant difference between the prospective teachers in having difficulty in the practice of the piano works of Contemporary Turkish composers necessary in terms of their grades?11.Is there a significant difference between the prospective teachers who have played the works of Turkish composers and those who have not in terms of the levels of the recognition of the piano works?12.Is there a significant difference between the prospective teachers who have played the works of Turkish composers and those who have not in terms of considering the practice of the piano works necessary?

Population and sampling
The sampling of the study consists of a total of 166 prospective music teachers studying in the first, second, third and fourth grades in the Department of Music Education, Faculty of Education, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University and Harran University.Table 1 indicates the distribution of the prospective teachers in terms of the type of high school which they have graduated from and their grades.
Table 1 demonstrates the demographic characteristics of the participants, which constitute the sampling of the study.The sampling of the study consists of a total of 166 participants.The demographic descriptions of the participants are as follows.
1. 39.2% of the participants graduated from a general high school whereas 47.6% graduated from fine arts and sport high school.13.2% of the participants stated "other" as the type of high school that they graduated from.2. Given the distribution of the participants in terms of their grades, 27.7, 22.9%, 19.3 and 30.1% of them respectively study in the first, second, third and fourth grades.

METHOD
This study utilized a general screening model to determine the levels by which prospective teachers recognize the piano works of contemporary Turkish composers, and the other aims of this work as stated above.General screening models are used for all the population or sample from a population in order to reach a general conclusion on the population consisting of a number of elements (Karasar, 2005).
An expert's opinion was sought for the content validity of the questionnaire developed for the study.The reliability of the questionnaire was determined through Cronbach Alpha analysis.Table 2 demonstrates the findings of the analysis.
Upon analyzing the results of Cronbach Alpha of the assessment tool in terms of sub-dimensions, the assessment tool is considered to be reliable.

Data collection
In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted to put forward the opinions of the prospective teachers in order to determine the practicality of the piano works by the Contemporary Turkish Composers.The questionnaire consists of four parts.
In the first part, the prospective teachers were asked of the type of high school that they graduated from, their grades and whether they have played piano of Contemporary Turkish Composers in order to determine their demographic characteristics.The prospective teachers who have not played any work by Turkish

Dimensions
Cronbach Alpha Recognizing the piano works of Turkish Composers .871Considering the practice of the piano works of Turkish composers necessary .924Having difficulty in the practice of the piano works of Turkish composers necessary .852n=104) were asked to answer the fourth part of the questionnaire, and the analysis was performed according to these results.
In the second part, all of the participants were asked the following questions in order to determine their levels of recognition of the piano works by Contemporary Turkish composers, 1. Do you know the repertoire of the piano works of Turkish composers?2. Do you know the biographies of Turkish composers?3. Have you collected documents such as introductory books, notes, methods and albums of the piano works of Turkish composers and created an archive of these documents?4. Have you listened to the records of the piano works of Turkish composers? 5. Have you collected the records of the piano works of Turkish composers such as CD and DVDs and created an archive?
In the third part, the following questions were asked in order to determine the extent to which the participants consider the practice of the piano works, 1. Do you consider the practice of the piano works of Turkish composers necessary in the education of music teaching?2. Do you think that the piano works of Turkish composers should be included in the undergraduate program of music teaching?3. Do you consider the practice of the piano works of Turkish composers useful in the education of music teaching?
The levels of recognizing and considering the works of Turkish composers necessary by the participants in the questionnaire were compared between the prospective teachers who have played the works of Turkish composers (n=62) and those who have not played any (n=104) (Table 3).
A total of 62 prospective teachers who have played a Turkish work participated in the fourth part of the questionnaire.Since the opinions of the prospective music teachers towards the challenges that they encounter in the practice of the piano works by Turkish composers were asked in this part, a total of 104 prospective teachers who have not played any Turkish work did not participate in this part of the questionnaire.The prospective teachers were asked a total of 15 questions while practicing the piano works by Turkish composers:  3 indicates the distribution of these questions.

