The Chinese Piano

The piano is not a traditional Chinese musical instrument. Although introduced to China much earlier, it only attained popularity in the 20th Century. Much of the Chinese music written for the piano tapped into China's rich culture of folk music. The piano is also often used to imitate the sonority of traditional Chinese musical instruments. Although the music is often based on the pentatonic scale, which makes the music sound "Chinese", the style, harmonies and techniques are often Western in influence.