Ask what music lessons cost and you would expect a simple answer. There is not one. No government agency tracks private lesson pricing the way it tracks gas prices or grocery costs. No music-education body publishes an official national average, in Canada or anywhere else. What exists instead is a mix of US marketplace pricing estimates, older reader-submitted price data, and something far more consistent: large-scale survey research showing that cost is one of the biggest reasons families give for not starting or continuing lessons. Below is what the actual data shows, with a source for every figure. For the full set of data behind our program decisions, see our full Music Education Research hub.
What Gets Measured, and What Does Not
Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending tracks total household spending on recreation every year. In 2023, that figure averaged $5,231 per household, driven mostly by a rebound in recreational services such as movie theatres and live events. But the published survey results do not break “recreation” down into a separate line for music lessons. There is no way to pull an average Canadian household’s music-lesson spending out of that number using publicly available data. The same gap shows up when you search for a Toronto-specific or even a Canada-specific figure on what a piano or guitar lesson costs. It does not exist in any source we could independently verify. What does exist is US marketplace data from lesson-booking platforms, older crowdsourced price data, and UK survey data on cost as a barrier to learning. None of it is a perfect substitute for a government price index. Together, though, it is the closest thing to real evidence on this question.
What US Booking Platforms Report
Thumbtack, a US service-booking platform, publishes cost guides built from quotes its users request from local instructors, combined with its own research. It labels these figures the “national average fixed price” among instructors active on its platform. As of its current guides, Thumbtack lists piano lessons at $40 to $60 and guitar lessons at $40 to $60 as that national average, with guitar’s detailed pricing section citing a broader hourly range of $40 to $70. Voice lessons come in higher, at a national average fixed price of $50 to $70, with a 30-minute lesson priced around $40, a 45-minute lesson around $60, and a 60-minute lesson around $80 in Thumbtack’s own length-based breakdown.
These are marketplace estimates, not an independent survey. They reflect prices quoted by instructors trying to win bookings on one commercial platform, not a random sample of every working music teacher. They are also US-only. Thumbtack does not publish a separate Canadian or Toronto figure, and nothing in its methodology suggests one would land at the same number.
Older Reader-Submitted Data Points in a Similar Direction
CostHelper compiles reader-submitted prices rather than platform quotes, and its published figures are older, drawn largely from comments dated between 2009 and 2018 rather than current data. With that caveat in mind, the ranges land close to Thumbtack’s more recent numbers. CostHelper’s piano guide states that private half-hour lessons “usually cost $15-$35,” rising to “$40-$75 or more” for a teacher with an advanced music degree, with rural rates as low as $10 to $15 a half hour. Its guitar guide gives a similar spread: private lessons running “about $15-$25 a half hour or $20-$45 for an hour lesson,” rising to $50 to $75 an hour for more advanced instruction. Two different sources, built from different methods years apart, describe roughly the same market. Price depends mainly on lesson length and teacher qualifications, and there is no single “correct” number.
Cost Is the Most-Cited Reason Families Don’t Start Lessons
The clearest, most consistently measured data on lesson cost does not come from a pricing guide at all. It comes from ABRSM, the UK’s largest music exam board, which has surveyed thousands of children, adults, and music teachers about music learning since 2014. In its Making Music 2021 report, based on 2020 survey data, 25 percent of children who had never played an instrument said this was because the cost of learning was too high. Among adults who had never played, 18 percent gave the same reason. The pattern sharpens at lower incomes: 37 percent of children from the poorest households cited cost as a barrier to taking up an instrument at all, and children and adults from the richest households were 2.5 times more likely to take a music exam than those from the poorest households, a gap that had not moved since 2014.
Teachers see the same pattern from the other side of the classroom. In the same survey, 71 percent of music teachers named financial barriers as the top obstacle to learner progress, well ahead of lack of parental support (23 percent) and lack of school opportunities (15 percent). When ABRSM asked teachers what single change would help the most children learn music, “easier access, affordable lessons, or changing the elite status of music education” was the top answer, cited by 36 percent.
The Barrier Is Growing, Not Shrinking
ABRSM’s newer Making Music 2025 report, based on 2024 survey data, found the cost barrier had grown rather than eased. 29 percent of children who had never learned an instrument cited cost as too high, up from 25 percent in 2020. On the teaching side, 45 percent of music teachers who reported a decline in student numbers over the past five years said it was because parents could no longer afford lessons, the second most common reason cited after “students too busy” (48 percent).
