​​EXPLORING DIFFERENCES IN PIANO TEACHING ​BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA

• Main Author: Xueli Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Belgrade Center for Music and Dance 2021-02-01
• Series: Accelerando: BJMD
• Subjects: music education; differences; usa and china; western music pedagogical approaches
• Online Access: https://accelerandobjmd.weebly.com/issue6/exploring-differences-in-piano-teaching-between-the-united-states-and-china

The purpose of this paper is to explore differences in piano teaching between the United States and China. This paper examines the differences through both broad and narrow perspectives. It first examines the history of the development of general music education in the United States and China respectively, providing a background to the differences in piano education. ​Then it discusses the dissimilarities in piano study from three outlooks: the parental influence, the students’ motivation, and how the study of music can improve one’s overall capacities. Additionally, I will compare the prevalent piano teaching theories of both countries, including teaching styles, materials, and syllabi. From the narrow side, I will contrast specific pedagogical diversities in private piano teaching between the USA and China. Finally, class piano and studio-class are examined to demonstrate the distinction between methods in the USA and China. I have analyzed the inconsistencies in piano teaching between these two countries. I hope that piano educators can efficiently identify the best teaching strategies by recognizing the essential ones and improving the inferior ones.