A great article from the National Association for Music Education (NAfME)
The real reasons that students quit is often beyond their own understanding. It is up to teachers and parents to create moments for students to want to continue on their instrument during the early years of study in order for the child to be successful and stay with the craft.
Here are reasons students quit, and ways to combat them:
Parents need to find music just as important as other subjects. The sad truth is that many non-music teachers and administrators do not find music equally as important as math or English language-arts, but parents need to. Besides, you wouldn’t let your child quit math, would you? Many kids would jump at that opportunity. Music is a core subject…period. The more parents treat it as such, the less students will quit.
Students don’t know how to get better. Without the proper tools and practice habits to get better at anything, students will become frustrated and want to quit. It is the role of the music educator and the parents to give students ownership over their learning. Teachers must teach students why, how, where, and when to practice, and parents must obtain minimal knowledge about how students learn music in order to properly support them at home.
Parents and students think they aren’t musically talented. Sure, there are some kids who pick up an instrument and sound decent immediately, but they will hit a wall later and have to work hard to overcome it. Most everyone else won’t sound that great at first. Playing a musical instrument is a craft that, if practiced correctly, is something that all children can find success in. As long as students know how to practice and that it needs to be done regularly, they will get better.
Students discontinue playing over the summer. Statistics show that students who do not read over the summer find themselves extremely behind once school starts. The same goes for playing an instrument. A year of musical instruction can quickly go down the tubes over the summer vacation if students do not find small ways to play once in a while. Picking up an instrument for the first time after a long layoff can be so frustrating that a student will not want to continue into the next school year.
The instrument is in disrepair. A worn down cork, poor working reed, or small dent can wreak havoc on a child’s playing ability. Sometimes the malfunction is so subtle that the student thinks they are doing something wrong, and frustration mounts. Students, parents and teachers need to be aware of the basics of instrument maintenance and be on top of repairs when needed.
Teachers don’t create enough performing opportunities during the year. The best way to motivate students musically is through performance. Weeks or even months on end of practicing without performing for an audience gets old very quick, and student will definitely quit. Teachers should schedule performances every six weeks or so in order for students to stay engaged and practicing. Parents can help by creating small performance opportunities at home — a Friday night dinner concert or a planned performance for visiting family members are great ideas.
There is not enough “fun”music to practice. It’s very important for parents to be aware of music that interests their child, because it exists in sheet music form for download or purchase. It’s important that all students play music that is aligned to their interests in addition to other pieces that are worked on in school.
Other activities are pulling at the child. Between art lessons, sports, karate, and other activities, parents grow weary of having “one more thing” to be on top of schedule-wise. Parents need to understand that the enduring social and psychological benefits of music are as enormous as those of sports — in the same and different ways. Budget time accordingly and children will have 10 minutes a day to practice an instrument, for sure.
Much like any worthwhile venture, practicing a musical instrument has its ups and downs. Kids need to be reminded to practice, of course — but they should not be constantly pushed, and they should not be completely left alone. It’s a balancing act where sometimes the parents will need to give their child a break for a few days and other times will need to bribe them to practice. Either way, all children are capable of thriving with a musical education, and students will indeed thank their parents for not letting them quit.
MaryO'Studio 
I believe another reason a student may quit music is that s/he isn’t given the opportunity to play the instrument of greatest interest. This can happen for one or more of several reasons:
I heard #1, #4 and #5 from my own parents. I ended up with a clarinet, but did well with it in spite of its not being my instrument of choice. Now (60 years later) I have a room full of instruments, most of which are brass–and I DON’T have a sore lip!
I hear you – in about sixth grade I desperately wanted to play clarinet so I could join the band with the other kids in my class. We had the piano (in those days, it came with the house!) so I had to keep up the piano lessons.
Years later, as an adult, I got a clarinet and had some lessons. I didn’t get the band experience, though.
My room full of instruments are mostly strings, a couple clarinets (one is my son’s) and tenor recorders.
Thanks for your comment!
Thanks for your reply. (BTW I had numbered each of my points, but upon posting, all the numbers disappeared and everything I said ran together, making it more difficult to read, so thanks for reading through it! I didn’t know what “choose a block” meant.)
I’m glad you finally had the chance the play the clarinet you wanted all along. I hope you have an opportunity to play in a band, or at least with other musicians. There are groups such as “New Horizons Music” that I’ve heard is good, and they have branches scattered around the US and elsewhere.
It was interesting to read about your collection! Right now I have 3 cornets (Olympian, Yamaha and Conn–obtained for $20 each but all playable), 2 trumpets (Blessing and Conn), a Conn alto horn, a Conn French horn, a Conn “French horn alto” (=mellophone), a Conn”mellophonium”, a Sai Musicals euphonium, a Conn baritone, 2 Conn tenor slide trombones, a Conn valve trombone, a Yamaha bass trombone, and 2 BBb tubas (Conn and Olds). I have my original LaMarque clarinet, plus a Bundy clarinet (which I plan to “re-pad” as a project), a Conn 16N clarinet, a Henri Farny Albert system clarinet, and a Bundy Eb contra-alto (AKA Eb contrabass) clarinet. Other woodwoods include a Conn New Wonder alto sax, a Larilee oboe, and a Selmer Aristocrat flute (but the first two need work, and I have yet to get the flute embouchure correct!). Finally, I have a Kay C-1 double bass (which I took up in high school), an old Danelectro bass guitar, a Gibson mandolin, and a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar my nephew started and quit, plus a couple dyfunctional instruments I’d be willing to give away!
I play at least a few of these most days, and sometimes over a dozen. I may be sort of a “Jack-of-all-trades” but I’m having a lot of fun, and I figure there are much worse “vices” one could have. In junior high school, I took up bass clarinet (school instrument), and enjoyed that. I would like get one in the near future, and an alto clarinet–an instrument I’ve never seen. Occasionally I think of taking up another stringed instrument, such as cello or maybe viola, but I’m in no hurry. We no longer have the piano, but although I never took lessons on it, I liked to play various relatively simple pieces of music on it, and I also like that I could experiment with chords on it.
I hope you continue to enjoy your music. What stringed instruments do you have?
I currently have only 1 piano – a Yamaha grand. I’ve had as many as 3 at a time before.
I have 3 electric keyboards – 1 for students, 1 for me, 1 to lend to students who don’t have a keyboard yet.
I have 2 electric organs – 1 is mine, 1 belongs to my 100-year old mom but she hadn’t played it since she got here about 12 years ago.
I have the 3 violins – 2 mine, 1 is my sons. And an electric violin.
I’ve got a guitar, ukulele, autoharp, dulcimer (that I made myself), a mandolin and a balalaika.
I’ve got the 2 clarinets – 1 mine, 1 my sons. A bunch of recorder-type folk instruments, 2 train whistles, a fife, a bagpipe chanter.
An aerophone – an electric sax but it does a bunch of other instruments, too.
2 soprano and 2 tenor recorders (1 plastic and 1 wood of each).
Some folk instruments my parents brought from various trips but I have no idea what they are.
And a very old accordian that’s unplayable but was my grandfather’s so I can’t get rid of it.
A drumset, several practice pads.
I think that’s it off the top of my head.
I’ve played violin in an orchestra, sung in Sweet Adelines (female barbershop).
I’m currently in an advanced handbell choir, a singing choir (tenor), a recorder consort and I just started in a balalaika orchestra.