The traditional Chinese music culture is vast and profound, and the elements of Chinese ethnic music shape the development process and inheritance concept of Chinese civilization. By exploring different types of Chinese ethnic music elements, we can better express the cultural core of Chinese piano works that is completely different from Western piano art, and thus create piano pieces with more ethnic characteristics. The reasonable integration of ethnic music elements into piano creation will reflect the uniqueness of Chinese piano works, thereby achieving effective integration of Eastern and Western music. This not only enhances the ethnic characteristics of the works themselves, but also enhances the influence of Chinese music culture in the world art field.