Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?
My mom made me and both of my brothers take 9 years of piano lessons. Today, not one of us plays - I don't think any of us even has a keyboard in our houses.<p>The reason for this is simply that <i>we were never allowed to play the kind of music we liked</i>. Which was, of course, rock. Or blues, or country. Or, really, anything with a beat.<p>Nope; it was all classical all the time. And piano lessons were the only time we were ever exposed to classical music otherwise, so we had no opportunity to learn to like it; it was just a source of frustration and boredom.<p>We weren't even allowed to pick a different instrument; it had to be piano. Because mom wanted us to be able to play the organ in church.<p>That nine years of lessons was the single biggest waste of time in my entire life, and I work for the government.<p>In order for a child to learn anything on their own, which is the way a musician has to learn, really, they have to be incentivized. They have to like what they're doing, at least some of the time. The product has to be meaningful. And in music, like so much else in education, whether the child is actually engaged with the process is just never considered.