One of my students came to his lesson feeling a little discouraged because he couldn’t yet keep up with my teaching CD. He was talking about bailing. The truth is that he is doing reasonably well on his bagpipe project. The problem, as I see it, is that people don’t have any idea as to what it takes to do this and even the people that it affects. I told him that he can’t quit. I asked him: “What are you going to tell your 7-year-old son when he asks you why you quit?”

As I’ve said before, the majority of my students are adults. A lot of their kids are grown. However, there are some with small kids at home. I don’t mean to sound like a busy body, however the worse thing that you can do in a project like learning to play an instrument is blaming your family for your lack of success. For example, if you have small kids at home, you deserve some time to yourself. I tell my students that they need to practice for at least 15 minutes per day. Your kids need to know that they are not the total center of the universe. They will learn by watching you. The greatest thing that you can do, in my opinion, is to start develop a hobby as they watch. From this, they will learn patience, persistance, perserverance, and all of the attributes to being a successful something.

Remember, you are not neglecting them by taking your 15 minutes. Who knows? They may want to eventually join you in the activity. Over the years, I have met many people in the bagpipe world with multiple generations of bagpipers and drummers. These kids turned about to be well-adjusted and successful adults.

Again, if you want to succeed an any endeavour, you need to do something about it everyday. We all have jobs and families. What else are you going to do, watch more TV? We proabably would be a better world if we watched less.

Again, just my opinions.