Lessonface 2016: Figures and Forecasts

Lessonface turns three years old in February 2016. With our birthday on the horizon and the brand new year dawning, I hope you will join us in celebrating the amazing community of music learning that has come together at Lessonface.com. I went through our stats yesterday, and wanted to share some of the more interesting ones. 

What Is Being Learned:

Lessonface allows teachers to create new instrument categories, in addition to those we have defined. This means we have a really diverse set of options for lessons. It is awesome to see students and teachers finding each other to learn a multitude of instruments, in various traditions and pedagogies -- in addition to the ever popular guitar and piano, which alone account for about half of the lessons.

In the past not-quite-three years students have booked thousands of lessons in 67 instruments, including but not limited to accordion, banjo, bassoon, beatboxing, cello, clarinet, DAWs, fiddle, flute, guitar, mandolin, mridangam, organ, oud, piano, recorder, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, ukulele, viola, violin and voice.

Geography:

One of the coolest aspects of online learning - perhaps the coolest aspect - is that the teacher and the student can be meeting from anywhere. Most of our outreach is focussed in the US, and our site is currently set up with pricing set in dollars (this is going to be updated & localized in early 2016), so most of our students are stateside as well. But we also reach students outside of the US, which is fun to think about. 

• 77% of the students are in the US. Another 10% are in Canada. So we are very North American presently.
• Students have been based in 44 states, with the states with the most students being California, New York, Texas, Illinois, and Massachusetts.
• The 23% of students who hail from outside of the US are from 33 countries.

Other Changes in 2015-16

Lessonface switched office locations in 2015. We're still in Brooklyn, but moved from a co-working space to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they "used to launch ships, and now launch businesses." 

In 2016, we have a TON of platform updates coming - new features, improvements to processes that needed some tweaking, new partnerships. The first of the many updates will be launching next week, so we will leave the details for then. But know that we are actively working hard to get the changes launched, and super excited about the positive improvements.

Last but certainly not least - we are constantly welcoming new teachers and new students. Here are a few of my favorites from the many five-star student reviews from the past year:

About violin teacher Megan Griffin:

Megan was fantastic and such a sweetheart! She knew exactly what I needed to work on, provided clear direction, instruction and feedback. I felt she really led the lesson and took me where I needed go, which is exactly what I've been looking for. Immediately after the lesson I booked several other lessons with Megan as I feel that her continued instruction will be absolutely beneficial to my development as a violinist.

Who also wrote about the Lessonface platform: 

Easy to use, so convenient! It was -20 celsius today and I didn't have to travel out in the cold anywhere to get to my lesson.

About bass and guitar instructor Yonít Spiegelman:

Yonit is an excellent teacher. A week before my audition at Berklee I realized how severely unprepared I was for the audition. I found lessonface and had one lesson with someone else before finding yonit. She gave me a ton of availability to cram for the audition. I firmly believe I wouldn't have gotten into Berklee if not for Yonit's cram sessions and coaching. Her lessons were tailored to what I needed help with and I highly recommend her as a teacher.

About the undeniably great guitarist and educator Duane Denison:

I had my first one hour lesson today with Duane. He was fantastic. He clearly articulated his ideas in a simple, straightforward, easily graspable manner and with (here's the best part) humor! He sent me a few exercises before the lesson so I had time to get familiar with what were covering. Duane shared a lot of really useful ideas and tips about the technical and mental aspects of learning, playing and performing. He gave me ideas on how to expand the material by transposing keys, learning different positions on the neck, etc, and how to make the material more musical as opposed to merely mechanically playing scales or modes or arpeggios.
He maintained a very clear professional and positive attitude throughout while remaining friendly, open and accessible. There is a distinctly refreshing absence of any dynamic resembling anything like, "I am the great and powerful teacher and you are the lowly student groping around in the dark". I felt he was treating me as a peer who wants to expand his musical foundation and experience in a challenging yet comfortable and supportive setting by someone with the knowledge I seek. And that's exactly what I'm getting here. It's inspiring. 
Thanks Duane!

About guitar and flamenco guitar teacher Leah Kruszewski:

Leah has been teaching my 6 years old daughter. I was so sceptical before starting the lessons online. But I am so glad I went ahead. I would not have found Leah otherwise. Things I love about her-
- She is always there to help and takes extra effort to make things work. 
- She is always cheerful. 
- I like her approach where she makes the student think about notes, rather than telling her offhand. 
- She is always willing to record audio/video and send them as offline help. 
- She responds really quickly to my messages. 
- She is accommodating to any requests. 
- Above all my daughter loves to learn from her. 
I would recommend Leah to anyone looking for a good Guitar teacher.

Here's to a Great 2016

We are thrilled to be a part of the online education movement, and that so many of you are choosing to learn via the Lessonface platform. As always we love to hear input and feedback as to how we can continue to improve.