Ah it took me a minute to parse out that they were distinguishing general music ability from proficiency with an instrument -- yes, this is believable, the weak

Ah it took me a minute to parse out that they were distinguishing general music ability from proficiency with an instrument -- yes, this is believable, the weak effects of learning transfer are pretty well-documented in general education and athletics, which Bryan Caplan has been writing about lately http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2018/02/learning_transf.html http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2018/02/learning_transf..... On the one hand, I think playing in an ensemble is crucial for learning rhythm discrimination and that there probably would be transfer there. On the other, perfect pitch is all but unlearnable and that presents a huge, entirely genetic advantage for some folks on pitch discrimination tasks.