Nature or Nurture? What makes a good singer/musician?

Is it thanks to Mom and Dad alone that you’ve become the singer and musician you are? Or should credit be given to the time spent at your weekly lessons and the hours of practice, practice and more practice?

If you've ever wondered, you are not alone. Researchers at Michigan State University and University of Texas at Austin asked the same question. To get to the bottom of it, they took two different sets of twins (paternal who share the exact same genes and fraternal who only partially share the same) and compared them to identify if genes influence motivation, discipline and overall performance.

As suggested in our article, Establishing a practice routine and getting the most out of it, the twins who accumulated more hours of practice were naturally better. But interestingly, the sets of twins who were more motivated to practice were those that shared the same genes. The study of over 850 twins, published in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, suggests that our desire to learn and practice may actually be determined by who we are scientifically and not solely by how we are raised.

So for those of us lacking the genes and finding it difficult to find the time or the desire, here are a few ways to nurture the musician within:

• Know your intentions: Do you sing/play for fun or are you trying to fill your pockets? Whatever your reasoning, make it clear to yourself. Knowing what you need and what you want to get out of practicing will help you stick with it.
• Be disciplined and commit: Intent is little without action. Commitment and follow through go hand in hand. Skipping once or twice is fine, but three, four, five times may cause guilt to creep in and block motivation.
• Surround yourself with music: Surrounding yourself with the like-minded will encourage you to keep the passion alive. Or at the very least it will allow you to show those around you the importance of music in your daily life.

• Create an optimal environment: Make a space for making music. A place where you’re comfortable, quiet and can be yourself and practice in peace will help you nurture the artist within. If space is limited, make a schedule so those around you recognize and respect the time you've set aside to pursue music.
• Laugh and learn: Play what you like and learn as you go. With thousands of Karaoke Version tracks it shouldn’t be hard to find something you like, but make sure that you are correcting mistakes as you go without being too hard on yourself.

Any other suggestions to nurture the musician within? Share them with us in the comments section below!

Published on: 20 April 2016