As Peter says, it can get to be too formal. After 8-10 years learning violin & piano at school, I couldn't take any more. Trouble is, when you're having lessons then you've got to practice. Your folks are paying good money for your lessons, so they'll force you to practice so that you're not wasting their money. But this doesn't exactly make you want to play - music then becomes a kind of a chore, like washing-up. And if that's the way of it, I guess the child isn't really ready to learn - or maybe they should take a break from the instrument for a bit.

I'd reckon early teens is probably about the right time - younger kids don't have enough concentration, and may pick an instrument cos it looks nice, or cos the person they saw playing it looked cool. And in your early teens, you're still learning quick enough to pick it up much faster than adults. But if they're younger and they really want to learn, let 'em! :-)

I'm dubious about parents who say "I want my child to learn XYZ". It's the old poem "They fuck you up, your mum and dad" all over. I think any parent who shows signs of forcing their kid to do something like that "because I never had the opportunity"/"because you'll be grateful later on"/"because it'll impress the neighbours" should have their kids adopted to get the poor little sods out of there. Do they really have so little respect for their kids that they regard them as just extensions of themselves, not individuals in their own right?

When I started guitar a few years back, I found a book written by a guitar teacher who said he started his first lesson with the words "I can't teach you guitar, but I _can_ help you learn." Says it all really.

The other problem is the whole classical thing - I think classical training has done more than anything else to remove fun from music. Try finding a classical musician who can improvise, and good luck - doubt you'll find many out there. You get to be not much more than a human player-piano, converting dots on the page into music. OK, you can add tone, feeling, style and all the rest, but you can only play the dots you're given. That's where guitar gets out - you learn it first as an 'accompanying' instrument, so by the time you start playing actual tunes on it, you've got an instinctive feel for the chords behind it. And again, good luck finding a classical musician who can tell you what a type a chord is by hearing it - but every guitarist knows what a 7th chord or a maj7 or a diminished sounds like.

Grab.