Abstract:
The purposes of the study were 1) to study the methods of selecting and arranging Thai folk music for piano lessons from elementary to intermediate levels and 2) to present examples of piano arrangement lessons from Thai folk music from elementary to intermediate levels. The research samples were 1) 128 solo piano pieces from elementary to intermediate levels selected from international examination boards including ABRSM, Trinity College of London, and Yamaha 2) 121 piano arrangements 0f folk music from Bartóks Mikrokosmos volumes 1 4 and 3) 35 selections of Thai folk music representing four areas of Thailand consisting of the Northern area, the Northeastern area, the Central area, and the Southern area. The research tools used in the study were 1) analysis forms of musical and performance technics of the piano examination pieces 2) analysis forms of Mikrokosmos and 3) data collection and analysis forms of Thai folk music. The results were presented into two parts. The first part provided guidelines for selecting and arranging of Thai folk music on piano from elementary to intermediate levels. This part was divided into three sections comprising 1) analysis of musical contents and performance technics of piano pieces of three examination boards 2) analysis of Bartóks styles of arranging folk music in Mikrokosmos and 3) analysis of musical contents and contexts of Thai folk music from four areas of the country. The second part introduced examples of Thai folk music arrangements for piano from elementary to intermediate levels, featuring analytical reports on methods of composing, harmonizing and accompanying of Thai folk music in accordance with the suggested guidelines. In total, 12 examples of piano pieces were introduced, 7 pieces for elementary level and 5 pieces for intermediate level.