Pianos are beloved instruments in China. Over 50 million Chinese school children learn how to play this instrument and many aspire to become professional musicians one day.
Yin Chengzong is among them, playing piano at his family’s 1920s villa on Gulangyu where longan, papaya, and starfruit trees thrive in their garden.
What is the Chinese word for piano?
Chinese for “piano” is “qian”, while “to play” – making this word an effective introduction to playing music and musical instruments like guitars.
One note may sound lonely, but as more notes are added the sound becomes more lively and exciting. It’s this simple principle that explains piano’s massive popularity in China; over 50m children worldwide are studying this instrument with 40% being Chinese students residing in Shanghai alone with over 2,700 music schools! Furthermore, China spends millions on orchestras numbering over 80 and concert halls to showcase these young performers like Lang Lang, Li Yundi or Yuja Wang (pictured here). These concert halls fill quickly when one of these talented wunderkinds takes to perform beautifully judged Bach or fiendishly difficult Rachmaninov works.
Yet many still harbor doubts as to whether Chinese technical brilliance matches its imaginative brilliance. Cai Huanyu of Gulangyu island stands as an example. After effortlessly passing his piano grades he secured himself a place at China’s premier conservatory before further honing his craft at prominent overseas conservatories in America, Germany, and Russia.
But soon he found himself drawn to making music for the masses. In the 1960s he joined Madame Mao’s orchestra and soon after made himself an indispensable socialist asset by playing revolutionary ballads to factory workers. Later, he even transformed an earlier revolutionary cantata into an orchestral composition, eventually becoming China’s most well-known orchestral composition.
How to play the piano in chinese
Over 50m children worldwide are learning piano, with four in five Chinese. Shanghai alone boasts over 2,700 music schools; additionally, government spending on orchestras and concert halls continues apace to accommodate audiences such as bureaucrats, fastidious parents and hip young things – whether Lang Lang plays Bach or Yundi Li does Rachmaninov!
Zhu Xiao-Mei, now one of China’s acclaimed pianists, took her musical training seriously from childhood even during Maoist China’s dark days. Encouraged by her family and TV/radio hosts alike, at 8 years old she was already appearing regularly on Chinese media such as TV and radio programs and eventually left for Paris where she quickly achieved international renown as an internationally acclaimed musician.
But during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, anything Western was subject to attack by Red Guards who tormented musicians and destroyed scores; an expatriate pianist named Fou Ts’ong knew all 32 Beethoven sonatas by heart before she was declared an enemy of revolution and executed as an individual who knew all 32 sonatas by heart!
Even amid these setbacks, piano playing grew in China dramatically, reaching such popularity that even members of the Politburo expressed their enjoyment for classical music by the 1980s. Today it’s hard to imagine a Chinese household without its own piano as Mr Cai noted:
Where to learn to play the piano in chinese
Chinese culture has taken quickly to piano playing. Not only are countless children taking lessons, but there are also notable pianists originating in China who began their career here. This can be attributed to several factors including its accessibility and ease of learning.
Numerous families own pianos or keyboards at home, making learning how to play easier for their kids. Furthermore, numerous popular piano teaching materials can also be found throughout the country, including sets with lesson books, theory books and practice sheet music designed specifically to assist beginners. Lesson books often follow an ascending progression from simple piano pieces up through more difficult ones.
Piano lessons can also benefit a child’s academic performance. According to a recent study, students taking piano lessons are more likely to excel in math, science and language arts than those who don’t take any. Furthermore, music provides children with tools they need for self-expression and interpersonal development — skills essential for future success in life.
Although taking piano lessons may provide many advantages for children, not all will become professional musicians. Only a fraction of piano learners ever make it onto a stage due to individual differences in skills and talent being vast; teachers, coaches, parents must recognize talent early and nurture it accordingly for any success to occur in this career path.
Original purposes for piano grading examination and competition systems were to promote piano education, standardize teaching practices, and offer students an opportunity to observe each other and exchange ideas. Unfortunately, today’s grading examination and competition systems have fallen from their original purpose, becoming simply another means of collecting registration fees instead. We must return them to their original purpose to protect the morality of piano teaching profession.
How to teach the piano in chinese
Teachers in piano learning should provide their students with more than just technical expertise and instruction on expressing the music; instead they should also give students some background and musical analysis of a piece. This allows students to better comprehend and perform it, learning about composers’ ideas while expanding theory skills by creating pieces through their imagination. Teachers should also encourage their pupils to ask questions during lessons and respond verbally in response. This will motivate and inspire them to think up answers rather than simply giving out answers that might already exist in theory books.
China’s most widely practiced teaching method for piano students is the private piano lesson. Here, a teacher works one-on-one with each student to review past music, correct problems that appear within it and introduce new material. Most students find progressing quickly through this system; however it does have certain drawbacks compared to group piano settings.
Many American piano teachers strive to infuse their students with broad interests beyond piano playing. They may introduce various materials, including supplemental music, duo-repertoire classes and performance or recital books that expand upon traditional lessons and provide more than simply training as pianists; their aim is not just training pianists but nurturing musicians capable of spreading and preserving music in society.
Though China’s history with Western music is brief, its recent “piano-mania” is fascinating to observe. In spite of financial strain on music institutions, cuts to arts funding for schools, declining ticket sales, and decreased interest among young people in serious classical music study in the US, Chinese piano teachers, students, and parents continue to sustain it with great vigor despite these challenges. This study investigates what lies behind this phenomenon by exploring roles played by teachers, students, and parents during learning processes.