So many people say "It's always been my dream to learn music/guitar/piano/etc", even if they've never made much of an effort to actually learn. Does this happen with other activities? Do people say "It's always been my dream to play tennis" and then never actually play it?

The difference between music and noise: Music has recognizable patterns that our brains can follow. Noise is random. This is why people think jazz sounds like noise; the patterns are so complex, most people can't follow and they just feel like they're listening to noise.

The smartphone is the most popular musical instrument in the world. Musical Instrument: In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument.

If learning music is like learning a language, most people only learn how to recite poems.

Listening -> Babbling -> Words -> Phrases Reading is not necessary for any of these. Listening permeates through all of them. It's the same with music. Grab an instrument or your use your voice. Start babbling.

It's more of a teaching tool than a learning tool. And it's becoming more useless every day.