Perk: Singing based on IQ

[JazzJedi]

I'm of the opinion that Musical Aptitude is more closely related to IQ than any other attribute. I've been a music teacher at university for 20 years, and my brightest students are usually the most musical as well. I've had many students who were seriously athletic (including a professional Hockey player and an Olympic-level cross-country skier) with obvious high HT, but little in the way of musical aptitude. Perception is interesting, but I've never seen any evidence that the ability to relate pitch in any musical sense is related to acuity of hearing. General intelligence seems the most reliable to me, but this isn't always the case either! I've had brilliant students (including a retired heart surgeon and both his kids who all became surgeons) who were clearly high IQ but chronic over-thinkers with very stiff technique and poor musical instincts.

I've also toyed with the idea that Musical Aptitude is basically a rarely used fifth stat that is equal to 10 + Musical Ability level. It's not really worth taking the talent unless you are going to learn 2 or more musical skills. If I ever run a Rock-Opera campaign, or maybe a film-noir campaign with Jazz musicians from the 50s, I'd consider tweaking the rules this way. But unless it's a major campaign theme, I'd base all music skills on IQ and leave it.

But for added realism, I also think that low HT does affect Singing and Wind Instruments especially. Having high HT isn't much of a bonus in my experience, but I've seen older musicians whose health degrades suddenly struggle to play or sing. So maybe the base musical attribute is equal to the lower of 10 or HT. That would cover that.