The same report found a persistent gap in who gets private tuition specifically, as opposed to school-based group teaching. In 2024, 17 percent of children from higher socioeconomic (ABC1) households had private lessons, compared to 11 percent of children from lower socioeconomic (C2DE) households. Cost does not only stop people from starting, either. 14 percent of children who quit an instrument they had once played said the cost of continuing lessons was why they stopped, close behind not owning an instrument (16 percent) as a stated reason.
What This Means for Comparing Prices
Put these two kinds of data side by side and the honest picture is this. Nobody publishes a verified, government-tracked average price for a private music lesson, in Canada or anywhere else. What exists are commercial marketplace estimates from US booking platforms, clustering somewhere between $40 and $70 an hour depending on instrument and teacher experience, plus older crowdsourced reader data describing a similar range. Neither source is Canadian, and neither is a scientific survey of the full teaching market. What is measured rigorously, across two large national surveys run years apart, is that cost ranks among the top reasons families do not start or continue music lessons, that the gap by household income is large and well documented, and that the barrier grew between 2020 and 2024 rather than closing.
Families comparing prices between studios or cities are, in practice, comparing numbers that no public dataset actually audits. Families asking whether cost is a real obstacle to music education are asking a question the research answers clearly: yes, consistently, and by a growing margin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a reliable average price for music lessons in Canada?
No independently verified national average exists. Statistics Canada tracks total household recreation spending but does not publish a separate figure for music lesson spending, and no Canadian platform publishes the kind of aggregated cost guide that Thumbtack does for the US market. Our rates and payment page lists our own current pricing directly, rather than an industry estimate.
How much do US marketplace platforms say lessons cost?
Thumbtack’s published cost guides list piano and guitar lessons at a national average fixed price of $40 to $60, and voice lessons at $50 to $70, based on quotes instructors on its platform give prospective students. These are commercial marketplace estimates for the US market, not a scientific survey, and no equivalent Canadian figure exists.
Is cost really a major reason kids don’t learn an instrument?
Yes, and it is one of the most consistently documented reasons across two ABRSM surveys run four years apart. 25 percent of children who had never learned an instrument cited cost in 2020, rising to 29 percent in 2024. Cost was also the top financial barrier named by 71 percent of teachers surveyed in 2020.
Does the cost barrier affect all income levels equally?
No. ABRSM’s data shows a clear pattern by household income and social grade. 37 percent of children from the poorest households cited cost as a barrier to starting an instrument, and children from the wealthiest households were 2.5 times more likely to take a music exam than those from the poorest households. In 2024, 17 percent of higher-socioeconomic children had private lessons, compared to 11 percent of lower-socioeconomic children.
Music Lessons at ABC Academy of Music
We would rather families see real, current numbers than guess from a US marketplace average or a set of decade-old reader comments. Our rates and payment page lists exactly what lessons cost at our studios in Lawrence Park, St. Clair West, Dufferin Grove and Oakwood, and Brampton, along with the payment plans and package options we offer. Browse our class schedule to see what is available for your child’s age and instrument, or contact us directly for a straight answer on cost before you commit to anything.
SOURCES:
- Statistics Canada, “The Daily: Survey of Household Spending, 2023,” Statistics Canada, May 21, 2025, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250521/dq250521a-eng.htm
- Thumbtack, “Average Adult Piano Lessons Cost (with Price Factors),” Thumbtack, https://www.thumbtack.com/p/piano-lessons-cost
- Thumbtack, “2024 Guitar Lessons Cost: Hourly Rates & Package Prices,” Thumbtack, https://www.thumbtack.com/p/guitar-lessons-cost
- Thumbtack, “2024 Average Voice Lessons Cost (with Price Factors),” Thumbtack, https://www.thumbtack.com/p/voice-lesson-prices
- CostHelper, “How Much Do Piano Lessons Cost,” CostHelper Activities, https://activities.costhelper.com/piano-lesson.html
- CostHelper, “Cost of Guitar Lessons: Reader Comments and Prices Paid,” CostHelper Activities, https://activities.costhelper.com/guitar-lesson.html
- ABRSM, “Learning, Playing and Teaching in the UK in 2021: ABRSM Making Music Report 2021,” ABRSM, 2021, https://www.abrsm.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/web_abrsm-making-music-uk-21.pdf
- ABRSM, “Making Music 2025: Extending Our Ambition for Music Education in the UK,” ABRSM, 2025, https://www.abrsm.org/sites/default/files/2025-04/Making%20Music%202025%20-%20Extending%20our%20Ambition%20for%20Music%20Education%20in%20the%20UK.pdf