> more
> trivial and less debilitating than the real medical condition, and
> usually just involves people being self-deprecating because they
> haven't developed certain skills.

- not having learnt to do something is a good reason to be
self-deprecating; the problem is if people believe that not having
learnt is due to an innate inability to learn.

What is at least partly innate, probably also imprinted in the first
few years of life, is the ease and speed of learning (or in the old
buzzword, steepness of the curve). I expect that private vocal study
by someone of a determined frame of mind will be very effective - if
their *ears* are already highly trained (Owen!). But hearing comes
first. The old monochord, for example...

~~~T~~~