Introduction

The system of music education today is facing challenges created by changes in the modern education system. Nowadays, the western model and experience of education is being introduced to the post-Soviet area, in particular to Armenia, in order to integrate the country within the European higher education area. The result of numerous studies, analyses and reports indicate that there are a great number of unresolved issues in the present education system.

After joining the Bologna Process in 2005, Armenia is persistent in trying to achieve concordance in its education system and these accepted European standards. Moreover, the Bologna Process has been ratified as the official programme of improvement of the education system. Integration into the European education area has significantly broadened the former horizons and allowed Armenia, and Armenian students, to avoid isolationism.

Analysing the present state of music education within this context, it becomes evident that music education also has its issues and requirements within the framework of adult education. Actually, nowadays adults aspire to obtain higher music education based solely on their own will. Today anyone has the right of obtaining a higher music education in Armenia, regardless of the level of his or her music education and experience.

Formerly, during the time of the Soviet Union, in order to study at the faculty of music of a university or conservatory in Armenia, the minimum requirement for an applicant was to have studied at a musical school or college and have a minimum of seven years of musical education. In 90% of cases an applicant also had four years of additional vocational education or ten years of complete education at a musical school. Today, however, anyone who wants to study music is able to achieve a higher music education, to obtain a music teacher qualification or become a performer, and teach music in the future. It should be noted that the educational programs resulting in a degree qualification as a teacher-musician include courses such as vocal courses, courses on playing musical instruments (mainly the piano), and courses in conducting.

As a result a number of issues and questions arise regarding the effective organisation of music education for adult beginners. In particular, further research may be needed regarding the question of whether there is a need to develop a special methodology for adult beginners. If this need is observed, then additional answers should also be researched regarding the questions, ‘What should that methodology look like?‘, and, ‘What repertoire should be developed, in order to teach adult beginners the basic skills of playing a musical instrument’ (Adamyan, Reference ADAMYAN2015, p. 241).

Consequently, adults who start learning music and want to get higher education get easily frustrated when the process of acquiring beginner musical skills and knowledge becomes difficult. Reality does not meet their initial expectations. This is, in part, due to the lack of information and the absence of opportunities to practice music at an amateur level. There are many musical and vocal groups and bands in Armenia, but for professionals only. There are no alternative musical courses offered for beginners, or private schools that do not have age limitation, or amateur bands. This results in a void that causes these problems. In order to obtain a music education, a beginner has to turn to a private tutor and this makes the acquisition of complex musical skills (knowledge of musical theory, analysis, Solfeggio, music literature) almost impossible.

Therefore, in order to efficiently teach adult beginners higher music education, there is a need for new teaching methodologies and programs which will provide them with high standards of professional music education.

A number of modern western studies reveal the background, motivation and aspiration of adult beginners wishing to be educated musically as part of continuing education (Palmer & Drake, Reference PALMER and DRAKE1997; Roulston, Jutras & Kim, Reference ROULSTON, JUTRAS and KIM2015; Taylor & Hallam, Reference TAYLOR and HALLAM2008; Perkins & Williamon, Reference PERKINS and WILLIAMON2013; Orlofsky & Smith, Reference ORLOFSKY and SMITH1997; and many others). But our study refers to the issues of adult beginners, (ages 18 up to 50 years old) who want to achieve a higher musical education; this brings new challenges into this area.

However, before moving on to the practical issues, we would like to try to analyse some motivations adults have when making the decision to practice music, or sing, or to play any musical instrument. According to our hypothesis, the reasons behind this desire to learn are as follows:

1. a) The beginner's personal character,

2. b) In post-soviet countries, like Armenia itself, the reasons are also conditioned by time and we have already spoken about this in the beginning of our research.

The representative of 20^th-century humanitarian psychology, the renowned American psychologist Abraham Maslow, said that a creative nature is a characteristic feature of human beings. He described it as an inseparable quality of human nature: ‘According to Maslow, since the potential for self-fulfilling creativity exists in everyone, it does not require any special talent or ability. In order to be creative we do not necessarily need to write books, music or spectacular canvases. A relatively small number of people are doing this. Creativity is a universal function of human beings which leads to all forms of self-fulfillment’ (Hjelle & Ziegler, Reference HJELLE and ZIEGLER1992, p. 320).

This theory by Maslow may serve as a baseline in understanding what triggers adults to start practicing music and thus seek self-fulfillment. According to Maslow, the majority of people need to realise their inner potential and this is only natural and necessary. Therefore, a human being may seek self-fulfillment at any age.

