ClickForLessons.com Announces Top Ten Requested Lessons for 2006 - Demand for Private Music, Dance Lessons on the Rise

2006 Showed Dramatic Increase in Lesson Requests
by Jesse Jayne Rutherford

January 3, 2007

SAN DIEGO, CA – Across the country, people are putting their time and energy into private music and dance lessons, and they are searching more and more for their teachers online. According to San Diego-based Click For Lessons, a service that matches music, dance, art, acting, and language teachers with potential students, thousands of requests for lessons have poured in since the site launched a year ago. “In 2006, we saw over 200,000 students request lessons. Not only were parents requesting lessons for their kids, but we also saw a significant increase in adults wanting to learn a new artistic hobby.” says Steven Cox, president and CEO. He expects use to increase in 2007—there are already over 50,000 requests per month nationally, and the site is little more than a year old.

The top five major metropolitan areas were New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Cox’s own San Diego. Here are the top ten types of lesson requests across the nation:

• Piano lessons – 12.6%
• Voice lessons – 9.6 %
• Hip hop dance – 9.0%
• Guitar lessons – 6.1%
• Salsa dancing – 5.2%
• Belly dance – 4.7%
• Acting classes – 3.8%
• Violin lessons – 3.7%
• Ballroom dance – 3.5%
• Drum lessons – 3.4%


The site (http://www.ClickForLessons.com) was founded in late 2005 when Cox, an internet executive and musician, saw how other musicians were struggling to make ends meet and had to supplement their income by teaching lessons. Yet this income was diminished because music schools skimmed large fractions of music lesson fees off the top, leaving little for the teachers. He wanted to come up with a fair way for teachers to find students, set their own schedules and terms of teaching, and keep their earnings for themselves. The site matches teachers with students, who submit their requests for free.

With thousands teachers registered through the site, Click For Lessons staff took a closer look at developing trends. “2006 taught us that people everywhere are open to learning new skills, that they are looking for an affordable way to do it, and that they are also willing to access the internet more and more to find a local teacher these days,” says Cox. “We hardly do any advertising, so this data is a testament to the power of internet use today and word-of-mouth in the artistic community.”

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If you would like more information, or would like to schedule an interview, please contact Drew Davies, VP of Public Relations, at (858)488-4575.