Does starting music lessons early really make better musicians?
People who started music young were more skilled as adults, but the link vanished when comparing identical twins, suggesting shared genes and family environment, not early training itself, explain it.
Source
Why Is an Early Start of Training Related to Musical Skills in Adulthood? A Genetically Informative Study
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Cross-sectional survey and online aptitude testing in professional musicians and a population twin cohort; regressions controlling for practice, co-twin control within identical pairs, and ACE twin modelling
- N
- 310 professional musicians; 7,786 twins who had ever played music (4,814 with aptitude and 4,887 with achievement data); 299 identical twin pairs discordant for starting age in the co-twin analysis
- Population
- Swedish adults aged 27-54: professional musicians and twins from the Swedish Twin Registry
- Outcome
- Musical aptitude (pitch, melody, rhythm discrimination) and musical achievement, predicted by age of onset of training
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What they did
The researchers surveyed 310 Swedish professional musicians and several thousand adult twins about when they started playing music and how much they practised at different ages, and tested their pitch, melody and rhythm discrimination online. They also measured musical achievement. They then asked whether starting age predicted skill after accounting for total practice, whether the link held within identical twin pairs who started at different ages, and how much genes and environment contributed to starting age.
What they found
In both samples, an earlier start predicted higher aptitude and achievement; after controlling for lifetime practice, the link with achievement disappeared but the link with aptitude (mainly pitch discrimination) remained. Within identical twin pairs, the twin who started earlier was not more musically able than the co-twin. Twin modelling estimated that genes explained 39% and shared environment 10% of the variation in starting age, and the link between starting age and expertise was fully explained by these familial factors.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Starting age and practice hours were recalled retrospectively and self-reported, so they may be inaccurate. The twin approach assumes identical and fraternal twins are treated equally similarly by parents, which the authors could not test here. The authors stress the results do not rule out a sensitive period; they show the observed association is largely explained by family factors. Musicians showed ceiling effects on the rhythm test, and the samples were Swedish adults, so generalisation to other cultures or training systems is uncertain.
Key terms
- Sensitive period
- A limited window in development when experience has an unusually strong effect on the brain and later abilities.
- Co-twin control design
- Comparing identical twins who differ on an exposure, which removes confounding by genes and shared family environment.
- ACE model
- A twin model splitting variation into additive genetic (A), shared environment (C) and unique environment (E) influences.
- Familial confounding
- When an apparent effect is actually due to genes or family environment that influence both the exposure and the outcome.
- Gene-environment correlation
- When a person's genetic predispositions are linked to the environments they experience, such as musical children being given early lessons.
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Quiz yourself
What was the key test of whether early training causally improves musical aptitude?
Common questions
If early starters are better, why isn't that proof of a sensitive period?
Early starters tend to practise more in total and come from more musical families with related genes; once those are accounted for, especially within identical twins, the advantage disappears.
Why are identical twins so useful here?
They share all their genes and their upbringing, so if the twin who started earlier is no better, the population-level link must come from family factors rather than the timing itself.
Does this mean children shouldn't start music early?
No. The study doesn't show early training is useless; it shows that its apparent special benefit for adult skill is largely explained by practice amount and family factors.
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