Nurturing creativity, and even rockers

Drum class at Deshengmen Youth Palace in Xicheng District, a government-supported community school in Beijing. Photo provided to China Daily

A growing market

When the jazz drum course was started at the school in 2012, only eight children applied for the class. Today he has more than 40 students.

"The music training is not only about playing music. At the end of each semester, we have shows produced by students. By being in charge of multiple aspects of the production, they learn to take responsibility," Hao says.

Some homegrown music training organizations are also eyeing the growing market in the country.

A newly founded music training organization in Beijing called Guitar China Mogu Education aims to offer contemporary music classes and focus on the holistic development of young children through music.

"Besides piano, violin and guzheng (traditional Chinese zither), parents started to let their children study contemporary music instruments such as guitar, bass and drums. The classes are entertaining and empowering," says Jiang Wei, the founder of the school.

He also invites musicians who learned to play instruments at a young age to give weekly lectures and opened the stage to anyone with the desire to foster their children's musical interests.

As the founder of Guitar China, an independent organization started by Jiang more than a decade ago, he has been promoting local indie rock music and introducing Western indie rock acts to China.

He has worked with Chinese music education centers to train child rockers for several years. Young rock bands such as Happy Fire and 20088 have been winners at various galas across the country.

"Kids can be creative when learning modern music. Unlike classical music, they can produce their own sounds without any limitations," says Li Hongyu, one of Jiang's colleagues, who founded 9-Beats Modern Percussion Music School in 2003 and established the band 20088 in 2006.

"We don't expect the children to be professional rockers when they grow up. They have their own dreams. We just want them to be happy with music. That's all."