Contents
- Online music lesson participation statistics before and during COVID-19
- Online music lesson participation statistics for piano learners and teachers
- online music lesson participation statistics: Online music lesson delivery and teacher reach during the pandemic
- online music lesson participation: Online music learning technology and digital participation
- Online music lesson participation and student motivation
- Sources
Online music lesson participation statistics before and during COVID-19
Online music lesson participation statistics are limited: the available findings describe particular groups of teachers, parents, and students, rather than population-wide attendance. One retrospective piano study gives a useful view of how uncommon online teaching was before 2020 among its respondents. In a survey of 104 piano teachers, 76.0% said they had never taught online before 2020. Another 18.3% said they occasionally offered online lessons, while 5.7% taught exclusively or mainly online: 3.8% exclusively and 1.9% mainly. The study gathered survey responses from January 18 to July 10, 2024, so these are teachers’ retrospective accounts of pre-2020 practice.
A separate group in that study consisted of 45 parents whose children had experienced online piano lessons. Looking back to before COVID-19, 75.6% said their children had never attended piano lessons online. Another 13.3% reported occasional online lessons, and 4.4% said lessons had been exclusively online. These parent reports and teacher reports concern different respondents and should be read as separate snapshots, not combined into one participation rate. [Source: Factors determining satisfaction with online piano lessons for young beginner students]
| Pre-pandemic measure | Respondents | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| Never taught online before 2020 | 104 piano teachers | 76.0% |
| Occasionally offered online lessons | 104 piano teachers | 18.3% |
| Exclusively or mainly online | 104 piano teachers | 5.7% |
| Children had never attended online piano lessons | 45 parents | 75.6% |
The pandemic period brought a marked change in the same piano study’s reported experience. Among surveyed teachers, 89.4% of those who taught online during the pandemic taught exclusively online. The report also identifies 8.7% who occasionally offered online lessons and 1.9% who discontinued teaching or did not teach online. These categories describe the teacher respondents’ reported pandemic experience; they do not estimate the share of all piano teachers or learners worldwide who participated.
On the learner side, 93.3% of surveyed parents said their children transitioned to online piano lessons during the pandemic, while 2.2% said their children did not participate in online lessons. Because the parent sample was 45 and the teacher sample was 104, the findings are best understood as accounts from those respondent groups. They indicate a rapid shift in this study’s young beginner piano context, not a universal attendance statistic. [Source: Factors determining satisfaction with online piano lessons for young beginner students]
Online music lesson participation statistics for piano learners and teachers
The post-pandemic teacher responses show that online delivery remained part of piano instruction for some respondents, alongside a return to in-person teaching. In the 2024 survey, 56.7% of surveyed piano teachers said they occasionally offered online lessons after the pandemic; the study classified this occasional pattern as hybrid mode. Another 23.1% had moved exclusively to face-to-face teaching, while 19.2% continued teaching exclusively online. The remaining reported category was 1.0% who discontinued teaching.
| Post-pandemic piano teacher practice | Surveyed teachers (n=104) |
|---|---|
| Occasionally offered online lessons; classified as hybrid | 56.7% |
| Exclusively face-to-face teaching | 23.1% |
| Continued exclusively online | 19.2% |
| Discontinued teaching | 1.0% |
These results distinguish occasional online provision from exclusively online teaching. That distinction matters when interpreting participation: a teacher who alternated between remote and in-person lessons is counted differently from one whose practice remained fully online. The study reports teacher practice and parent accounts, rather than an administrative count of lesson sessions or a longitudinal record of individual learners’ attendance. [Source: Factors determining satisfaction with online piano lessons for young beginner students]
online music lesson participation statistics: Online music lesson delivery and teacher reach during the pandemic
A 2021 questionnaire of 352 Hungarian music teachers provides another view of online delivery, this time across music teaching rather than only piano. The respondents submitted their answers from January through April 2021. In this convenience sample, 273 teachers reported keeping in touch with almost all of their students during online education. Another 65 reported successful contact with 51–80% of their students during online lessons. These are teacher-reported reach categories; they measure contact, not the number of lessons attended or the proportion of students receiving instruction nationally.
Live online lesson frequency was also uneven in the sample. A total of 23 respondents, or 6.57%, said they had never taught live online music lessons. Meanwhile, 114 respondents, or 32.56%, said they taught live sessions often or sometimes. The study separately reports that 213 respondents, or 60.85%, adapted and continued with regular lessons. Since these statements refer to distinct reported aspects of teaching, they should not be added together as if they were mutually exclusive response categories.
