Finger strength and finger independence: research survey NOW CLOSED

[elizabethl]

SURVEY NOW CLOSED - A big thank you to everyone who took part in this - I really appreciate your help!

Dear Pianists,
I am a postgraduate music student in the UK, doing some research on finger strength and finger independence in piano playing.  I need people who play the piano (at any level) to complete my short online survey, which takes approximately 5 minutes to do and is completely anonymous.

Looking at the pianostreet forum it seems there are some very strong opinions on this subject, so please make your contribution to original research, however you feel about finger exercises!

The link to the survey is below:

Many thanks for your help!

Elizabeth Liley
London College of Music

[lelle]

Just a little feedback on the test:

*14)   Have you heard of any of the following piano pedagogues (please tick all that apply)?

Doesn't have an "haven't heard of any of them" alternative so I'm forced to tick one to me totally unknown teacher

*4)   Please describe any previous piano/keyboard playing activities (please tick all that apply):

Doesn't allow me to tick more than one alternative

Hope the survey gives you the info you need

[1plus]

done

[stevebob]

More feedback:

Question #11 seems to require that one rank the five items hierarchically.  I wished to rate a couple of them as equal in importance (i.e., with the same numeric ranking), and it wasn't possible to do so.

Even worse is the illogic implied by this question:

15)  On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 as easiest and 10 as most difficult) how difficult would you say the piano/keyboard is to play well compared with other musical instruments?

One would need to have a comprehensive familiarity with "other musical instruments" in order even to have an informed opinion here.  Few people do, so which instruments, exactly?

And on what factors is "difficult" assessed?  Anyone with no musical knowledge whatsoever can sit down at a piano, press a key, and a note plays.  By that criterion, it's "easiest."  But so many notes can be played simultaneously with great variation in volume and tone; does that make it "hardest"?

And yet one is forced to choose a number on a scale of 1 to 10, or it's impossible to submit the survey.  Sorry, but that's absurd.

BTW, this thread seems miscategorized, but it appears to be futile for me to report it as such.  Perhaps someone else will do so.

[elizabethl]

Dear Stevebob,
Thanks very much for your feedback.

Re Q11: unfortunately there are limits to what an online survey programme will allow you to do - for that type of question it would only allow 'rank in order' but I absolutely take your point.

Re Q15: I am just trying to get an idea of whether people generally consider the piano a 'difficult' instrument to play. I appreciate that 'difficult' and 'easy' are very hard to define so perhaps I should have worded the question differently....

Best wishes

elizabeth