Pupils enrolled at public music schools, by subject

About 910,000 pupils were recently enrolled in the instrumental and vocal subjects offered by the public music schools in the VdM. The data also include other forms of teaching such as instrument merry-go-rounds, classroom music-making and elementary music classes (ensemble and supplementary subjects are not taken into account). Approximately 21 % of the subject enrolments were for keyboard and bellows-driven instruments, about 15 % each for woodwind and plucked instruments and about 11 % for string instruments. 211,000 children and teenagers took part in other forms of instruction (ca. 23 %). The data of the VdM statistics 2022 refer to the entire calendar year 2021 and thus reflect the situation in the second year marked by the COVID‑19 pandemic. Overall, the public music schools recorded about 97,100 fewer subject enrolments in 2021 than in 2019.

The most frequently taught instruments at public music schools are piano (with around 160,000 pupils enrolled) and guitar (about 117,500). Violin (64.000), percussion and other percussion instruments (more than 50,000, including almost 22,000 in drumset, Germany's ‘Instrument of the Year’ 2022) and flute (around 34,250) are also very popular. The trend for recorder lessons is clearly declining, with recently less than 50.000 pupils.

In the subjects with lower numbers of pupils, different trends could be observed in the years before the beginning of the pandemic. In a comparison of the VdM statistics 2020 and 2014 (reference year is in each case the previous calendar year), there were increases of more than 20 % in the subjects viola, double bass, tenor horn and especially in harp and other plucked instruments. On the other hand, the number of pupils in the subjects keyboard and electric organ (-21 %) and electric guitar (-37 %) decreased by around 6,000 in each case.

The mandolin, which was proclaimed "Instrument of the Year" 2023 by several state music councils, counted 659 pupils at public music schools nationwide in the calendar year 2019. In the second pandemic year, 584 pupils took the subject.

All instrumental and vocal subjects recently recorded declining enrolment figures as a result of the COVID‑19 pandemic. This is particularly evident for woodwind instruments (16.323 fewer pupils than in the last pre-pandemic year) and plucked instruments (-13,252). The decline in other subjects (group offers such as instrument merry-go-rounds, classroom music-making, elementary music classes, band classes) is even more serious: Compared to the last pre-pandemic year, about 39,150 fewer children and teenagers were reached by these offers.

Note

The data is based on an annual full survey of the Association of German Music Schools (VdM) among its member schools; most recently these were 934 public music schools. This chart shows the number of students in instrumental and vocal subjects (without ensemble or supplementary subjects). Figures up to and including the year 2013 are taken from 1 January of the year concerned; those after 2014 are based on a full calendar year (1 January to 31 December of the preceding year). This change of methodology has a significant impact on the number of students, for the later figures also include pupils enrolled in projects or other courses of limited duration as well as those who dropped out during the year and were thus previously excluded from statistics based on the 1 January reference day.