Can artistic ability from distant ancestors persist to present day descendants?

[PrawnCocktail]

Don’t know about musical ability, but both my mother and I used to sing. She was an alto with the Liverpool Philharmonic Choir.

My husband is tone deaf, can’t even clap on the beat. My daughter is also tone deaf. Her small son is also tone deaf, can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Nor has he any sense of rhythm. Don’t know what causes tone deafness, but it looks like that, at least, can be inherited.

[Siely]

I think that propensity is real but I don't know whether it is genetic or emotional (a proud sense of family loyalty or identity).  Many families are very proud of generations of the same occupation, equally there are families where a departure from family tradition is a major family conflict.

[Ruskie]

Because many of our ancestors were often labourers and in similar low paying jobs which they needed to support their often large families they had neither the time, inclination nor finances to undertake pursuits like painting, even as a hobby. I think it would be impossible for most of us to know if any of our distant ancestors possessed any artistic abilities.

[Andrew Tarr]

My husband is tone deaf, can’t even clap on the beat. My daughter is also tone deaf. Her small son is also tone deaf, can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Nor has he any sense of rhythm. Don’t know what causes tone deafness, but it looks like that, at least, can be inherited.

I've heard musical teachers say that hardly anyone is genuinely 'tone deaf' - presumably meaning non-musical - but some just find it much harder than others to learn.  Maybe it is like dyslexia ?  Perhaps that is also inheritable ?

I personally have enjoyed choral singing since about the age of 15, but because I did not learn music from a young age, although I understand the blobs on the lines, I have never learnt the knack of reading the sound off the page, as it were.