Informal music learning (IML) has been widely explored within Western educational contexts as a teaching approach to guide young people in music making, autonomous exploration and group collaboration with positive research findings (Green, 2017a, 2017b; Hallam et al., 2011). However, there is relatively little research and literature on IML in China, both at the theoretical and practical levels (Law & Ho, 2015). The latest “Chinese Compulsory Education Arts Curriculum Standards” (2022) emphasised concepts such as fostering students’ autonomy, creativity, and comprehensive practical abilities, thereby providing opportunities and conditions for exploring IML within school music education. Therefore, this study introduced IML into primary school music classrooms in Beijing, China, exploring teachers’ perspectives and their teaching strategies of this new approach, as well as its possibility for implementation within school settings.This study used qualitative research methods, focusing on the practices of two music teachers at two primary schools in Beijing. The teachers were introduced to the theory and some practices related to IML, then, within the context, policies and school requirements of music education in China, they designed projects that revolved around IML and the implementation of these was investigated. The case study data consisted of semi-structured individual interviews, notes from group meetings with the two teachers, classroom observation field notes, teachers’ reflective diaries and a classroom evaluation form developed in collaboration with teachers.Research findings showed that while both teachers held a high approval of the concept of IML, they also faced pressures from classroom discipline, the transformation of their professional identity, and the constraints of school institutional norms. In group meetings, they designed and developed a series of teaching strategies, such as constructing instructional scaffolding, creating a formative evaluation form, and integrating IML with Chinese traditional music and project-based learning. Through reshaping their practice theories and experiences, the teachers positioned the approach as a supplementary rather than mainstream mode. At the end of the study both teachers identified its positive aspects in relation to student-centred learning.This study revealed that the value of teaching innovation did not lie in the wholesale replication of new approaches, but in teachers’ capacity to adapt and internalise concepts and methods into personalised practice theories based on their context and experience, thus generating a localised and sustainable theory of teaching practice. This study could provide a reference case for subsequent IML practices and teacher professional development within the context of Chinese schools.