You Could Have Serious Musical Potential and Not Even Realize It

If you’ve got a particular personality type, you might be predisposed to be musically skilled.  If you’ve ever taken music lessons, you’ve had it drilled into your head that “practice makes perfect.” But is that really all there is to it? According to a new study in the Journal of Research in Personality, your musical ability could also be hinged on something a little more engrained: your personality. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Goldsmiths, University of London, in the U.K., in conjunction with the BBC, put more than 7,000 people through a series of musical tests, including melodic memory and rhythmic perception tests. These were then linked to their scores on a Big Five personality trait test, which examined people’s scores on the traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.  Among the findings: The trait of openness is a key predictor of musical ability.