Syntes: Mosing et al. (2014) — in 10,500 Swedish twins, identical twins who practised more were no better at music discrimination tests

Källa: Mosing, M. A.; Madison, G.; Pedersen, N. L.; Kuja-Halkola, R.; Ullén, F. (2014). Practice Does Not Make Perfect: No Causal Effect of Music Practice on Music Ability. Psychological Science 25(9), 1795–1803. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614541990

Verified content

• [abstract] 10,500 Swedish twins; associations between music practice and music ability (rhythm, melody, pitch discrimination) rs = .18–.36.
• [abstract] Music practice was substantially heritable (40%–70%); the practice–ability associations were predominantly genetic, and non-shared environment did not contribute.
• [abstract] No difference in ability within identical-twin pairs who differed in amount of practice.

Limits

• [abstract] Outcome is auditory discrimination ability, not instrument performance; practice is self-reported accumulated hours.
• [assessment] Observational; speaks to how much practice explains between people (C16), not whether practice improves a given person's playing.

Why it is in the library

A large, Swedish, genetically informed test of the deliberate-practice view; it goes further than C16 by suggesting the practice–skill correlation may itself be largely genetic.

Added 2026-10-18 by the project (weekly source sweep). [abstract] = from the published abstract; [full text] = read in the full text; [assessment] = the project's own assessment.