I do enjoy your comments about music a lot! Why on earth would the violinist fail you on a performance like that!-- okay, I boggled a bit there, couldn't help it.
Now I want to go and listen to ALL THE THINGS!
RE: changing your ear, I find writing has done this to me as far as enjoyment while reading things.
Dinkum editing problems and spelling and punctuation knock me out of the dream instantly. Weirdly, I am much more tolerant of awkward noob work than I ever used to be, the squawks and awkward bits are less distracting (having been there myself I recognize where progress can be made, so it's not hopeless!) as it's easier for me to see the promise there.
Also, if I think something is well-written, I really enjoy it more intensely for the different levels.
I so find I'm getting increasingly impatient with world-building and history research issues and racefail types of problems.