A Survey on Perceptions of Playing any Musical Instrument of the Individuals who Receive Amateur Musical Education: A Metaphorical Analysis

Abstract

Phenomenological study is a type of research that reveals emotional and often intense human experiences. The main purpose of this qualitative and phenomenological study is to examine the perceptions of primary, secondary and high school students who play any musical instrument of playing the musical instruments through metaphors they develop. The study group consists of 314 students studying in primary, secondary and high schools in Çankaya district of Ankara province. A questionnaire form developed by the researchers was used to collect data. The first section of the questionnaire included demographic characteristics of the students. The second section of the questionnaire included a statement for exploring metaphorical opinions: “Playing the instrument is like ... because …” along with the questions related to the organization and terms of the competition. While completing this statement, the students were expected to focus on a single metaphorical concept and write clearly the mental image they develop. The written answers constitute the database of the study. Metaphor-oriented studies are based on two purposes. The former is to describe the situation and the latter is to accelerate and improve the research process. In this study, the latter was selected and metaphors on abstract scientific subjects were used as pedagogical tools. 68.15% of the participants were female and 31.85% were male. In this qualitative study, 9 themes including pleasure, imagination, sharing and recovery, development-effort, life source, entertainment, art, independence and nature-environment were identified. The results of the study revealed that the students who played amateur instruments produced multiple and different metaphors about the concept of playing an instrument. The distribution of the participants’ responses was as follows: pleasure (30.11%), imagination (17.96%), sharing and recovery (12.98%), development-effort (8.84%), life source (8.29%), entertainment (7.73%), art (5,52%), independence (4,70%) and nature-environment (3.87 %).