Perceptions of developing creativity in piano performance and pedagogy: An interview study from the Chinese perspective

Abstract

Although creativity in music is a topic widely considered and studied among global music educators, it has received limited attention in China while quite a number of Chinese pianists have been recognized on the international stage. How do Chinese pianists and professors perceive creativity in piano performance? How would they nurture creativity in the performances of their own and/or their students? Employing the Grounded Theory approach, this study investigated the perceptions of creativity in piano performance of 13 eminent pianists and professors from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou through a series of semi-structured interviews. The interviewees identified several factors related to the development of musical creativity in piano performance, including pianists’ relevant knowledge, their musical and life experiences, imagination and association, reflection and musical judgment, performing environments, and the Chinese cultural elements of holism and dynamism. Implications for teaching include the encouragement of a balance between Western and Chinese epistemologies in both analytical and abstract thinking. In nurturing students’ creativity in piano performances, students should live in culture-related contexts, and understand the world in a holistic epistemology with an abstract imagination. This study has further provided a more holistic understanding of how to nurture musical creativity with an alternative perspective.

Moral thought: evaluation on the moral education and virtue cultivation of traditional Chinese music

“…In practice, it is necessary to flexibly choose and combine the characteristics of traditional music to explore innovative activity methods, in order to promote the inheritance and innovation of traditional music. For example, when cultivating students' creativity in piano playing, students should understand the world from the perspective of overall epistemology in the context of life and culture (Zheng;Bo-Wah, 2023, p. 141). Combining the characteristics of modern education, people cultivate students to feel virtues, create virtues and pass on virtues, in music, in an innovative form.…”

Exploring the integration of Chinese nationalized piano education in modern music pedagogy

“…This approach not only cultivates students' piano skills but also nurtures their understanding of Chinese culture, history, and artistic expression. With its unique blend of artistic and cultural dimensions, Chinese Nationalized Piano Education offers a compelling framework for enhancing music education in a global context [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . Despite the growing interest and recognition of Chinese Nationalized Piano Education, there remains a gap in understanding how this pedagogical model can be effectively integrated into modern music pedagogy.…”

Design and Application of the Piano Teaching System Integrating Videos and Images

“…e video method can record the ambient atmosphere, music atmosphere, and the content of the piano performance at the music scene, and it can effectively record the performance of the audience and the performer. Piano learners can learn more knowledge from piano-playing videos [6,7]. e image can e ectively record the key piano performance, it can capture the mood and performance content of the piano player very well.…”

“…When processing the data of piano teaching videos and images, the clustering method is mainly based on the distance of the data. Equation (7) shows the expression for the Euclidean distance, one of the commonly used distance measurements. Euclidean distance measures the distance between two points.…”