Those of you with kids playing musical instruments.... Did your kids really WANT to learn to play? DS says he'd like to learn piano, but he knows it would mean daily practice and he says he doesn't want to have to do that.
When he was four, he certainly
thought he wanted to learn to play. Shortly after he turned five we started with a local instructor. He hit the ground running, learned to read all the notes, time values, etc., pretty quickly, and had a bit of fun in the beginning. And then I'm sure he was wondering just what the heck he'd gotten himself into.
Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have much say over piano lessons. And doubly-unfortunately (from his perspective) he's pretty darned good at it. He generally loathes practice (although, as mentioned, it's getting less painful), but he really enjoys playing the songs he has learned, transposes on his own and runs away with improvisation beyond his teacher's expectations.
He just started trumpet with the school band and really enjoys playing with other kids. He realizes just how much progress he's made with piano and because he's got so much experience, he can focus on improving his trumpet skills. However, according to people living across the canyon from us, he's still at the
elephant-in-death-throes stage.