The teachers’ workplace levels help define the context of these reports: 81% taught at elementary level, 11% at secondary music schools, and 8% at tertiary level in music academies. The sample therefore included respondents working across those settings, with the largest reported share at elementary level. It was a convenience sample, so the figures describe the participating teachers and are not representative national rates for Hungary. [Source: Investigating music teachers’ ICT skills and technical possibilities in the field of online music education during the COVID-19 pandemic]
online music lesson participation: Online music learning technology and digital participation
UK teacher survey results show that digital participation involved more than live lessons. In the 2020 survey summarized in the ABRSM’s 2021 report, 90% of responding music teachers said they used some form of digital technology in their teaching practice. Within the reported teaching environments, 14% listed teaching through the internet. These figures have different meanings: one is broad use of any digital technology, while the other identifies a specific teaching environment. [Source: ABRSM Making Music Report 2021]
Among the 2,485 music teachers who responded to the UK survey, 30% reported using online or remote lessons over Skype and 14% reported using online courses. Other reported technologies and practices included watching or sharing videos such as YouTube content, at 71%; smartphone or tablet apps, at 58%; recording lessons and exercises on a smartphone or tablet, at 42%; and using sheet music on a tablet instead of books, at 34%. A further 9% selected “Other.” These teacher-reported uses are not all online lesson attendance measures: several describe resources or tools that can support teaching in person or remotely.
| Teacher-reported digital practice in the UK 2020 survey | Share of 2,485 responding music teachers |
|---|---|
| Watching or sharing videos, such as YouTube content | 71% |
| Apps on smartphones or tablets | 58% |
| Recording lessons and exercises on a smartphone or tablet | 42% |
| Sheet music on a tablet instead of books | 34% |
| Online or remote lessons over Skype | 30% |
| Online courses | 14% |
| Other | 9% |
The report also records both adaptation and friction during lockdown. It says 87% of examiners and teachers were able to adapt effectively to online teaching within weeks of lockdown. This is a combined examiner-and-teacher finding, not a percentage of learners attending lessons. Separately, 41% of teachers reported poor internet access and poor sound quality from video conferencing software as challenges for their pupils. The two findings describe different aspects of the transition: reported adaptation among professionals and reported technical barriers affecting pupils. [Source: ABRSM Making Music Report 2021]
The same report says 55% of music teachers were likely to offer online classes after lockdown, particularly as a backup or as an alternative way to address logistical barriers. This is stated likelihood, not evidence that those classes were subsequently offered. On student progress, 39% of teachers said their students had made better progress than normal during online learning. That is teachers’ reported assessment, not a standardized measure of achievement or a participation rate. [Source: ABRSM Making Music Report 2021]
Online music lesson participation and student motivation
Student perspectives help explain what participation statistics alone cannot show. In a survey of 83 students from the music department at the University of Jordan, 76.2% agreed that distance learning was applicable in the music department. A smaller share, 54.2%, agreed that distance learning could substitute for standard education. These are opinions about applicability and substitution during the COVID-19 pandemic, not observations of attendance or lesson completion. [Source: Music Students’ Perception Towards Music Distance Learning Education During COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Study in Jordan]
An Austrian instrumental-music study compared 2 independent student groups around the COVID-19 transition to remote learning. The group surveyed before the transition included 856 students, with a mean age of 16.4 and a standard deviation of 14.1. The post-transition group included 640 students, with a mean age of 16.7 and a standard deviation of 13.8. These are group sizes and age summaries, not counts of students who attended online lessons; the groups were independent rather than a repeated survey of the same individuals.
For the online-learning phase, the study reported that social relatedness, perceived teacher enthusiasm for teaching, and age explained 39% of the variance in intrinsic motivation for online learning. This result concerns a statistical model of motivation in the study group. It does not establish that any one factor caused participation, nor does it measure how many learners took lessons. Read alongside the survey reports on teacher contact, digital tools, and student views, it shows why online music lesson participation is best described through several distinct measures rather than a single headline rate. [Source: Motivation in Instrumental Music Instruction Before and During the Remote Learning Phase Due to COVID-19 Crisis]
Sources
- Factors determining satisfaction with online piano lessons for young beginner students
- Investigating music teachers’ ICT skills and technical possibilities in the field of online music education during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Learning, Playing and Teaching in the UK in 2021: ABRSM Making Music Report 2021
- Music Students’ Perception Towards Music Distance Learning Education During COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Study in Jordan
- Motivation in Instrumental Music Instruction Before and During the Remote Learning Phase Due to COVID-19 Crisis