"A common operationalization of music ability is sensory discrimination of auditory musical stimuli of vari- ous types". Music ability is defined as "rhythm,

"A common operationalization of music ability is sensory discrimination of auditory musical stimuli of vari- ous types". Music ability is defined as "rhythm, melody, and pitch discrimination". So it´s not about being able to play music, but hearing and classification ability. So it translatates in non-fancy-wording. Being able to differenciate rhythms and melodies depends on your genetics and can not be practiced for improvement. But it says nothing about the effect of practicing on being a better music performer.