Data analysis
The data analysis of this study was performed through SPSS21.0 program.The determination of the analysis techniques in testing the hypotheses of this study was based on the parametric test assumptions.Whether the dependent variables, the first condition of parametric tests, were in ratio scale or interval scale was analyzed during the examination of the parametric test assumptions and the first assumption was established accordingly.As the second assumption, the data were expected to show a normal distribution.Primarily, the histogram curves and skewness and kurtosis values were examined for the test of normality.It was found that the skewness and kurtosis values were between -1 and +1 and the histogram curves demonstrated a normal distribution.The sizes of the groups were revealed to be greater than 20.In line with these results, the parametric tests were concluded to be used.The sample t-test and ANOVA test independent of the parametric tests were carried out.In order to interpret the significant differences as a result of ANOVA test, Levene test was performed for the equality of variances.When the variances were equal, the results of Tukey test were taken into consideration; otherwise, the results of Games-Howell were applicable.In significant differences, p value was considered as .05.The arithmetic mean and standard deviation among the descriptive statics were utilized.The analysis of the level of the challenge of Turkish composers in practicing the piano works was carried out by a total of 62 participants who have played piano works by Turkish composers.

FINDINGS
In the light of these data, Table 3 indicates the findings on whether the prospective music teachers have worked on a work by Turkish Composers during their education process or not.Following Table 3 are the findings on the recognition of the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers, the reflection on whether these works should be practiced or not and the challenges in the practice.Figure 1 demonstrates the opinions of the prospective music teachers on the piano works of Contemporary Turkish Composers.
Subsequently, the levels of the recognition of the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers, the reflection on whether these works should be practiced or not and the challenges in the practice were examined in order to determine whether there is a significant difference in terms of the type of the high school that they graduated from.A variance analysis was performed and presented in Table 4.
Table 5 demonstrates the variance analysis of the levels of the recognition of the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers, the reflection on whether these works should be practiced or not and the challenges in the practice in order to determine whether there is a significant difference in terms of their grades.
Following Table 5 are the findings on whether there is a significant difference in the levels of the recognition of the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers, the reflection on whether these works should be practiced or not and the challenges in the practice in terms of whether they have played a work by Contemporary Turkish Composers or not.Table 6 presents the explanations of Table 4. Differentiation of the levels of the participants in recognizing the piano works of Turkish composers and reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works and their challenges based on the type of high school that they graduated from (Variance analysis).*1: I strongly disagree; 2: I disagree; 3: I moderately agree; 4: I agree; 5: I strongly agree.
these findings.

Findings of the first sub-problem
37.3% of the participants worked on the works of Turkish composers during the process of music education, whereas 62.7% of them have not played the piano works of Turkish composers.In line with this information, it is remarkable that 62.7% of the prospective teachers have not played any Turkish work during their education, which is of a great importance in fulfilling the requirements of the piano education for a qualified music education and ensuring the acquisition of the required information.
Findings regarding the second, third and fourth sub-problems:

The levels of participants regarding the recognition of the piano works by Turkish composers and reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works and the challenges in the practice
As Figure 1 demonstrates, the levels of the participants' recognition of the piano works by Turkish composers were moderate ( X =2,66; s=0,87).Accordingly, it can be stated that the participants consider the practice of the piano works by Turkish composers considerably necessary ( X = 3,87; s= 1,1).
The participants who have played a work by Turkish composers (n=62) were moderately challenged in the practice ( X =2,87; s= 0,61).

Analysis of the levels of the participants regarding the recognition of the piano works of Turkish composers and the reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works and the challenges in the practice based on the type of high school that they graduated from
As Table 4 demonstrates, the levels of the Table 5. Differentiation of the levels of the participants in recognizing of the piano works by Turkish composers and reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works and their challenges based on their grades (Variance Analysis).participants' recognition of the piano works of Turkish Composers (F=1,920; p>.05), the reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works (F=1,405; p>.05) and the challenges in the practice (F=2.706;p>.05) do not vary according to the type of high school that they graduated from.These levels also do not vary according to whether the participants received education in a general high school, fine arts and sport high school or other types of high schools or not.

