Reply #47: One part of your post caught my attention ...

[JoePhilly]

The desire to study "music" ...

My 11 year old daughter wants to learn the piano. But she is like the kid who wants to learn about something, not by being taught, but by figuring it out for herself. She's been teaching herself piano using books we already had. But that was slow.

And so, she and I ended up online where she found a site on which you can see a popular song being played on the piano, and you can slow it down and see the keys being played.

So, she found a song she liked, and has been teaching herself that way. And she has figured out much of it ... but she has now decided that she wants lessons to help her also ... so she seems to be doing a bit of both ... use the net to learn on her own, and reach out to go further.

I can see this as a model for how the future works. Lots of generic on-line education, and then you get an expert to go further.