Family life

In two months time, No 1 Son's gap year will come to an end and he'll be heading off to university. For the last twelve months, rather than traveling the world, getting some degree-related work experience or doing voluntary work overseas, he's been sitting around playing guitar.

Well, that's not entirely true - he's also been working in the local guitar shop to build up his savings (£500 of which he spent on a Fender Stratocaster), he's built himself a guitar (basically a Telecaster clone but with a bigger headstock) and he's been supplementing his shop earnings teaching classical guitar in the evenings. The rest of the time he's either playing guitar, studying music theory or listening to music. He's pretty dedicated.

He recently came back from a week-long residential course at the International Guitar Festival in Bath. He was on a jazz course but he got to meet and mingle with a lot of blues guitarists (including Matt Scofield and Sherman Robertson). Needless to say, he had a time. And he came back buzzing with enthusiasm.

Problem is, he'll be studying psychology at university not music. So now he's saying if he's not enjoying his degree after six months, he's going to pack it in, move to London and concentrate on music.

What's a father to do?