Grade
Given that the level of all the participants' recognition of the piano works by Turkish Composers was moderate ( X =2.66) in terms of the type of high school that they graduated from and considering the practice of these works importantly necessary ( X = 3,87), the study revealed that the prospective teachers attempted to familiarize with contemporary Turkish Composers as well as their piano works and were interested in informing them.However, given the rates of the types of the high schools that the prospective teachers graduated from (General High School: 39.2%, Fine Arts and Sport High School: 47.6%, others: 13.2%), it is remarkable that the prospective teachers who graduated from general high schools and other types of high schools have knowledge about the subject matter like those who graduated from fine arts and sport high schools.
From an optimistic point of view, the ability of the general high schools and other high schools in enabling the students to have just as much knowledge on Contemporary Turkish Composers' music lessons like fine arts and sports high schools seems to be a pleasing outcome.However, as the students who graduated from Table 6.Differentiation of the levels of the participants in recognizing the piano works by Turkish composers and the reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works and their challenges based on whether they have played a work by Turkish Composers or not (Independent Samples T-test).Fine Arts and Sport high schools have the same level of professional knowledge with the students who graduated from general high schools and other types of high schools reveals the need to examine and even question the education in fine arts and sports high schools.Furthermore, although the prospective teachers recognize these piano works and consider the practice of these works necessary, those who have played a work (n=62), 37.3% of the participants, were only moderately challenged.This may be an indicator that the potential challenges of these works are only at a moderate level even when these works are played with appropriate methods and practices.

Playing a work by
Findings regarding the eighth, ninth, and tenth subproblems:

Analysis of the levels of the participants in recognizing the piano works of Turkish composers and reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works and their challenges based on their grades
As Table 5 demonstrates, the levels of the participants in regard to the recognition of the piano works by Turkish Composers (F=.995; p>.05) and the reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works (F=1.335;p>.05) and the challenges in the practice (F=.644; p>.05) do not vary depending on their grades.These levels of the participants do not vary depending on the different grade levels of the participants.The reason may be that the prospective music teachers receive an education of similar quality on these composers and works in each of these grades.In other words, the lack of a difference in terms of the grades might be resulted from the reasons that all of the prospective teachers practice the same works by the same composers regardless of the grade in the piano lessons, technical knowledge and level and requirements, and piano-playing skills, in contrary to the expectation that the prospective teachers in the higher grades are able to recognize the Contemporary Turkish Composers better and to be challenged less than the prospective teachers in the first and second grades.

Analysis of the levels of the participants in recognizing the piano works of Turkish composers and reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works and their challenges based on whether they have played a work by Turkish composers or not
As Table 6 demonstrates, the levels of the participants' recognition of the piano works by Turkish Composers (t (164) =.177; p>.05) and the reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works (t (164) =.123; p>.05) do not vary according to whether they have played the works by Turkish composers or not.The levels of the recognition of the piano works by Turkish composers (t (164) =,177; p>.05) and reflection on the necessity of the practice of these works are similar between the participants who have played the works by Turkish Composers and those who have not.Furthermore, in terms of the recognition of the piano works, the number of the prospective music teachers who have played a work by Contemporary Turkish Composers ( X : 2.65) was higher than that those who have not ( X : 2.67).From this finding, it can be concluded that the prospective teachers who have not played a work by contemporary Turkish composers have just as much information on contemporary Turkish Composers and their piano works as those who have played a work by contemporary Turkish composers and have an interest in and follow these works.In a similar way, the prospective teachers who have not played a work by contemporary Turkish composers during their education ( X : 3,87) consider the practice of these work as necessary as those who have not played a work by contemporary Turkish composers do ( X : 3,89).It can be stated that this rate was relatively higher based on n=104 compared to the prospective teachers who have played (n=62).The prospective music teachers who have played piano or not consider the practice of the piano works by contemporary Turkish composers necessary and essential.

DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS
In the study, the opinions of the prospective music teachers in recognizing the piano works of contemporary Turkish composers, considering the practice of these works necessary, and having difficulty in playing these works were evaluated in accordance with the findings.Furthermore, the comparative analysis of the opinions of the prospective teachers regarding the recognition of the piano works by contemporary Turkish composers and considering the practice of these works necessary was performed in terms of whether the prospective teachers have played these works or not.
According to the findings, the availability of a repertoire including the works from Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern Period as well as the works by Contemporary Turkish Composers is of a great importance for the prospective music teachers.
The potential importance of the works of Contemporary Turkish Composers in the acquisition of the technical and musical basic skills should not be disregarded.This is also applicable to the course descriptions of the piano lessons in the undergraduate program of music teaching.However, the findings of the study reveal that the rates are lesser than expected.
In accordance with the results of the study, 37.3% of the prospective music teachers have played the works of contemporary Turkish composers and 62.7% of them have not ever played these works.The reasons why prospective music teachers have not played these works include: lack of information and familiarization with the piano lecturers and students on the piano repertoire of Contemporary Turkish Music and various technical challenges in the available works involving high and intense virtuosity, which is not appropriate for educational purposes.In other words, the availability of the difficulties in acquiring certain technical skills which may form the basis of the technique of piano-playing, as well as lack of melodically interesting works that may attract the students.Other challenges include deciphering the available works, playing in the accurate rhythm, playing the complex scales accurately, practicing the odd meters accurately, playing the works in their original tempo and comprehending the modal and sentence structures.Ece (2002) studied "The reasons for not using the works of Turkish composers in the viola education in Turkey and some suggestions to put them into use".It was conducted by means of an interview with a total of 44 viola trainers.The reasons that the works of Turkish Composers are not utilized in the training of viola were: lack of printed materials of a total of 37 viola works (2%), failure in the availability of the notes (57%), inability to recognize these works (19%), inapplicability of these works for musical expression (1%), the reflection on considering these works unnecessary for instrument training purposes (6%), and insuperable technical difficulties (13%); other reasons are: lack of piano accompaniment of these works, lack of eligible students to practice these works, incompatibility of these works with the schedule, purposes and target behaviors in the education programs in the institutions that the lecturers serve (10%).Çevik (2012), in accordance with the opinions of the students, reveals that the works of Turkish composers are partially included in the piano courses in a rate of 35%, rarely included in the piano courses in a rate of 33%, and not included in the piano courses in a rate of 21%.These works are partially included in the concerts in a rate of 33%, rarely included in a rate of 31%, and not included in a rate of 18%.
According to Sönmezöz (2004), the works of Contemporary Turkish Music are not played in the first years of the piano education due to the impracticability of these works for educational purposes because of their technical difficulties.This may be considered as a significant deficiency in fulfilling the requirements of the piano education both in the fine arts and sports high school and in the institutions training music teachers in elementary and intermediate piano education.
Although all of the prospective teachers consider the practice of the piano works of Contemporary Turkish Composers essential and beneficial, it is remarkable that 62.7% have not ever played these works.Though there were some difficulties leading to the impracticability of these works, 37.3% of the prospective teachers who have played these works (n=62) were moderately challenged ( X =2.87).In short, the possibility that the challenges in the practice of the piano works by contemporary Turkish composers may be similar to the potential challenges in the practice of the works by Western music composers should not be disregarded.
Yazıcı (2013) studied a work titled, "Evaluation of music education problems by piano teachers".The results of the questionnaire with a total of 54 piano teachers indicate that the students had difficulty in "reading/playing the notes in bass clef and treble clef vertically" at a rate of 64.8%.They could not acquire the skill of "playing while changing from one clef to another" at a rate of 70.4%.They gained the skill of "playing by following finger numbers" at a rate of 29.6%; they could not acquire the skill of "deciphering" at a rate of 75.9%; they gained the skill of "using the legato technique" at a rate of 57.4%, had difficulty in "using Staccato technique" at a rate of 53.7%, gained "playing legato and staccato techniques with both hands" at a rate of 18.6%, had difficulty in "playing with speed" at a rate of 75.9%, could "play with volume" at a rate of 40.8%, could "play with expression (dynamics)" at a rate of 40.7%, could not acquire the skill of "playing the pieces smoothly" at a rate of 83.3%, and could not gain the skill of "playing the basic rhythm sets" at a rate of 88.9%.
