Folk music: the bedrock of Chinese cultural traditions / Música folk: fundamentos de las tradiciones culturales chinas

Abstract

Folk music is an integral part of any national art and contributes to the cultural development of each country. This paper is aimed at studying aspects of Chinese folk music, which is the bedrock of Chinese cultural traditions. This paper conducted a sociological survey of 142 students in their third year of study. The results showed that 37% of the respondents believe that traditional music is a folk art passed down from generation to generation. The most important function of folk music, according to students’ opinions, is the preservation of cultural traditions based on historical events (27%). Due to the fact that respondents perceive folk music as the most harmonious in piano instruction (36%), the tools for its integration in piano lessons have been developed. These tools include selecting a music platform, providing theoretical information in the public domain, developing improvisation skills based on folk compositions, using online platforms to share experiences and knowledge between students and teachers and analysing contemporary Chinese compositions. In addition, all mentioned applications have been tested to measure their effectiveness. The best results of using folk compositions in piano instruction were achieved in group #5 (100%), which can be explained by knowledge gained in the first and second terms.