I have a story that falls in the same pattern and involves the clarinet, but is basically the much kinder version. I was in band for years, playing brass, but opted to take a credit in the "beginner" band to try a wholly different instrument, and settled on clarinet because thats what they needed.

I had some real advantages over the beginners, being able to read music well and being used to playing in larger, more complex ensembles. When it came to actually playing though, I was terrible. I was always getting this warped, squeeling tone that was written off as using a wood reed vs a metal mouthpiece like I was used go.

Well, about a week in, the conductor stops and has me play a scale, which came out with a terrible warble. He stopped for a second, eyeballed me, and then had me swap to a number 2 reed instead of the normal 1. This is a thicker reed, a change you would expect beginners to move to after playing a woodwind for a few months.

Instantly, the sound firmed up correctly and I hit the exact tone. It was honestly astonishing. I had gone from a squeel to a pure tone immediately. My younger peers where shocked, having just thought I was somewhat shit at the instrument. Turns out the years of playing brass had given me a strong embouchure, or jaw muscle, so I was basically warping the beginner reed by just using it. I'd love to say I went on to first chair, but I had to drop the class due to conflict and that pretty much ended my time with the clarinet too.

Really interesting to have something like that happen, at least when the lead in is immediate support instead of years of beratement.