Following is the third installment of the Survey Question idea I’m using in my studio this Spring.

If you could automatically improve one area of your piano skills, what would it be?

* Increasing my piano level.
* Learning hard pieces.
* Sight-reading.
* Lesson work.
* Romantic sounding pieces.
* Sight-reading.
* Sight-reading.
* Sight-reading (understanding chord structures, etc.).
* Curving fingers.
* Scales.
* Staying on beat.
* Improving my piano skills faster.
* Sight-reading.
* Playing really hard notes.
* Keeping fingers curved.
* Play all the songs in the world.
* Everything! (Learn more difficult pieces faster)
* Listening and playing big compositions by ear.
* Not having pauses.

My students seem to really be enjoying the survey questions! Here’s the second question I asked, followed by all the responses I received:
What’s the most helpful technique you’ve learned in piano lessons?
* Playing one hand at a time.
* Putting your weight into the keys instead of playing all with your fingers.
* Keeping my hands up, not flat.
* Learning chord progressions.
* Piano games.
* Emphasizing notes.
* Using the metronome!
* To have a good thumb.
* Counting.
* Curved fingers.
* Fingers curved.
* Scales.
* Dynamics.
* Playing slow.
* To relax my arms!
* Scales.

Several weeks ago I started posting a weekly survey question on a white board outside my studio. At the end of each week I draw a paper from the jar with all the entries and the winner receives a prize. So far I’ve been letting the winner choose a piece of sheet music from my overflowing collection that’s accumulated as a result of receiving New Release packages from various publishers. The students have really enjoyed it and their answers to the questions have been rather enlightening! I’ll try to keep up with posting our studio questions and answers here each week. Here’s the question from the first week, “What is your favorite thing about piano lessons?”

Here’s my student Addi filling out her answer…

Here she is dropping it into the entry jar…

Here’s a list of the answers I received. (BTW, I’m tracking all these in a spreadsheet for easy reference in the future.)
* Playing at recitals. I also like how Natalie treats and helps me through difficulties and other things just the same as others even though I have a handicap.
* A nice teacher to teach me.
* Playing the games.
* Time with Natalie and making up songs.
* New songs.
* You don’t let me get lazy! I love the accountability.
* Piano games.
* Miss Natalie.
* Adding up points at the end.
* Points.
* I like everything.
* Playing songs.
* Pentascales.
* The interesting songs I get to learn.
* Reading music.
* I like learning new techniques to make the motion of a piece better (like wrist motion, etc.).
* The end. Practicing the songs.
* The help I get.
* Getting points.
* Learning to play fun and difficult pieces.
* Playing.