Sorry, folks: Study says musical talent mostly comes from your genes
BY Jon Fingas @jonfingas 8 hours ago 48
We like to imagine that musical talent is just a matter of putting in enough
hours. The Beatles became superstars because they spent years honing their
craft in Hamburg, right? Well, maybe not. A recently published study from
the Karolinska Institute's Miriam Mosing suggests that you need the right
genes to become a true maestro. The research compared thousands of identical
and fraternal twins to see whether lots of practice improves a person's
ability to detect changes in melody, pitch and rhythm. Unfortunately, it
didn't make a lick of difference for the identical twins; they had the same
level of appreciation, regardless of how much time a given twin spent
performing.
Practice still matters, of course. Even if you're gifted, you still have to
make at least some effort to bring out your inner rock star. However, the
findings suggest that you'll quickly learn whether or not you can make it as
a musician. If so, that could be disheartening to any garage band that
spends ages struggling to get itself concert-ready. Look at it this way,
though -- if the study holds up, it could spare legions of kids from
frustrating music lessons.
