As a pianist who learns far better by ear than by sheet music, I wrote this in distress when I came to terms with how my low retention affects my music. After all 11 years of playing both in lessons and by myself, I still can't sight-read above level 3, and while I can learn complex pieces strictly by ear, it takes at least a month to learn one simply because of how my brain learns. I'm a musician, but not treated as such when I can't sightread a song in a day or it takes me over a month to fix all the mistakes in a piece. It's hard to feel competent in anything with low retention, and perhaps some will be more merciful in their judgements if given a chance to understand that.