Item from China Daily, Aug 7, 1994: A customer tries a piano at the Wangfujing Hongsheng Musical Instrument Store in Beijing. Sales of musical instruments were brisk in the first half of the year.

Since 2011 China has become the world's largest musical instrument market thanks to its rapid economic growth and a rising demand for recreation, according to the China Musical Instrument Association.

From January to May, the output of the country's musical instruments' sector reached 15.5 billion yuan ($2.3 billion), up 7 percent year-on-year.

To tap the potential music learning market, a major classical music institution, the Juilliard School, has been making inroads. The school in New York will open an overseas campus in Tianjin next year, offering US-accredited master's degrees in orchestral performance, chamber music performance and collaborative piano. In addition, the school will offer an instrument-training program, adult education and public performances. More than 1,000 students will attend the courses.

China's musical instrument and education sectors have developed rapidly. But innovation also drives music. Inventions using electricity and elasticity are changing traditional instruments.

Computers can be made behave like instruments. The musicians play heavily customized iPads using touch screen interfaces, wireless sensing and a range of apps.

Emerging instruments may become as available and adaptable as smartphones, observers say.