In recent years, distance education has become very popular around the world. Innovative pedagogical methods and strategies helped to shift full-time education to online learning. The research purpose is to introduce online piano learning, ensure assessment of academic performance and evaluate the respondents' motivation. The experiment involved 40 students from 19 to 25 years. The research was conducted at Harbin Normal University. Before the research, the respondents were divided into control and experimental groups. The first group was trained using the full-time curriculum, and the second group learnt the piano online. The scholars tested academic performance and motivation among the participants. The results suggested that online methods of teaching piano do not differ from face-to-face lessons. The results comparison of the experimental and control groups revealed no significant statistical differences in skills. The only exception was Fluency in Reading Music Notation. In the control group, the test result at the final stage was 85.1 points. In the experimental group, this indicator was 85.9 points. At all research stages, students' motivation was higher in the experimental group than in the control group. The research findings suggested that the online learning strategy was not less effective than face-to-face training and had better parameters. In practice, the technique can be applied in schools and universities focused on musical curricular activities. The proposed method of learning to play the piano is effective for online courses available for everyone.