I am convinced that musical "talent" or "innate ability" at it is a function of studying, thinking and understanding and is always a function of some level of deep desire. Some folks do it at an early age, some don't, some never do, but all can accomplish the task if they ever make the decision to start working at it and keep at it. It does not take along time, typically less than one year, often less than one month to develop the ability to hear those intervals, or Relative Pitch recognition a we call it.

Practice is a slightly different situation, I use that word to describe the aspects of mastering the manipulation of your instrument, be it mechanical or the human voice, working to get that all important muscle memory, things like that.


--Mac