Music school scores with lockdown surge in adults learning instruments

A city music school is hitting the high notes, after lockdown spurred hundreds of adults to learn an instrument.

Linda Boyd, director of Morningside School of Music

Morningside School of Music in Edinburgh said they feared for the future of the school when lockdown hit again in January.

But after signing up scores of new students they are now launching an appeal for more teachers in guitar, piano, bass and singing to meet the demand.

Since Covid-19 restrictions came into place, the school has been inundated with hundreds of enquiries as people take up new hobbies while they have more time on their hands.

And for the first time the school has more adult students than children, with 71 per cent of bookings now coming from adults as lessons moved from face-to-face to Zoom and Skype.

The school currently has around 700 pupils registered and 17 teachers.

Linda Boyd, director of Morningside School of Music, said: “When lockdown happened we were worried about the future of the school.

“But we now need more teachers to match the demand.

“For the first time we’ve got more adults than children, looking to take up everything from guitar and piano to singing and the bass.

“New pupils are telling us that, with more working from home or being on furlough, they had time to use productively.

“Many wanted to learn an instrument, sometimes for decades, but never really had the time or space to do it.

“The pandemic seems to have spurred people onto learn.

“This will hopefully give people new skills to use once lockdown’s over, and helps stimulate the economy a bit with more teaching jobs being created.”

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