Conservatory Students’ Music Performance Anxiety and Educational Expectations: A Qualitative Study

Music performance anxiety (MPA) can seriously and negatively affect musicians’ performance and quality of life—physically, mentally, and behaviorally. In the present study, factors related to the MPA of students receiving classical Western music education in the conservatory in a holistic framework were examined to ascertain the physical, mental, and behavioral symptoms; temporal processes; environmental factors; coping strategies; and educational expectations and desires related to this condition. In addition to investigating causative factors in such a framework, the content analysis method was used on data collected from semi-structured interviews with conservatory students. The results show that the main causative factors of MPA included a jury’s negative evaluation, attitudes, and/or behaviors; their symptoms included trembling, muscle contraction, and distraction. The main coping strategy among participants was positive self-talk; remarkably, they had no theoretical knowledge of positive self-talk. Most significantly, considering that performance is integral to musical education training, students stated that the conservatory needs to integrate into the curriculum a course, counseling, and activities that address MPA.

An Examination of Conservatory Students’ Piano Lesson Self-Efficiency and Computer Literacy: The Case of Trabzon University State Conservatory

In this study, the self-efficacy of conservatory students was determined in piano lessons. The piano lesson self-efficacy scale developed by Kurtuldu (2017) was used. The scale was applied to 55 students studying at the Musicology and Music Theory departments at Trabzon University State Conservatory in the academic year of 2020-2021. The result of this research revealed that significant differences were found only at the grade level between the piano lesson self-efficacy of the conservatory students. There was no significant difference in variables such as gender, the program attended at the conservatory, the type of high school graduated, the status of receiving piano education before undergraduate education, and the presence of a piano at the students’ houses. As a result, several suggestions were put forward by evaluating the emerging differences in the context of computer literacy and distance education.

Relationship between computer use related self-efficacy perceptions and academic success of conservatory students during distance education in the COVID-19 pandemic

This research aims to determine the relationship between the computer use related self-efficacy perceptions and academic success of conservatory students in distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample group of the study consists of 130 students who received distance education at Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University State Conservatory during the COVID-19 pandemic. The quantitative data of the study were obtained via the "Computer Self-Efficacy Perception Scale" developed by Aşkar and Umay, and the academic success scores were obtained through correspondence with the conservatory administration. The demographic characteristics of the participants including gender, branch, age, and class information in the sample group were collected through a form prepared by the researcher. SPSS 21.0 program was used in the analysis of the research data. The data was analysed using a t-test, ANOVA and correlation and regression analyses. According to the results of the research, there is a positive, significant, and moderate relationship between conservatory students' computer self-efficacy perceptions and their academic success scores in distance education. The current study revealed that conservatory students' computer self-efficacy perceptions are a predictor of the academic success scores in distance education and can explain 30.2% of the academic success score. Gender, branch, age, and class variables do not have a significant effect on academic success scores and computer self-efficacy perceptions.

Predictors of music performance anxiety in conservatory students

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is one of the main problems experienced by music students. It manifests in affective, cognitive, somatic, and behavioral symptoms that can occur regardless of the quality of the musical performance. The aim of this study was to perform a regression analysis to determine the variables that contribute to the prediction of MPA in conservatory students. A total of 295 Spanish music students aged 15–68 years enrolled in Spanish conservatories completed a battery of questionnaires selected to collect information about demographic characteristics, musical training, learning processes, and health and psychological variables. Pearson’s correlations and ANOVA were calculated, and a regression analysis was done to predict the development of MPA. The results showed that MPA is largely predicted by health and psychological variables, including depression, fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance, poor achievement motivation, and use of substances to alleviate MPA. Age at first musical performance with an audience was the only musical training variable with sufficient strength to predict MPA (the older the participant, the greater the MPA). The article concludes with a discussion of the need to implement psychological and educational counseling in music education centers as well as specific training to increase the quality of the musical career and personal wellbeing of the students.

Institutionalized Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship was the normal way to learn a trade in past centuries. A typical master might have one or two apprentices, who lived in the master’s home like members of the family. A new path for apprentices opened up with the founding in London of the Inns of Court, four institutions to train future lawyers. The combination of famous teachers, a critical mass of talented students, and the experiences of seeing law practiced in a royal city all made this new type of apprenticeship superior to what came before. The same thing happened with music training in the four conservatories of Naples. Great teachers, strong competition, and world-class music in a royal city led to conservatory students winning the best music jobs in Europe.

Verbal and non-verbal creativity of the students of the Conservatory

The article deals with the features of verbal and non-verbal creativity of Conservatory students. The study used: methods for diagnosing verbal creativity (adapted version of The S. Mednik RAT test), methods for diagnosing nonverbal creativity (short version of the Torrens test), and the "picture of the world" method. The purpose of the study was to study the features of verbal and non-verbal creativity and the image of the world of students, as well as to study their relationships. Three groups of students: low, moderate, and high level of creativity, which describes the inherent types of the world picture, the features of the development of the creativity indices. It was shown that there are significant differences in the development of verbal creativity in the originality index for students with medium and low, medium and high, low and high levels of nonverbal creativity, and in the uniqueness index for students with high and low levels of nonverbal creativity. It was found that for students with a low level of creativity, the landscape picture of the world is more pronounced, and for students with a high level of nonverbal creativity, the abstract picture of the world is more pronounced. Some significant relationships between creativity and the features of the students ' worldview are highlighted.