And isn't that the real goal? At 10, Tonto Junior shows real promise, and as I said on the previous thread on this topic, we're already looking at upgrading our piano. He's on his first week of learning to play the guitar at home, and has expressed some interest in a violin. Still, the percentage of young people who will translate their ability to a professional career is small.
I don't believe he has the passion required to become exceptionally good, and that's OK. He has too many other interests, and he's not going to dedicate more than an hour or so a day to practice.
My hope for him is that he'll mature in his abilities, and with that, will come an increase in his enjoyment of music.
Besides that, with his future careers as a Professional Golfer, Brain Surgeon, and Constitutional Scholar, who much time will he have to dedicate to a fourth professional pursuit?
It's still tons of fun. When we were young marrieds, a group of us used to meet to play classical music -- two violinists, a cellist, a flautist, and me on piano. We sounded pretty rotten the first 3-4 times we ran stuff, but we usually got it together and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.
I hope my daughter finds a like-minded group of musical friends at college . . .