Musical ingenuity or inheritance? You a nepo baby or what??

BY GRACE WANG

Have you ever picked up an instrument? Did you do it yourself? Or was it placed into your hands? 

Whether a person actually handed you–say, a violin–or it was figuratively placed upon you by fate in your musical journey, how much of that success lies in your autonomy? This report analyzes the possibility that your taste in listening to music and your talent in creating music, whether it be instrumental or through digital audio workstations (we see you!), is based on your parents’. 

A survey was conducted in the Bronx High School of Science, open to all students. The survey focused on two aspects of music: Favorite genres & ability to create. To analyze the genetic element of music, students were also asked about their parents’ favorite genres of music and whether they could make music. 

The survey was conducted by Grace Wang, and a statistical analysis was conducted by Sophia Melendez. The null hypotheses, “The student’s favorite music genres are independent of their parents’ favorite music genres” and “Whether or not the student plays a musical instrument or makes music is independent of whether or not their parent plays a musical instrument or makes music,” were created and both rejected.

Therefore, this report concludes that there is evidence to support the genetic linkage between musical enjoyment (preferred genre) and musical ability (making music).

Considerations:

• Convenience Sample: Sampled and only generalizable to

  • High school-aged students

  • Attending the Bronx High School of Science

The first of two statistical tests were performed with the following conditions.

Conditions:

• Randomness:

  • Sample was chosen at random, but could be considered a convenience sample based on those that the survey could reach within Bronx Science → proceed with caution

• 10% Condition

  • 36 students is <10% of all Bronx Science students, so condition is met

• Sample Large Enough

  • Not all expected counts are greater than 5 → proceed with caution

Summary:

Since the p-value, 0.04690, is less than 0.05, we reject H0. Therefore, we have evidence to support the claim that the student’s favorite music genres are dependent on their parent’s favorite music genres.

The second statistical test was performed with these following conditions.

Conditions:

• Randomness:

  • Sample was chosen at random, but could be considered a convenience sample based on those that the survey could reach within Bronx Science → proceed with caution

• 10% Condition

  • 36 students is <10% of all Bronx Science students, so condition is met

• Sample Large Enough

  • All expected counts are greater than 5

Summary:

Since the p-value, 0.01610, is less than 0.05, we reject H0. Therefore, we have evidence to support the claim that whether or not the student plays a musical instrument or makes music is dependent on whether or not their parent plays a musical instrument or makes music.