Ekinci and Demirtaş (2013), studying "The views of music teacher candidates about problems encountered in the interpretation of pieces of Baroque period", evaluated the challenges in interpreting the piano works from Baroque period.It is in line with the opinions of the prospective music teachers, and revealed that the teachers could not decipher the piano works from Baroque period in a rate of 40.7%, could not know how to play the ornaments in the works at a rate of 69.2%, used the pedals in the works at a rate of 49.4%, had difficulty in ensuring hand coordination when there are certain melodies in both hands at a rate of 33.8%, could not combine the complex scales in the right and left hand in these works at a rate of 54%, had difficulty due to the melodically complex structures in the works at a rate of 31.4%, could not use the legato technique in the works at a rate of 56.3%, could not perform the portato technique in the works at a rate of 23.3%, and were not familiar with the melodic structures in the works at a rate of 51.8%.From this perspective, the level of the challenges in the practice of the piano works by contemporary Turkish composers may be similar to that of the challenges in the practice of the works by Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern Era composers.Therefore, the avoidance of the practice of these works due to various reasons such as technical difficulties will create a significant gap in the piano lessons while training music teachers.Provided that there are certain efforts for creating a proper method, various exercises and scale studies, and for enabling the acquisition of a playing discipline for the works by Contemporary Turkish Methods just like the works by other composers, these difficulties can be overcome.
Therefore, the need for compensating for the status quo of the prospective music teachers who consider the practice of these works considerably necessary and have certain expectations on the practice of these works has been increasing everyday.
The prospective music teachers have knowledge of the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers, recognize the works and are interested in these works.Despite the technical difficulties of these piano works, teachers consider the practice of these works necessary and useful, and are interested in playing these works.The prospective teachers who have not played any work are more interested and willing compared to those who have played.
The ability of the music teachers to recognize, introduce, have knowledge of, teach, transfer the works by Contemporary Turkish Composers to the next generations is considerably important in maintaining and conserving the values of these generations.In this regard, the teachers who have played the piano works of Contemporary Turkish Composers are qualified and have well-equipped music education.
The following suggestions were presented in relation to the findings of the study.1.A variety of studies can be carried out in order to determine why the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers are not utilized.2. Among the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers, the appropriate works can be utilized for educational purposes and the challenges that the students encounter can be determined in these works; the methods of these challenges can be developed, and various exercises and study books on them can be written or created.3. The exercise books such as scales, exercises, studies involving modal tonalities can be written to comprehend and practice the modal structures for the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers more easily.4. Various works such as studies, pieces, songs etc. composed of Turkish melodies and motifs can be written and encouraged to be written for a piano education at a beginner and intermediate level for educational purposes.5.There can be various seminars and in-service trainings on the importance and necessity of the practice of the piano works by Contemporary Turkish Composers for lecturers in the piano lessons 6.The practice of the works by Contemporary Turkish Composers can be encouraged and included in the concert repertoires by the lecturers and various concerts and recitals, which may encourage the students to play these works in their own concerts.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Opinions of the participants regarding the piano works by Turkish composers.*1: I strongly disagree; 2: I disagree; 3: I moderately agree; 4: I agree; 5: I strongly agree.

Table 1 .
Demographic characteristics of the participants.

Table 3 .
The distribution of the participants in terms of whether they have played a work by contemporary Turkish composers or not.
Do you have any difficulty in comprehending melodic structure?8. Do you have any difficulty in practicing the sentence structure?9. Does the specification of fingering have an effect on playing the instrument accurately?10.Do you have any difficulty in playing with musical dynamics?11.Do you have any difficulty in performing the legato technique?12. Do you have any difficulty in performing the staccato technique?13.Do you have any difficulty in performing the portato technique?14.Do you have any difficulty in performing the pedal technique?15.Do you have any difficulty in meeting the deadline for submitting the works?
1. Do you have any difficulty in reading notes accurately?