T​he Myth of “Musical Genes”

There’s a myth that has been circulating for centuries: that some people are born with musical genes and others simply aren’t. I’ve heard it said countless times, “I wish I had musical genes, but I just don’t.” Being able to make music is one of the most remarkable parts of being human, and yet so many people have been convinced they’re shut out of it entirely.

I’ve lived long enough to hear hundreds of stories: music teachers who had the nerve to tell a child they weren’t musical, spouses who discouraged a partner from singing to their own baby, and parents asking me to evaluate whether their child is “talented.” It’s a star-bellied Sneetches situation, an arbitrary line drawn between the haves and have-nots. It should not be this way.

mom and toddler playing piano

What the Research Shows

In 2014, an important study by A. Sakakibara set out to determine whether “perfect pitch” (also called absolute pitch) is learned or genetic.

Perfect pitch is the ability to identify any musical note by ear alone. Mozart had it, as did Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. It’s remarkably rare, occurring in roughly 1 in 10,000 people in the general population, and even most professional, well-trained musicians don’t possess it.

Yet in Sakakibara’s study, all 24 of the young children who participated were successfully taught to develop this ability. Every single one.

What This Means for Music Education

If something as rare and seemingly innate as perfect pitch can be learned with a 100% success rate, the idea that musical ability is purely genetic falls apart completely. Perfect pitch isn’t the point, it isn’t even essential for musicians. What matters is what its learnability reveals: musical ability, even at its most exceptional, is something that can be taught.

Perfect pitch is just one of many abilities most easily acquired in early childhood. There are currently no known cases of it being developed later in life, not that it’s impossible, but early learning is clearly where the advantage lies. The same is true of musical skill more broadly.

toddler singing

Why This Matters for Every Child

The benefits of early music education are well documented (more on that in a future post). The crucial point is this: those benefits need to be available to all children, because every child can be taught to be musical. No child should be written off, and no parent or teacher should be in the business of deciding who deserves a chance to make music.

As always, it should be so much fun!

P.S. At Little Bird Piano Academy®, we’re coming up on our annual Ensemble Festival, making music together and creating those connections with other musicians that give us purpose and belonging outside ourselves. Like team sports, but without the competition. If you’re part of this group, please be thinking about ways to keep it fun and non-competitive. You’ll never regret having patience, and fun, with your child and with yourself!