ÇOCUKLARIN SOUNDPAINTING EĞİTİMİNDE KARŞILAŞILAN SORUNLAR VE ÇÖZÜM ÖNERİLERİ

Özet

Soundpainting, müzisyenler, dansçılar, aktörler ve görsel sanatlar alanında çalışan icracılar için 1974 yılında Walter Thompson tarafından yaratılmış, çok disiplinli, eş zamanlı işaret dilidir. Genellikle grubun önünde duran Soundpainter (besteci), el ve vücut hareketlerini kullanarak, grup tarafından icra edilmek üzere belirli ve/veya rastlamsal materyalleri işaret eder. Soundpainter icracıların cevaplarını (response) geliştirir, onları bestenin içerisine göre biçimlendirir ve şekillendirir ve daha sonra, bir başka seri işaret ve cümle (phrase) belirler ve parça kompozisyon sürecine devam eder. Soundpainting, ortaya çıkarıldığı zamandan günümüze kadar, daha çok performans boyutu ile icracıların ilgisini çekmiştir. Yapılan bazı çalışmalara bakıldığında eğitimin çocuklara yönelik boyutunda eksiklikler göze çarpmaktadır.araştırma, Soundpainting eğitimcilerinin, çocukların müzik disiplini içerinde Soundpainting eğitiminde karşılaştıkları sorunları ve çözüm önerilerini ortaya koyma amacı taşımaktadır. Araştırma nitel bir çalışmadır ve verilerin elde edilmesi için yapılandırılmış görüşme soruları uygulanmıştır. Bulgular, Fransa'nın Tours şehrinde 2016 yılında gerçekleştirilen Uluslararası Soundpainting İnteraktif Konferansına katılan eğitimcilere yöneltilen sorular yoluyla elde edilmiştir. Verilerin analizinde ise içerik analizi yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda çocukların Soundpainting eğitimlerinde doğaçlama yapmakta ve fikir üretmekte yetersiz kaldıkları, sözdizimlerini ve bazı jestleri hatırlamakta zorluk çektikleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Bunlara ek olarak çocukların Soundpainting performansı gerçekleştirirken utangaç davrandıkları sonucu da eğitimciler tarafından vurgulanmıştır. Soundpainting alanında yazılmış bilimsel çalışmaların henüz çok az olması nedeniyle, özgün olan bu çalışmanın Soundpainting alanında çalışmak isteyen eğitimcilere ışık tutacağı düşünülmektedir

Abstract

Soundpainting is the multidisciplinary live composing sign language for Musicians, Dancers, Actors and Visual Artists created by Walter Thompson in 1974. Usually The Soundpainter (the composer) standing in front of the group communicates a series of signs using hand and body gestures indicating specific and/or aleatoric material to be performed by the group. The Soundpainter develops the responses of the performers, molding and shaping them into the composition then signs another series of gestures, a phrase, and continues in this process of composing the piece. Soundpainting has attracted a lot of performers with its performance dimension. When we look at some of the studies conducted, the deficiencies in the dimension towards educated children are striking.Soundpainting educators encounter in children's music discipline in Soundpainting training and suggestions for solutions. Research is a descriptive study and data were obtained by structured interview questions. Findings were obtained through questions directed to trainers participating in the International Soundpainting Interactive Conference in Tours, France, in 2016. In the analysis of data content analysis was used. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that children are improvising in their soundpainting lessons and are inadequate in producing ideas, having difficulty remembering their syntax and some gestures. In addition to this, the result shows that children are shy when doing Soundpainting is emphasized by the trainers. Because of the scientific works written in the field of Soundpainting is still very few, it is thought that this original work will shed light the educators who want to work in the field of Soundpainting The study group of this research consists of the teachers among Soundpainters, who participated in 1st International Soundpainting Interactive Conference – SIC in 2016 in Tours, France, and who had previous experience with children. In order to collect data, standardized and open-ended two-question interviews were made with these teachers. The questions are as follows:  What are the problems encountered in children’s Soundpainting education?  What are the solution offers for these problems? The following conclusions were reached: The Soundpainting teachers for children stated that the ultimate challenge for children was improvisation, and they failed to create new musical ideas. Improvisation requires a certain experience for musicians. Taylor (2000) refers to improvisation levels, elements, and the processes of creativity. Thus, we can say that improvisation also requires a systematic work, and it would become more successful after these series of studies and exercises. It would be quixotic to expect the children to improvise during Soundpainting education without any previous experience on improvisation. Creation of new ideas is a long process, and the children will gradually become more comfortable with the process as they practice. Agrell’s (2008) studies of improvisation for all musicians address dozens of games, which begin with warm-up exercises and extend to improvisation on accompaniment. It can be concluded that the Soundpainting education would be more productive if these practices could be taught to children before Soundpainting education. Another thing that the teachers see as a problem is the technical incompetencies. The problems with synchronization, intonation, and complexity, which are mentioned by the teachers, can also be seen in adult musicians. It is quite possible to perceive that children with no previous music education and musical experience are having difficulties with these subjects and having difficulties in understanding. In one of their studies, Bilgin and Coşkuner (2016) showed that the children managed to overcome the problems about synchronization and intonation in due course, and that they could easily learn such subjects. Another problem brought up by the teachers is the attention deficit in children in Soundpainting education. Soundpainting syntax is a series of commands given by the Soundpainter before the performance. While these commands are sometimes limited to two or three gestures, they may sometimes be longer. Since the attention and focusing skills of the adults cannot be the same with these skills of the children, the error probabilities, attention deficits, and problems with remembering long sentences may be taken normally. However, as mentioned above, if we consider the fact that the children can focus their attention for up to 20 minutes when they are not active, we cannot conclude that this is a realistic problem. If this is considered to be caused by the length of the syntax, this may also be considered as a problem for adults. Another problem stressed by the teachers is the obscurity and length of the sentences. The fact that the teachers see the children as adults may be considered as the cause of this problem. If we expect children to form long sentences that only an adult can form, we would be on the wrong track. The obscurity of the sentence is about the teacher being more clear and understandable. Another problem is the timidity and coyness of the children. During Soundpainting performance and education, it is observed that the adults also act shy in cases of loneliness resulting from suggesting a different idea or since they do not know what will happen in the end. In this case, the timidity of children is not a big surprise. As stated by the teachers, performing in front of an audience usually causes shyness. Another problem encountered by the teachers is that the children fail to remember the gestures. Today, there are more than 1500 gestures in Soundpainting language. It is not easy to learn and remember these gestures for adults, as well. Remembering these gestures requires strict practice. We can also consider the reason for children to forget these gestures as the frequency of education. As Yerlikaya and Coşkuner (2006)emphasized t