УДК 378.1:78

Methods of improving the quality of folk music teaching at the basic education level in China in the context of quality education

Цюй Линь – магистр Ляонинского университета (Китай).

Abstracts: Under the background of the era of continuous influx of multiculturalism, the dissemination of Chinese national music culture has become an important task of Chinese education at this stage. Most of the professional music education in China is concentrated in colleges and universities, while the basic education stage pays less attention to folk music, and the quality of teaching varies. Therefore, to improve the teaching quality of Chinese folk music in the basic education stage is a problem that must be solved nowadays.

Аннотация: На фоне эпохи непрерывного притока мультикультурализма распространение китайской национальной музыкальной культуры стало важной задачей китайского образования на современном этапе. Большая часть профессионального музыкального образования в Китае сосредоточена в колледжах и университетах, в то время как на этапе базового образования народной музыке уделяется меньше внимания, а качество преподавания разнится. Поэтому повышение качества преподавания китайской народной музыки на этапе базового образования является проблемой, требующей решения в настоящее время.

Keywords: Chinese folk music, music education, quality education, multiculturalism, basic education.

Ключевые слова: китайская народная музыка, музыкальное образование, качество образования, поликультурность, базовое образование.

The concept of quality education in China has undergone a long process of formulation and refinement. China's quality education sprouted around the 1980s, when some insightful people in the education sector suggested that education should not only focus on basic knowledge and skills, but also on the all-round development of character, intelligence, physical education, fine arts and labour. Vice Premier Li Lanqing once clearly pointed out that "quality education is, in essence, education aimed at improving the quality of the nation" [1] , "so that quality education and our impression of "exam-oriented education" to distinguish between China's new age of Quality education in the teaching process should pay more attention to the development of teaching activities. Under the constant impact of multiculturalism, it has become a key task to find an educational model that is adapted to the characteristics of China's social development. Ethnic music education, as an important part of quality education, not only meets the needs of China's current stage of educational development, but also maintains the inheritance of China's national history and culture amidst the constant influx of foreign cultures.

At the present stage, most of China's folk music education is concentrated in the professional music education at the higher education stage, and its popularity is low at the basic education stage, and the teaching content is relatively single. Therefore, enhancing the richness of Chinese folk music education is one of the primary tasks at present, and the main measures are as follows:

• Improve music teaching materials

Since the reform of China's teaching curriculum, the preparation of music textbooks has changed greatly, from the mainstream of world-famous Western classical music to music with Chinese characteristics, but the proportion of folk music is still relatively small. At present, there is a problem of unscientific arrangement of the difficulty gradient of the selected repertoire in the music textbooks for all grades. Therefore, each region should take into account its own cultural characteristics, select an appropriate number of musical works with local ethnic characteristics, measure the difficulty of the repertoire in terms of its length, the meaning of the lyrics, and the techniques used in its creation, and then reasonably order the repertoire for inclusion in the music textbooks for all grades. At present, some regions have already completed the reform of music teaching materials, for example, the junior high school music teaching materials in Hunan Province, China, which have set up national characteristic unit sections such as "The Eight Tones of Harmony" and "Songs of the Clay " [2] ; and the junior high school music teaching materials in Suzhou Province, which have included national music works such as "The Embroidery of the Jiangnan River" and "Small Bridge and Flowing Water" [3] . These excellent folk songs, qin songs, and instrumental music works can show students the rich and long-lasting ethnic culture of China.

• Improvement of Teachers' Educational Concepts

In order to fundamentally improve the teaching quality of folk music education, it is necessary to implement it in the actual music classroom, and therefore the primary and secondary education stages in China will become the centre of reform. At present, music classes in primary and secondary schools in many regions of China are often regarded as unimportant minor courses, and are even replaced by other courses. However, the concepts of "major" and "minor" should not appear in the basic education stage. Therefore, as music education in the basic education stage, the first thing to do is to clarify the positioning of music lessons. Music lessons have an obvious role to play in improving the aesthetic quality of children and young people, in building a complete personality, in improving their reaction ability, etc. Teachers should reflect the importance and irreplaceability of music lessons in their teaching content. Teachers should firstly have professional and perfect music theory foundation and demonstration ability, make a comprehensive introduction to the song's creative background, creative techniques, artistic style, and point out the difficulties and skills that must be paid attention to when singing the song. Reasonable use of teaching time, arrange music group games. Avoid a single boring classroom atmosphere.

• Carry out extra-curricular activities themed on folk music

School is the main place for music education, but music is a subject that requires practice, so music extracurricular activities can play a good supporting role. Ethnic music, as a national symbol symbolising traditional Chinese culture, is a cultural art that needs to be deeply explored and understood, and requires a certain cultural literacy and artistic aesthetic ability to appreciate its meaning. Therefore, folk music does not have the fast spreading ability and wide spreading range of today's popular music, and even many young people think that Chinese folk music is backward and boring because of people's own lack of interest in and understanding of folk music. Under the impact of multiculturalism, ethnic music is gradually being overshadowed. To cope with these problems, schools and society should encourage and support students to participate in extracurricular learning and recreational activities related to ethnic music. For example, they can organise performances and competitions on the theme of ethnic music, and they can also combine ethnic music with ancient Chinese literature, so as to create a good learning atmosphere for students, so that they can develop an interest in ethnic music, improve their artistic cultivation, and feel the charm of ethnic music in a relaxed environment.

To sum up, how can these problems above be solved correctly? On the one hand, it needs the change and progress of the whole education system to fundamentally solve the phenomenon of uneven distribution of resources in music education; on the other hand, teachers, as the leading teachers and classroom leaders, should ensure that their teaching content is comprehensive, in-depth and vivid, which is the basic requirement for a qualified teacher. Ethnic music is the essence of national culture and an important manifestation of China's national culture and history, and China's protection and inheritance of ethnic music has never stopped since music education became an independent discipline in China. Quality education is a broad concept, and it is impossible to measure the success or failure of quality education by a uniform standard. Moreover, to test the results of quality education, it needs many years of practice of correct teaching concepts. Basic education, as one of the broadest ways of spreading ethnomusicology education, needs to be developed as a key target. The development of folk music means the development of national culture, and the reform and innovation of folk music education will be one of the most important tasks in China's education field in the future.

References

1. Heng Junli. Investigation and research on the status quo of primary school music classroom teaching under the vision of aesthetic education // Xinjiang Normal University, -2022.
2. Xue Lei. Introduction to Jiangsu local traditional music. // Nanjing University Press -2021(11).
3. Yang Heping. History of Hunan music // Nanjing Southeast University Press, -2020 (10).
4. Yao Li, Li Yong. Historical Inheritance and Modern Development of Chinese Minority Music Culture[ // Guizhou Ethnic Studies,2019 (40),C .113-122.
5. Du Bing. Aesthetic characteristics of traditional Chinese ethnic cultural symbols //. Study and Exploration, 2018(06), C.155-159.
6. Zhang Yin. Exploration of music education reform strategies in primary and secondary schools under the background of quality education // Hunan Normal University , 2011.