Like the keyboard, I'm not sure it will teach him how to play anything for real, but the concepts are there. Non-drummers have a hell of a time with the drums and drummers can play them quite a bit more easily. There's obviously a skill in there. Being able to subdivide different beats with different parts of your body is a skill.

It's unlikely he would stick it out with real lessons in anything. I think this could help him with music fundamentals and give him a jumping off point if he wants to pursue music more seriously at some point.

Also, he's in the middle of friggin' nowhere. I doubt there's anyone he can take real drum lessons from other than some local "drummer." Sorry, the only people I'm more skeptical of than guitar teachers is drum teachers. There are at least 4 people in my neighborhood (whose homes I pass regularly when taking evening walks) that have what look to be $1000ish trap sets rotting in their garages.

Also, $300 worth of lessons still won't buy him an instrument. I hear his parents are thinking of getting him piano lessons (and apparently have some sort of real piano), but I hate the thought that he's going to take from some old church lady who doesn't know crap and makes him work on boring 5-finger patterns for weeks. There's something to be said for that stuff, but I get disgusted at how bogged down some instructors get on perfecting fundamentals.

It doesn't matter how good a student is at fundamentals if they get so sick of music that they no longer want it in their lives. I think parents that put their kids on the piano at 3 years old and then make them practice 3 hours a day every day of their youth... I think it's borderline child abuse.... but that's another issue.

Basically he's a kid with a little talent. He likes music. He might have fun with RB and I think he could learn some really rudimentary things in the interim. I'm not trying to educate him unless it's as a side-effect.