My DS started asking to take piano when he was late 4/early 5. He had a little friend that started about that time and we had inherited a piano that was standing in our living room looking very lonely. Also, it was about that time when he really was driving us crazy with the constant need for information and stimulation. We knew nothing about his GTness at the time, but it sure makes sense now. Anyway, we signed him up for Suzuki lessons the year before kindergarten with the thought that it would give him something to think about.
And that it did! DS goes in cycles of speed learning/slower learning and love it/it's ok . But he's never wanted to quit and he loves to play and perform. Now that we're homeschooling, I consider it a core requirement for him. It can cover history, art, performance, music, learning to work with a mentor, incremental learning.
DD5 starting asking to take music lessons at 4 and went between wanting violin and piano. We put her on the waiting list for both and got a call for violin first. And actually it's probably best she doesn't take piano like her brother. She is very intimidated following in his footsteps.
I will say, my kids don't like to practice everyday. But both their teachers will be the first to tell them they don't like to practice every day either. If I really thought they hated it to their core, we wouldn't do it long term. Both of them love music and get a real sense of accomplishment from mastery. It's been a great way to teach long term work ethic to a GT child. But there are also many other ways to teach these lessons that might work better for some families.
One thing I was going to add - I definitely put the bug in my kids' ears about music lessons very early. We did kindermusik kind of classes and I used to tell them when they got too old for these classes they could maybe take REAL music lessons! So maybe there was some brain washing involved in there somewhere.
The early childhood music classes we did were a great predecessor to music lessons - musically and for creating enthusiasm.
