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[quote=Anonymous]Just another anecdote.  When I was young, my mother made me take piano lessons.  I played starting when I was 7 and I was above average.  I competed in the competitions and had some success at the local level, but never at the national level.  When I was turned 17 in the middle of my junior year, my mother said I could discontinue if I wanted.  I did immediately and it was nearly 20 years before I played again because I really disliked it.

But when I was in my 30's, I picked it up again and found that the piano lessons had had some good effects.  While I was no longer at a competitive or even performance level of playing, I found that I had a lot of musical skills.  I could still sight-read music, and I had a good ear and a good voice.  I returned to the theater (I had performed in middle school through early college) and I started performing in local community theater.  I was pretty good and thanks to my musical skills, I got good roles. While I wasn't really good enough on piano to play for performances, I was good enough to be an occasional rehearsal and audition pianist.  I met my now-wife through the theater and was even able to help her practice and audition for shows with my musical skills.

I don't perform and i don't play competitively, but my  mother forcing me to learn those many years ago, has gifted me with this lifelong love and skill at music that has been a true gift.

I think you've done your job.  Your son has learned the basics to music and will carry the skills at music forever.  He doesn't enjoy it now, but later, if he chooses to pursue some aspect of music, you have given him the foundation that he needs.  I know many people who have tried to learn later in life and it is much harder to learn basic music skills later in life.  Not impossible, but much harder.  Let me him stop lessons now.  If it is right, he has the basic skills to pursue it again at any time in his life.[/quote]

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