Are there things that people who start playing an instrument later in life just can’t do that people who started early can? If so, why?

Question

In the music world (especially in classical music) there’s this sort of dogma that if you don’t start playing an instrument early in your childhood that you’ll never be as good as someone who did. Is this really true? I know that children are good at learning stuff quickly but other than that, what physiological and neurological reasons are there for this dogma to supposedly be true?

Hope I didn’t explain it to vaguely.

In: 7

Answer 1

Music and speaking foreign languages (and perhaps art as well?) require practice, the main purpose of which is to develop muscle memory. The earlier that starts, the more engrained the muscle memory…