Feeling fed up... Why bother learning an instrument in ptimary school to drop it in year 7?

I think that there are a number of factors. Group lessons can be very slow, so kids don't make much progress, get bored and give up. If the child doesn't have anyone at home who can read music and help them a bit when they are starting, that makes it really hard for them. And I think parents who haven't learnt music themselves can underestimate how much practice and committment is needed.

We live in an area where there a lot of opportunities for kids to play in groups. My son has been very motivated by the prospect of going on residential courses from age 10 (if he is good enough) or maybe being part of a youth orchestra that tours abroad (as a teenager, again if he is good enough). I was a kid who had lessons and didn't practice enough and then regretted it as a teenager when my friends swanned off on exciting residentials which I wasn't good enough for. I have made sure my son knows that these opportunties are available if he works hard.

Erm, because the lessons are damn expensive and unless the child in question really, really wants to learn the instrument and puts in a decent amount of practice parents aren't going to keep shelling out for lessons. I have 2 reasonably musical dcs, but I gave up on dd's piano lessons after 5 years when she hadn't done any practice for the best part of a year, despite a large assortment of carrots and sticks. Ds has been doing piano for 2 years, but despite initial enthusiasm, it is now a struggle to get him to practice and school has just told him he is now having free tuition for playing the trombone. All well and good, but do I have the money to buy him a trombone should he prove to be any good and wish to continue? Do I buggery.

Round here there's a scheme where they do whole class instrumental lessons for a year in Y5 but after that it's it! Parents then have to find a teacher, fund lessons, buy an instrument etc. Inevitably hardly any do. Bonkers if you ask me.

My DM is a music teacher and wouldn't let us drop an instrument until we'd got to grade 5 at least. Bit extreme for sure, but I'm definitely grateful for being made to persevere through the tough bits.

my son stopped playing th double bass in yr 7, even though he was offered free lessons to continue it He'd got to grade 3 standard. TBH I think he found the music he was told to play boring, and no one thought to introduce him to jazz etc.

Does your school have lots of free instruments for them to try out, though? Maybe one of those ex-flautists would be a much keener trombone player, you never know. DS tried piano, clarinet and guitar before falling in love with brass playing.

Because once you've got past the first bits, it gets difficult and expensive, surely?

I mean, it's the parents' bank balances being committed to it, not the children.

DS started with a county instrument on loan for free, with massively subsidized lessons as it's a 'rare breed'. Great. But by year 5 he was beyond the group lessons, needed individual lessons to make progress, and needed his own instrument. Even the cheapest middling one we could find was £600 after which we would have murdered him if he'd tried to drop it

Because it's all very well having lessons but are there enough opportunities for younger children to make music as part of a group or ensemble and actually have some fun with it?