Xiao Youmei was one of the most contributors to music education in China in the twentieth century; on October 1, 1927, Cai Yuanpei took office as the dean of Nanjing Government College (later changed to the Ministry of Education). Thanks to his efforts, the government approved the plan proposed by Xiao Youmei to establish a national conservatory of music. As the "Preparator of the Conservatory of Music", Xiao formulated an extremely detailed plan for running the school (including enrollment numbers, preparation of school buildings, use of funds, etc.). On October 26, the National Conservatory of Music announced its enrollment. The school is located at No. 56 Dolphin Road, Shanghai. It was indeed a new thing at the time for a school specializing in music to register for admission. People are limited by traditional feudal concepts and cannot help but adopt a wait-and-see attitude towards this. Even in Shanghai, which was a pioneer in leading the trend at that time, the situation was like this, so the number of applicants was very small. Inspired by the advertisement that "the famous educator Cai Yuanpei will serve as the dean", we reluctantly recruited more than 20 people. School officially started on November 27th (this day was later designated as the school anniversary). Xiao Youmei served as the academic director. Later, due to Cai Yuanpei's busy official duties, Xiao Youmei was appointed acting dean of the National Conservatory of Music on December 3.

Because he has a strong sense of professionalism and responsibility, is indifferent to fame and wealth, and does not seek an official career, the school has established a strict management system from the beginning to ensure the quality of talents. Ding Shande, who later became a famous musician, came from Kunshan to apply for the pipa exam in 1928 with a little self-taught knowledge of pipa. Xiao Youmei recognized talents and recruited him to the school to train him carefully, and he became a great success in the future.

In 1928, Xian Xinghai came to Shanghai from Peking and was admitted to the National Conservatory of Music. Since his family was too poor to support himself, Xiao arranged for him to work as a copywriter and study part-time. Xian Xinghai also played the clarinet. Xiao Youmei took him to apply for the band of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Bureau, but he was not admitted because of his insufficient skills. In fact, as early as 1926, when Xiao Youmei was the director of the music department of the National Beiping Art College, he arranged for Xian Xinghai, a poor student who was studying in the school at that time, to copy music or work as a librarian to earn some income to supplement his living expenses.

In 1929, the Nanjing government amended the University Organization Law, stipulating that schools that only taught one specialized technology should be converted into junior colleges, and promulgated the "Organizational Law of Junior Colleges." The National Conservatory of Music was also changed to the National Music College at this time, with Xiao Youmei as the principal. He recruited famous Chinese and foreign musicians who could be found in Shanghai and even across the country at that time, either with high salaries or with hard words, and recruited them under his command. Even for Chinese and English classes, he invited people with the highest level of skills to teach them. For example, Yi Weizhai and Long Yusheng (then the director of the Chinese Department of Jinan University) once served as teachers of the Chinese language course in this school.

In 1929, the world-famous pianist Chakharov of Russia lived in Shanghai. In order to invite him to teach at the National Music College, Xiao visited him many times and raised his monthly salary to 400 yuan (ordinary professors received 200 yuan). Practice has proved that from that time until his death in Shanghai in 1942, Chakharov played an important role in improving the level of piano teaching in China. In the autumn of 1930, Xiao Youmei hired Huang Zi, a famous musician who had returned from the United States, as the academic director. Since then, the two have worked together to make great contributions to China's fledgling professional music education.

Xiao Youmei was also committed to writing music textbooks: "Organ Textbook" in 1924, "Piano Textbook" in 1925, "Violin Textbook" in 1927, etc., and authored "Comparative Research on Chinese and Western Music", Academic treatises such as "An Overview of Chinese and Western Music in Ancient and Modern Times" and "An Overview of Chinese Music in the Past Dynasties" have also been created. He has also created works such as "New Colorful Feather Dance" and "Introduction to Mourning".