Piano practice of China’s Cultural Revolution era and students’ musical creativity / La práctica de piano con composiciones de la era de la Revolución Cultural y la creatividad musical de los estudiantes

Abstract

This paper describes the impact of the performance of piano pieces of the Cultural Revolution era with distinctive artistic features on the development of creative skills among students in the People’s Republic of China. The study used the SME academic test to measure the development of creative thinking. To measure the effect of practising piano on musical prowess, a control test (according to the currently accepted academic programme) was performed at the end of the study. The responses were given by students from three universities in the PRC. The total number of participants was 315 individuals. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that there is evidence of the effectiveness of piano practices that are based on musical compositions from the era of the Chinese Revolution, in terms of their positive impact. Small B groups showed 11.8% higher performance than the control group. Group B students experienced a positive impact on their level of creativity as a result of practising the piano. The average degree of creativity increased by 2.6%, while the high degree of creativity increased by 3.6%.