All-round learning from a universal instrument

Miao Yuwen, 8, who started learning yangqin 16 months ago, is an outstanding member of the troupe and the only one to have won three gold awards in the festival.

In addition to playing the yangqin she has been learning piano and violin, but likes the yangqin most because of its pleasant sound and because it is the easiest to play.

A consensus among the experts and teachers is that enthusiasm is crucial for young yangqin learners.

"We try to enhance the interests of the students by infusing fun into the teaching process, for example by using games to train their techniques and different forms of performance that can develop their collaborative skills," Chen says.

Wang Jingjing, an instructor with the Hua'er Ensemble in Hangzhou, says that teaching students as an ensemble rather than individually can engage young people more effectively.

"The sound of an ensemble is so much different from a solo performance. It's richer and more complex. Also, an ensemble requires ingeniously arranged compositions. So we provide students with general music courses in addition to yangqin techniques, such as composing and arranging. Some of our young students now know how to arrange popular tunes into yangqin compositions for practice."

Yuan Quan, an educationalist with the Asia-Pacific Art and Cultural Association in Macao, says the association is experimenting with creative concert formats to help more people understand and appreciate Chinese traditional music.

"We encourage our students to design their own yangqin concerts. They can conceive their own ideas and the teachers help the students execute them."

For example, students can choose a specific theme for their concert and the repertoire can be connected into a compelling storyline. When telling the story, the presenter can further incorporate historical facts about yangqin, so the audience can learn something from the concert.

"Music education is about introducing people into this broad world of art, rather than confining them to a single instrument," Yuan says. "Given that the dulcimer is a universal instrument, students should learn to be open-minded and draw from other art forms to promote the yangqin."