Definitely.
My youngest, now mid-teen, is a savant. Which sounds great, and she is breathtaking to behold. Music to her is no different than moving our bodies for walking or excercise is to us. If someone says, “This is a pushup”, we hardly struggle to replicate it. If we walk with someone, we hardly think even once about matching pace.
Anything she hears or sees, she can replicate it. Further, she hears all of the possible phonic connections that aren’t being expressed, so really advanced harmony is her little b*tch.
And on pretty much any instrument. The only one that trips her up is the violin (or the like) because of right-hand technique, but her left is right at home.
Her on a piano is a blur to keep up with. I spend most my time trying to get her to slow it down and let it breathe so people can understand and immerse in it - not just get plowed over by the onslaught.
The problem is formalism. Though music is to her as water to a dolphin, equally she has a dolphin’s ability to explain hydrodynamics to a person (even if it could speak English).
She can work out sheet music slowly, but there is a massive gap in her practical theory and academic theory. And it’s a pain to close it, because the human brain isn’t evolved to prefer the harder and less efficient option. So, there’s this massive rejection push in her mind she struggles with for music formalism as why should she learn a less efficient way to get at what she can already do?
So, like that fellow, teachers watch her in bewilderment as they witness both a wild surpassing of highly skilled players right alongside crude grasp of nearly finger-painting skill.
It’s a real pain in the a**. The point being, the closer tapping into the subconcious results in easier output, but since everyone else isn’t able to do that, it also creates a massive language barrier between that person and everyone else.
Cheers,
Jayson
) Amazing how the past can vibrate into the future in unexpected ways