Music lessons for the digital age

When I was in fifth grade, I left my lunch early every Wednesday to take a 40-minute piano lesson with Sister Ruth. She was a retired nun and there was an extra cell in the convent attached to our school that had a lot of windows and an upright piano. She was very kind, but I found the process of learning the piano to be painfully slow.

It was less than a year before I quit.

My wonderful husband has played musical instruments for most of his life and has always had an appreciation for music. I loved seeing our son try to play Daddy's guitar, so last year we got him a child-sized acoustic guitar for his birthday. We figured we would get him lessons later on, if he showed an interest.

And, I think my son is interested in learning how to play the guitar, but I have a fear that he will get turned off like I did if the pace of lessons or progress is just too slow. After all, he lives in a world where he has media-on-demand and dozens of other distractions. What is going to keep his focus on learning the correct finger positioning?

Then I found that there are a series of online tutorials that Fender produces specifically to help teach guitar to a digitally distracted crowd. They are a paid subscription, but they provide a more in-depth tutorial than what you might get with free YouTube videos of someone playing in their basement.

I know that Fender has their own agenda (they do sell guitars and gear, after all), but maybe this would be a good way to capture my son's interest. Couldn't hurt, right?

Does your child play an instrument? Is it something they have trouble keeping up with? Tell me in the comments.