Piano Mania in China - The Beginner Stages

"Why piano-mania grips China's children" by Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
In Mao’s China, pianos were destroyed as despised symbols of the bourgeoisie – but now an estimated 40m children are learning the instrument. What has changed? Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore investigates


This interesting article appeared on my Facebook feed and I was reminded of my experiences in Beijing in 2008. I believe that for one to understand this phenomenon further you would also have to observe what is happening on a day-to-day basis outside the music conservatories.

I was a doctoral student in piano performance at the time and had to continue practicing for my final recital upon my return after my study abroad semester. My host university did not allow me access to their practice rooms because I was not a music major but a Chinese language student. The practice rooms at school were very basic. It had an upright piano, a hard bench, overhead fluorescent light and no heat/air conditioning. There were no electricity outlets either. It would take an immense amount of dedication to practice in there in the stifling humid Beijing summer and the brutal winters. There is no way the pianos would remotely stay in tune.

I had to be very resourceful and creative to find out where I could practice, preferably with some central air unit.  I cornered one of the music majors and found out there were two music stores close by which rented practice rooms by the hour. I could get to them by bus. I chose the one closest to my university, I could walk there in about 20-25 mins if I really wanted to, cutting through alley ways and such.

The rooms could be rented for a RMB10 an hour, or I could buy a non-refundable card for 11 hours at RMB 100. I chose to buy a card so I could practice for slightly cheaper. If there were no rooms available when I came in, I would just inform the lady at the desk. I could wait and resume practicing when one became vacant again. The rooms were in much better shape than the ones at the university. This place had heat and air but only in the hallway. The upright pianos were fairly in tune and most had working pedals. Some of the rooms had padded benches, full length mirrors and posters on the wall. The doors had some sound proofing as well. I settled in to practice a little while, but found myself pretty sleepy due to the lack of ventilation. Later in the semester, I was blessed to encounter someone who sold me her card for RMB50. She was moving to another city and could not use up her remaining hours.

Some of my practice sessions were interrupted by teachers who taught lessons in those rooms as well. There were schedules posted on the doors but it didn't mean much, as they changed quite a bit. I had the pleasure of observing many of these lessons as inconspicuously as possible while waiting for the room to be available again. Most of the lessons I was able to observe were beginner piano lessons. (I observed one advanced voice lesson and that was pretty good.) The piano lessons were pretty strict and I would have found the literature uninteresting for a young beginner - Hanon! I don't know which was more tortuous for me - waiting for the room, watching a young kid struggle with technique but not necessarily learning music, the lack of ventilation or all of it. 

Most of the teachers used a middle C approach for beginners and the approach was so much about hand positioning, technique but no mention about sound. There was little ensemble playing with teacher duets, or the use of technology like CD accompaniments. Metronomes were in use even at this beginner stage. Practice techniques were not really discussed, other than, practice for how long a day and repeat the piece how many times. I wouldn't describe the literature as particularly interesting musically either. Parents were sometimes in the room with the child. 

There was another time when I arrived and all the rooms were taken up by young kids. What a great observation opportunity again! Some of them practiced with their doors open, so I could really hear what they were doing and what the interactions were like between the child and his/her parent. Most of the parents had no musical background or any knowledge of the piano, in which the article above mentions. The parent was just there to enforce that the child was practicing X no. of minutes and repeating the piece X no. of times. 

There was a little boy and he attempted to play his junior Hanon. He couldn't find his beginning hand position and he didn't know any of his note names either. His dad asked him whether he played everything correctly and the boy answered yes. It was 5-6 repetitions of the wrong thing! His dad said it didn't sound correct and asked if he was sure, those were the right notes. (Piano teacher's nightmare = student has practiced mistake over and over) I was standing by the door and the dad saw that I was smiling and asked me if I was a teacher. I said, yes, that I was but not here. I said I was waiting for the practice room with a good piano. I asked his dad if I could help his son with the piece he was practicing. I helped him with his beginning hand position and let him continue from there. 

I browsed a lot of music stores in the city to see what beginner methods are available. John Thompson was popular, alongside Chinese method books. Hal Leonard and Faber are available in limited quantities. Only one store carried it in the Wangfujing District. The Chinese exam syllabus is published and all those books are easily available. The pieces are set and those do not change.  Parents compare their children by which exam grade has been passed. A lot of the students can play their pieces very well, but there is still a very sterile, mechanical element to the playing.

With all these observations I have made for the whole semester in Beijing, it does make me wonder about how my approach to teaching beginners from Chinese families is being perceived. Most of the parents are first generation immigrants to the USA. I believe that a child learns through play and exploration. A lot of repetition goes into learning a new fine motor skill and this could either stifle a child's creativity or bring it out. It is a challenge to devise slight changes to each repetition so that the child remains engaged. I wonder whether the parents think I am wasting their time and money, when I play musical games or when I use CD accompaniments. I praise the students a lot and I try to be very subtle in my correction. Sometimes I let their mistakes go and prefer to tackle the musical/technical issue using another piece of music. Another issue I've also encountered is the parents expect the child to play difficult pieces, but I would prefer mastery of a slightly easier piece, with good tone, fluid technique and musicality. They might not understand why I am having the child repeat such a simple piece. 

In closing, I still observe China and its obsession with the piano with amazement and awe. As someone who researched Chinese piano music during the Cultural Revolution, I find it utterly amazing that the piano, once hated, is now pursued with such intensity.