Coming back to the subject of our research, the fact that formal music education is not a mandatory prerequisite for getting higher music education in Armenia, has resulted in the need to develop novel methods and approaches.

In order to tackle the above issue we need to answer the question of how to train professional teacher-musicians who, in the future, will not only be able to perform, but also to teach in schools, and increase the awareness of the role of music education in modern society. All of this needs to take place within a six-year (four years for a Bachelor's degree and two years for a Master's degree) period of education.

It is evident that it becomes almost impossible to have a universally accepted ideology and programme. Should the problems be solved by an individual approach and methodology used by teachers with each and every adult learner, or should more universal guidebooks and methods be developed for adult beginners? This becomes even more difficult given the fact that the results achieved by a child, who studies music when he or she is only six or seven years old and continues his or her education for ten years, need to be achieved in only six years at a higher education institution, along with the initial lack of skills of the student to play a musical instrument.

There are also other circumstances hampering the achievement of success at an adult age. Despite the facts which indicate that it is possible to achieve serious musical success even at an adult age, as is the case with acclaimed Armenian composer Aram Khachaturyan and many others, it is evident that not all learners succeed in displaying serious results, especially when we speak about instrumental performance.

There is a wide range of potential obstacles during the educational process. Firstly, it is preferable one should start his or her music education at an early age, when an individual is more receptive, perceives impressions in a more direct manner, and has a brighter imagination. But how does one treat an adult, when teaching the mastery of a musical instrument, since an adult and a reasoning person, who has some talent, may acquire theoretical knowledge even in a short period of time.

It is clear that one can only achieve mastery of playing piano by putting in long hours of patient practice. Only the most persistent students, who also have a strong will, can succeed in doing this. A child can start playing piano at the age of six or seven and can achieve great results by playing the instrument only 10–15 minutes a day. However, this is not the case with adult beginners, because here everything depends on the beginner's will, desire and talent. It is hard to oppose the opinion, presented in the given article, which reflects on this issue in greater detail, and to disagree with the fact that realised work is essential here: ‘[I]f we intend to teach adult beginners the art of music, our method should be based precisely on the principles of their thinking. This means that any skill acquired in the process of education should be realised and perceived by the beginner himself and not by means of multiple and pointless repetition of the same action’ (Klimay, Reference KLIMAY2009, p. 170).

Of course, this approach completely transfers the essence of the issue, but it is not a secret for performance musicians that it is impossible to eliminate practice when mastering a musical instrument. This becomes especially important when learning musical scores by heart, mastering fast tempos, acquiring articulation knowledge (legato, staccato, different types of stress), and more.

When working with adult beginners, one faces difficulties which are also present when working with children. These include difficulties with reading musical scores, absence of an artistic character of the musical piece, difficulties with the piano keys, development of motor skills and so on.

Thus we also need to analyse what percentage of beginners achieve success given these circumstances and whether or not it is possible to achieve visible results in a short period of time.

In our research we have tried to clarify the difficulties faced by adult beginners at the initial stages of mastering a musical instrument, and in particular with the piano. This is because playing piano is important for musicians who play other musical instruments.

It is interesting that the research shows that singing, conducting and other subjects are mastered much more easily than playing the musical instrument itself. Of course, singing is a much more natural process. However, playing a musical instrument, especially the piano, is connected with developing more complex skills. Thus, by learning piano one faces more difficulties.

As Armenian pianist, honoured teacher and professor Y.Zargaryan puts it: ‘The piano surpasses almost any other musical instrument in its capabilities (range, volume of sound, multifaceted nature, harmonic versatility and other characteristics). Other instrumentalists rarely face the same problems and peculiarities that a pianist has to deal with. Multifaceted, multipart piano playing requires a pianist to perform a number of functions at the same time. He needs to both play solo and to accompany himself at the same time, to keep the proportion between the sounds made by the solo player and the accompanist. He also needs to carry out not only the mentioned details of the performance, but also other separate elements which in their turn accentuate the harmony, rhythm and colors, to keep track of the pedals and both hands which, sometimes play on the opposite sides of the keyboard and . . . and . . . tens of other ands’ (Zargaryan, Reference ZARGARYAN1998, p. 28–29).

Thus, we may conclude that a certain level of mastery may be achieved only in the case of displaying a complex wealth of abilities.