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're wondering why I teach piano -  it's so that children experience music making and piano playing as the joy it's meant to be, which means it's much more likely to end up as something they can turn to in good times and bad. 

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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Future blog posts will discuss how children can be encouraged to practise at home.