Question

How might you determine whether flute-playing ability is a highly heritable trait? If you want to improve your flute playing and someone tells you that musical ability is heritable, should you stop practicing?

Answer 1

Twin studies, adoption studies and sibling studies can be used to assess if flute playing ability is a highly heritable trait. In such studies, the impact of genetics and the environment can be assessed based on the degree of similarity of a certain trait. For instance, monozygotic twins share 100% of their genes. If both the twins have the same or similar flute playing ability, it can be concluded that the ability is highly heritable. However, if their flute playing ability is discordant, it can be attributed to the influence of the environment.

In the case where I would told that musical ability is highly heritable, I would believe that I have a high genetic predisposition towards developing high ability. However, this can only be actualised by the influence of the environment, which includes practising.