Özet:

Conceptually, the unity of religious music and the human voice is an ancient phenomenon. Music finds a place in all rituals in the Islamic creed. “Turkish Religious Music is divided into two: Mosque and Sufi Music. “Mosque Music”, which has an important place in Turkish Religious Music, consists of reading recitations and prayers during worship in mosques, inside or outside the prayer. It is performed with the participation of one or more muezzins and imams, and sometimes with the participation of the congregation. The performers of mosque music are imams and muezzins. The imam leads the prayers and addresses the congregation. The muezzin also calls the adhan and recites the prayers during and between prayers. As of the end of 2022, there are 107,782 mosque officials in 89,302 mosques in Turkey (Presidency of Religious Affairs, 2023). The fact that mosque officials, who are in the “professional voice user” category in terms of daily voice usage time, are unlikely to receive voice training throughout their education (imam-hatip high schools or faculties of theology) and professional lives, poses a serious problem for them to continue their professional lives in a healthy manner. Participants in studies conducted with different samples to determine the professional needs of mosque officials stated their need for a well-programmed voice training program with the right content and resources by experts in the field. The aim of the research is to determine the effectiveness of the in-service training program on voice training developed for mosque officials. With this research, the research on voice training awareness, voice problems and voice training needs, previously conducted with mosque officials, was taken one step further and began the implementation phase. Thus, the effect of voice training practices on the voice use skills of mosque officials was revealed for the first time in this research. The experimental process of the research was carried out within the Religious Music In-Service Training Program given at the Presidency of Religious Affairs Haseki Abdurrahman Gürses Training Center. Within the scope of this program, eight participants were selected among imams-hatips, muezzins working in different districts of Istanbul. As a result of the relevant literature review and interviews with the working group, the vocal training needs of mosque officials were identified and a 26-week in-service training program was designed. Practical training was held in the 2020-2021 academic year. In the research, a pretest-posttest single-group experimental design was used. Voice Performance Evaluation Scale for Mosque Officials was developed as a data collection tool. This scale is a 5-point Likert type scale. In the analysis of the data, the Wilcoxson signed-rank test was used for pre-test and post-test group averages. During the research process, an expert team consisting of three academicians was assigned to evaluate the pre-test and post- test performances of the study group. During the data collection process, video and voice recordings were also taken from the participants for pre-test and post-test performance evaluations. As a result of the research, the group average in all pre-test and post-test results increased from 48.18 points to 80.18 points, an increase of 32 points. According to this result, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group (Z= 2,521, p˂0.05). Thus situated, the in-service training program on voice training developed has improved the voice-using skills of mosque officials. In future research, the effectiveness of this in-service training program on voice training can be tested with an experimental design with an experimental control group.

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