This study aims to determine the perceptions of fine arts high school music department students about the concept of "instrument training" through an alternative measurement and evaluation technique "Word Association Test (WAT)". In this study, the survey model, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The study group of the research consisted of 110 students studying at Nevit Kodalli Fine Arts High School Music Department in the 2021-2022 academic year. The data were obtained by applying the "Word Association Test (WAT)". Firstly, WAT was explained for informative purposes during the application. Then, the students were asked to write the first 5 words that they thought were related to the key concept of "instrument training" within 1 minute. Afterwards, they were asked to make a sentence related to these answer words. The obtained answer words were analysed by content analysis technique. As a result of the analysis, the answer words that the students associated with the key concept of "instrument training" were grouped under 9 categories (teaching materials, performance anxiety, motivation for the instrument, social skills, attitude towards the instrument, technical skills, student capacity, education and training). According to the order of these categories, the most frequently associated answer words with instrument education were instrument, etude, excitement, working, cooperation, happiness, note, talent and teacher. Under the category of performance anxiety and motivation related to the instrument, the students showed a negative distribution on the word "tiring". It was observed that the students had a positive cognitive structure in all categories.