I am not sure it is. In my experience teaching Irish music I have found there's a significant difference how, say, local teenagers who have learned their previous music by ear and by assimilation and those, often Europeans or Americans, who come to it not only later in life but from a background of (a degree of) formal music education and reading.

The ear-learners approach a tune from a very different angle, often very quick to 'lift it'. Sight learners seem to be very much prone to stick to the notes they learned while ear-learners see the structure of a tune, filling it in in different ways as they go along, immediately varying the melody in the traditional manner.