Why do you want to play the piano and have lessons?

At the start of term I handed out a questionnaire (to students who have been with me for a while, new students your turn will come!) from The Curious Piano Teachers' January Curiosity Box which is on the subject of motivation.  It had the following questions:
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• What's the best / worst thing about learning the piano?
• What's the best / worst thing bout your piano lessons?
• Why do you want to learn the piano?
• Why do you want to have piano lessons? 

I was excited to receive them back; even more so when I analysed the results.  Two themes stood out:

1. 70% said they want to play for a hobby
2. 100% mentioned building their skills / improving their playing

Because I didn't enjoy playing piano as a child I always find it hard to believe that children enjoy playing it, although less so as time has gone on. Now I hear they want to have it as a hobby!  The Cambridge Dictionary defines a hobby as 'an activity someone does for pleasure' and yes, I had to look it up because, as I've already mentioned, playing the piano for pleasure is something that I never experienced.  In case you are wondering why I teach piano it's so that children don't have the same experience of piano lessons that I had, but that's a blog post for another day.  ​

So 70% of children I teach want to play piano for a hobby and 100% want to develop their skills and know they are 'doing it right' without referring to YouTube.  The two go together because the more skilled you are the more you will enjoy playing the piano.  So what does this mean for my teaching?
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I need to remember that the goal of nearly all my students is to have a hobby, something they can do to relax in their spare time.  Pressure I put on them to make fast progress will detract from this, hurrying them through their lesson to 'get everything done' will also detract (see last week's blog post, What's the rush?).  
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I need to remember to stay in the moment and help each student achieve their goal, whether that be learning to play for a hobby or, in the case of one student achieve grade 8.  It is notable that only one person had this goal.  While 30% mentioned achievements those did not refer specifically to exams.  Achievement for others meant completing a piece and feeling the rush of satisfaction / happiness.  
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Practise was mentioned in 60% of answers, and not in a positive way.  Children struggle with the amount of time they need to spend playing at home, especially the older ones who have other homework.  Unfortunately it is impossible to become proficient at any instrument without practise.  I teach the children practise strategies and we make it fun in the lessons with 'cute animals' to help practise.  Of course it's different when they are going through the work at home without me to support them. 
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An area for me to look at, given how many children want to have piano as a hobby, is to think about how much work I am expecting them to do at home.  Perhaps those without goals of getting to Grade 8 can have less work to do at home and so feel less burdened at home and have time to enjoy it more....This may be a conversation to have with families.  Perhaps a follow-up parental questionnaire might be helpful, as well as an initial questionnaire to new families about why their child wants to take piano lessons.  
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The next immediate step is to go through 'My Piano Planner' with students who have completed the questionnaire, to set goals for the coming year.  After all, if piano lessons are meeting the child's goals then, as the tagline for this month's Curiosity Box says, motivation comes as standard!  
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