An instrumental method can be one of the most important factors in improving our music in terms of technique and performance, as it prepares and ensures the skills of a good performer, starting from the historical development of that instrument, according to its own characteristics, its structure and technical features, and the sound produced by the instrument.

Since the only way to learn instruments in Turkish music has been the master-apprentice method, and since adequate methods for different instruments have not yet been prepared, it is a fact that the teaching and learning of instruments cannot be carried out according to complete methods.
What methods and standards are followed in the teaching of qanun in the Turkish State Conservatories of Music and in the Turkish music departments of universities? This question also needs to be seriously and thoroughly investigated.
The interest and desire to learn almost all Turkish musical instruments has increased greatly in our society, especially among the younger generation. It is obvious that learning through master-apprentice cannot be valid in this period and that it has various difficulties and problems.
There are not enough written works by our valuable performers who have made a name for themselves in Turkish music and who are now deceased to guide us in this matter. Before my father Gültekin Aydoğdu and I published it in 2004, we had the methods of our late performers İsmail Şençalar and İsmail Tezelli.
In order to teach the technical and musical aspects of playing instruments in a scientific way, it is essential that the methods of each instrument, according to its own characteristics, be prepared as soon as possible and put at the service of our ever developing music.
It is gratifying that after the methods of İsmail Şençalar and İsmail Tezelli, the methods of Ümit Mutlu and the late Halil Karaduman have been published. Another important issue is how to use published methods in conservatories.
An important point for the student to remember is that the method cannot teach everything or find a solution to every problem. This is where the master-apprentice method can come into play. In addition, there are now very useful recordings and information on the Internet, even information that can be considered as video-explanatory lessons. The important thing is that this information can be used at the same time as the information in the methods.

The sections on the production of qanun and plectrums in our book "Kanun Method", which we prepared together with my father Gültekin Aydoğdu, were taken from Gültekin Aydoğdu's workshops and qanun production periods that lasted for 15 years.
Firstly, it may seem interesting that the method includes sections such as production and repair; our aim here is to share the knowledge and experience we have gained during 15 years of production for the benefit of young people who are interested in this subject.
During the 15 years of production, Burhan Enercan, Necmeddin Akbulut and Ataç Sevil worked together. For this reason, it was thought that the knowledge and experience gained during the production of 150 qanuns would be included in the "method".
The late Cinuçen Tanrıkorur put a lot of effort and pressure on us to prepare and publish our method. He even took a promise from us to implement the method.
When we were preparing our method, we thought of dividing this book into 3 parts;

Part 1: We have prepared general musical information, information about the structure of the qanun instrument, its parts and repair, the plectrum issue, preservation and handling of the qanun and information about famous qanun makers. Our aim was to inform a student before he/she starts playing the qanun.

Part 2: We emphasised the importance of preparation and the points to consider when starting to play the qanun. Then we introduced the sound field and fret names of the qanun, the plectrum list and tuning. After this information, we began to play the notes of the qanun with a plectrum and right and left hand exercises in the Çargâh sequence. After about 70 qanun exercises, we added explanations of the exercises to guide the students.
In the next stage, after the student got used to the exercises, we introduced the plectrums of the qanun according to the Turkish music sound system and gave the technique of using the plectrums. According to the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek sound system, we introduced 24 unequal intervals formed in an octave. Then we prepared working pieces (maqam descriptions) selected from works composed with simple maqams and minor rhythms, and also included songs prepared using the same method. At the end of the second part, we included notes of different instrumental pieces from forms such as peşrev, saz semai, sirto and longa in different maqams.

Part 3: We have given information about transposition in the qanun, about different techniques of expression, about the qanun concert of Ferid Alnar and about his çiftetelli. Other exercises are related to the use of ten fingers. One point we have pointed out is that we have touched on arpeggio and chord techniques because of the misuse of arpeggios and chords.
For further research, we have also included in our method the frequency analysis study we carried out on Turkish Radio Television (TRT) Ankara Radio. Thanks to this study, we have seen the scientific reasons for the voices described by different performers as naive, soft, rich, closed voice.

Part 4: We gave some advice on memory training and young musicians. We also added some notes.
Another project of ours is to add a video DVD to our qanun method, which we will be releasing next year.
The impression I gained from my research on the qanun methods given by the qanun artists from Azerbaijan and Armenia for the 1st International Qanun Festival and Symposium we held in 2012 is that although there is no study of the Tampere system in our methods, these methods are entirely based on the Tampere system and mostly include western music works. Our qanun methods should also include western music, jazz and world music works. Since different works require different disciplines, it will be inevitable for the student to push their limits.