Student Opinions On Self-Assessment In Guitar Education

A student should be concerned with various factors in order to show a desired performance which occupies the centre of instrument training. For instance, during this process students are expected to pay attention to some aspects such as using correct notes with correct length, being careful about the anticipated musical expression styles, using nice cadences in desired beat and then play musical pieces according to these aspects. Furthermore, when the necessity of correct positioning and correct finger number in guitar playing is taken into consideration; the factors which should be controlled are increasing. Thus, it is suggested for guitar students that they should carry out their playing process consciously so that they can compensate their deficiencies and faults by noticing their own requirements. This research embraces the views of the guitar students about a practice in which they try to carry out self assessment by observing their own performances during their training process. Focus group discussion, one of the data collection tools has been used in order to obtain the view point of the five students taking part in the practice in the research. The interview has been recorded with recorder then analyzed by documented. As a result of these analyses students have mentioned that they performed musical pieces and etudes more appropriate for their level, recorded their performances, conducted with different kind of materials, through mobile phones, firstly paid attention to their body gestures and then focused on their musical expressions and they also said that using video records (like looking at themselves in the mirror) are more successful than classical methods. Out of the viewpoints of the students it can be generally said that carrying out self assessment has increased their awareness, accelerated their improvement in musical expression and technical matters and through repetition proved them opportunity to make readjustment and therefore allowing them to carry out their playing process consciously by saving time.Â