Musicians

becomes exponentially more difficult after the age of 12. But no doubt there are some who have done so. Often, I think it depends on whether or not one has the "ear" for it. For those of us classically trained but also able to play by ear, we never lose the ability.

I'm pretty sure that most successful rock musicians play by ear (most of them can't read a note of music) so it's just a matter of learning the fingering and repetition.

After reading this interesting article, I now know why I can remember so much stuff that happened 50 years ago, but have difficulty recalling what I ate for dinner last night!