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.

Framing the Problematics of Choice and Legacy: A Reading of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson as a Dilemma Tale

The choice for a particular narrative architecture has been a major concern for the literary writer and to the African American literary writer, the use of African oral literary elements has been a resourceful option. The present study hypothesizes that August Wilson uses the dilemma tale as a narrative architecture in his The Piano Lesson play and argues that this narrative style helps Wilson to frame the dialogic surrounding what legacy is to the African American. The study reveals that tradition is problematic for the African American to conceive. The conclusion is that the dilemma tale type as a narrative style helps to understand that tradition or, legacy is a complex phenomenon for the African American to fathom.

The Relationships Between Music Performance Anxiety and the Mindfulness Levels of Music Teacher Candidates

In this study the relationships between the Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) levels and mindfulness levels of Music Teacher Candidates (MTC) were investigated. A large sample of undergraduate students (N = 524) from seven different universities from around Turkey took place in the study. The data was collected with both Kenny’s MPA inventory and the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire. The Pearson Moments Correlation Coefficient was used in determining the relationships between the MPA and mindfulness levels of the MTC. To determine whether the MPA of students and mindfulness differ in terms of piano lesson achievement and daily piano practice time (DPPT) variables, a variance analysis (ANOVA) and a Kruskal Wallis H test analyses were used. Students’ mindfulness levels were negatively correlated with their MPA levels. Their piano lesson achievement levels had positive relationship with mindfulness and a negative relationship with their MPA. Similarly, their DPPT had a positive relationship with mindfulness and a negative relationship with MPA.

Trauma in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson

August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson (1987) is a play which deals with the social life of a broken African American family in Pittsburg – a city in Pennsylvania – who migrated from the South. The family’s grandparents, who were slaves on a Southern plantation, were separated and exchanged with a piano. This shocking incident causes cross-generational trauma and other traumatic incidents for the family as they retrieved the piano. This study examines the play through the lens of Literary Trauma Theory. This theory appeared in the middle of 1990s, henceforth it has been developed by so many scholars, and the latest revision is made by Joshua Pederson, an Associate Professor of Humanities at Boston University, in 2014. The first wave of the theorists claim that trauma causes amnesia for the victims; they can neither remember nor describe what they have experienced, but Pederson in his revised edition of the theory proves the opposite. By applying the latest version of trauma theory this study shows how slavery, its aftermath or its legacy affected and haunted African Americans, and created trauma or historical trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for the African Americans.