Musical ability is determined more by genes than time spent practising an instrument, a new report has claimed.
A study published in Psychological Science, by Miriam Mosing of the Karolinska Institute, in Sweden, and reported by the Economist, compared the behaviours of identical twins to measure the results.
Miriam analysed more than 1,000 pairs of identical twins (who share all their genes) and roughly the same number of fraternal twins (who share half).
After calculating an individual’s practice lifetime, the twins were compared on their musical skills, worked out by their abilities to detect differences in pitch, melody and rhythm - the results found that genetically identical twins would be as musically capable as each other regardless of time spent practicing.
In one case the difference between two twins was 20,228 hours of practice, but they were still found to have the same musical ability.
Click here to view the full report.
A study published in Psychological Science, by Miriam Mosing of the Karolinska Institute, in Sweden, and reported by the Economist, compared the behaviours of identical twins to measure the results.
Miriam analysed more than 1,000 pairs of identical twins (who share all their genes) and roughly the same number of fraternal twins (who share half).
After calculating an individual’s practice lifetime, the twins were compared on their musical skills, worked out by their abilities to detect differences in pitch, melody and rhythm - the results found that genetically identical twins would be as musically capable as each other regardless of time spent practicing.
In one case the difference between two twins was 20,228 hours of practice, but they were still found to have the same musical ability.
Click here to view the full report.
