The rapid expansion of piano learning participation in China, commonly known as the “Piano Craze” (gangqin re), has transformed piano education into a significant sociocultural and educational phenomenon. Despite increasing enrolment in beginner piano programmes, many learners experience declining motivation, emotional stress, excessive parental pressure, and early discontinuation. This troubling reality has left educators and families searching for practical, theoretically grounded solutions to sustain children’s passion for piano learning, making an in-depth exploration of this topic both timely and necessary. Existing studies often examine psychological or sociocultural influences separately, resulting in fragmented understandings of beginner piano achievement. Therefore, this conceptual paper proposes a multidimensional framework integrating Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (SCT) to explain beginner piano achievement within the Chinese context. Grounded in SDT, the framework emphasizes autonomy, competence, and relatedness as key drivers of intrinsic motivation. Simultaneously, SCT positions parents and teachers as cultural agents who provide scaffolding within the learner’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The framework further incorporates an ADDIE-based Piano Motivation Model (PMM) to operationalize culturally responsive instructional strategies. Beginner piano achievement is conceptualized across three dimensions: technical playing skills, emotional engagement, and musical expression. The proposed framework contributes theoretically and practically by offering a holistic approach to sustainable, motivating, and psychologically supportive beginner piano education in China. Unlike prior isolated research, this work bridges motivational psychology and sociocultural research gaps, and its actionable intervention model can be directly adopted by piano instructors, parents and educational institutions, bringing tangible improvements to the current examination-dominated piano education ecosystem.
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