Instrument Education

Hello, I am Professor Arda Göksu. I am the Director of Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Turkish Music State Conservatory. We have 1 department currently providing education in our Turkish Music State Conservatory. It is also our Instrument Education Department. As the name suggests, it is a department that aims to train students who have been trained in the field of Turkish music instruments and have reached a high level, since we are Turkish Music State Conservatory. In this context, we teach our instruments such as lute, baglama, violin, tambur, clarinet, guitar and cello in our instrument training department. In this sense, I think it is a section that arouses the interest of curious students who are talented in musical instruments. Along with the 2019-2020 academic year, we took our students with a special talent exam in the 2020-2021 academic year. In our Turkish Music State Conservatory Instrument Education Department, we mostly have Turkish music courses. Among these courses there are Turkish Music Theory, Hearing Turkish Music, Reading and Writing lessons and Instrument Education lessons, which is named after our department. These courses are the basic courses for our department. Apart from these, we have repertoire lessons in the fields of Turkish Classical Music and Turkish Folk Music Collective Performance, Collective Practice, Turkish Classical Music and Turkish Folk Music. Although we are an instrument training department, we have a vocal education lesson, and a procedural knowledge lesson in order to teach the methods in Turkish music to our students. Of course, we don't just have Turkish music lessons. Our Western Music Theory lesson, Western Music Harmony lesson, Piano lesson and Music Culture, Turkish Music Culture and General Music History and General Music Culture are included in the curriculum of our department. During the 4-year undergraduate education, our students who are successful in the courses I have just listed can graduate from our conservatory provided that they meet the provisions of the university regulations. Our students, who are studying at our Turkish Music State Conservatory, can benefit from the exchange programs provided by our university such as Erasmus, Farabi, and Mevlana in the same way as the students in other units of our university. Since the day we were established as the Turkish Music State Conservatory and established our academic infrastructure, we have performed many events and concerts in our city and outside the city. In these concerts, we also commemorated our valuable artists who have come to the fore in Turkish music and have great contributions to Turkish music. For example, we commemorated our master Neşet Ertaş and Aşık Veysel with these concerts. We performed concerts to commemorate our genius composer, Buhurizade Mustafa Itri Efendi, who left his mark in the field of classical Turkish music in the 17th century. Apart from that, we organized both collective and individual concerts and recitals presented by our teachers and students. We held these concerts in Tekirdağ, in our university campus, as well as in different provinces and universities of our country. I hope these concerts will continue increasingly within this framework.
Graduates of Turkish Music State Conservatory Instrument Department can take up academic positions in Turkish music conservatories as a job opportunity after graduation. Today, we see that new Turkish Music State Conservatories are being founded. This is also a very pleasing development for our country. Our graduates of the State Conservatory can work as artists in TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) and in our choirs affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, both in the fields of classical Turkish music and traditional Turkish folk music. Apart from that, they can get the right to teach music by taking pedagogical formation training. It is possible for them to improve themselves through individual and special studies. As Turkish Music State Conservatory Instrument Education Department, we take our students with special talent exams, as in all conservatories. In this exam, we are trying to measure the abilities of our students. We aim to measure their musical skills, ear sensitivity, interest in Turkish music, and if they are performing any instrument, their level of skills with that instrument. I can advise our students to present the works they will perform with their instruments or sounds in the exam in the best way they can. For this, of course, a lot of work is required before the exam. They have to repeat their performances over and over again every day, without interruption. I can make suggestions like this for the exam. Of course, students with advanced ears apply to our exams, but it is still of great importance to do ear-enhancing exercises before the exam. I can also say this for our students who will come to Tekirdağ from outside the city: As every region and every city of our country is very beautiful, our city of Tekirdağ is a really beautiful city. Namık Kemal University is a university that can offer many opportunities to our students. Since our conservatory is also an art school, we can describe the city we live in as an art city. I think that being close to Istanbul, a city that has become an art and music center in the world, and the fact that our city has its own art and music culture will make great contributions to our students who will come to Tekirdağ from outside the province. We are waiting for our students who are talented, interested in music and Turkish music, who are performers, future artists, to the exams of Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Turkish Music State Conservatory Instrument Education Department. I wish you all success in the exams you will take.