It occurs to me that I risk generalizing about "music students" when what I really know about are piano students. The main difference is that the student's ear involvement translates directly into tone production on practically every other instrument whereas, on the piano, there are many confusing obstacles between the ear and the output.

Hands all by themselves are formidably complex. Add to that the very distinct and very confusing qualitative differences between registers on the piano--it is not one instrument, but many. Some people find it impossible to believe that an E in one register has anything to do with an E in another register.