Pipe Band Forum 3/3/07

Dropping out of Piping (my topic about what makes pipers quit)

Any idea on the percentage of beginning pipers who drop out and at what point they tend to quit. I was thinking about this the other day. I heard my instructor has about 40 students (I would guess that's the average) but I don't see a lot of new pipers coming into our band - in fact, I was voted in with one other piper last year and there haven't been any new pipers coming to practice since.There were some critical points in my training at which I strongly considered giving it up.

Birls
Starting on the pipes
First practices with the band
Increase in tuition fees
Frustration with instructor
Just before stepping in front of the judge for my first solo

And I'm sure there'll be more. I told myself when I started that I would never quit no matter what, and that has sustained me ... that and keeping my expectations realistic.I've heard various estimates about percentages of pipers that move up the grades, but I would guess that the drop out rate in the beginner ranks is very very high. What do you think? And what factors do you think influence quitting (ie. age, money, musical background, hearing loss, scary people on the bagpipe forums, etc)?