You should focus on developing yourself as a person fully, regardless. Some things we take with us in the next life. Some things we don't.
Same as with the musician, someone who has painted a lot in their whole life and had learned color theory and object placement, through book reading, to a point where it becomes second nature to them, that person will take that information with them in the next life and "know" how to use it naturally.
Or for example someone who have studied crystals intensively. In the next life, when the person sees a crystal, they will automatically associate it with its properties even if they haven't seen in it that life until that point.
However, a very high percentage of the things we learn, we need to aquire again. Unless we engrave the information deep within our subconscious and soul, so much that it becomes second nature.