>>What a pleasant piece to come home to! Thank you for sharing that. How old is he now?

He was 17 last Saturday.

>>if I can convince my son to take the bit harder road for a while (classical guitar and the techniques that go with it)

I reckon the knack is that he convinces himself. The desire to do it for himself is the thing. When my son got his last exam result he was pleased (of course) but he then disappeared off to his room and did his usual practice to improve his technique. His friends say - 'ah but it's easy for you...' but they don't see the practice. He sees it as fun. Motivation in music is enormously self generated. I pick up and play guitar or mandolin every day but am pretty undisciplined in my practice but I guess he has grown up in a world where there is always some sort of music going on and always an instrument to hand to play and I find it hard to walk past a guitar without picking it up for at least a few seconds.

My other son was different. He became interested in music after we watched the Sound of Music and I showed him how to play Doh a Deer on the piano. He went on to learn to play the piano to a decent standard and can still sight read a piece of music really well but he got bored at some stage. He didn't want to do grades and he got tired of playing classical tunes. He had a period of time when he learned some jazzy tunes and other things but then just stopped. He'll never forget how to play but I doubt it will be a part of his life in the same way as his brother.

I guess it's the difference between being playing music and being a musician.

Hope your son gets the pleasure that mine has.