It's so unfair! How come some people are born with huge natural ability in art

Question:

It's so unfair! How come some people are born with huge natural ability in art or music?

You can, to a certain degree, learn to draw or to play an instrument, but without that natural gift you'll only ever be mediocre. So how come some people have it? It can't be only genetic, because my brother has perfect pitch in music, the only one in the family. And my mum is an excellent artist, yet the rest of us are crap at drawing even stick men. Does anyone have a reasonable explanation.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Quite a lot of it is practice rather than innate ability. Your brother's perfect pitch is a case in point - if he has modern perfect pitch it is because he has both a good aural memory and the means to reproduce it. Modern pitch is A=440Hz but even 100 years ago the standard was A=360Hz which is very distinguishable and if you go back 250 years the pitch varied from town to town, let alone country to country! I have never pretended to have have perfect pitch but 40 years as a professional orchestral oboist means that I can pitch A=440Hz unfailingly!

The natural ability lies rather, I think, in character; if you have the kind of character that enables you to practice, in whatever art, allied to a certain ability in lateral thinking you are far more likely to succeed in the 'Arts'.