Ineffable Ontological Detanglement .: Introspective Assistance & Mental Analysis Manual
It is a three tiered experience. There are no levels of ability within each tier, you're simply within the tier. What you're capable of within your tier relies on the strength of your artist imprints, what you've learned about music all your life, what you've learned about playing your instrument all your life, and, of course, the unique nature of your core and ego.
The first tier we label musical interest, at musical interest you're good enough to get signed to a record label, you're capable of laying notes in a manner that is presentable, however you were meant to be an observer, possibly a music critic. At this tier you have one third of the sound as colour synesthetic experience that is musical ability and there's a reasonably good chance you'll never notice it, not unless you start taking psychedelics.
The second tier we label musical talent, at musical talent you're good enough to be an acknowledged star, you're good enough to go down in history as somebody who mattered to music, somebody who created music that actually hits you, actually enters into your emotions. Obviously, you have two thirds of the synesthetic experience that is musical ability, there's a reasonably good chance you'll notice however it's still possible you may not notice.
The third tier we label musical gift, at musical gift you're high genius, the majority of us go unacknowledged, high musical genius is not something the mainstream ear is after. We are incredibly synesthetic, we travel right into the atmosphere of the colour of every little tone we hear. Nobody will ever get us like we get us, no matter how good you think you are at listening to music, nobody can listen to music like we listen to music. We can be criticized for the manner in which we listen to music, we can play the same track on repeat all day for a week straight. The story of Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember leaving the apartment while "Transparent Radiation" by the Red Krayola was being listened to by Jason "J. Spaceman" Pierce on repeat as he smoked a cigarette, Pete comes home hours later to Jason still listening to it with a pile of cigarette butts around him. That's how the true understanding of music operates, music critics.
At the top of the scale, musical gift, when you're first learning how to play your instrument you'll find you play differently, you're within an entirely different perception of music than the normals, you have to learn how to flatten this out for appearance while maintaining your feelings and placing your feelings within the appearance of normal music. You want to hit the notes a quarter second before you're supposed to hit them, you know the note that's coming and you know it needs to happen now. Not because you're excited, because you're within the flow of musical expression, you understand the experience is all happening at once all of it is inside of itself this note is inside of the note you just played is inside the note that comes next is inside of the timing of the music and it's all the exact same thing.
Aria Wellington and I see a very similar angle within our synesthetic ethereal blur, Bolt Remming and Michael Stratsberg see a pretty different angle. You're not getting into The Solanaceae Collective as an artist if you don't have musical gift, we're not doing the normal music for the normals we're doing some other thing. Musical interest will get you a place as a performer but we'll always have more respect for the performers that go all the way to musical talent.