"...many high achievers told me music opened up the pathways to creative thinking. And their experiences suggest that music training sharpens other qualities: Collaboration. The ability to listen. A way of thinking that weaves together disparate ideas. The power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously...
"...the qualities these high achievers say music has sharpened: collaboration, creativity, discipline and the capacity to reconcile conflicting ideas. All are qualities notably absent from public life. Music may not make you a genius, or rich, or even a better person. But it helps train you to think differently, to process different points of view — and most important, to take pleasure in listening."
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/13/20946912-nyt-opinion-is-music-the-key-to-success?lite
One of my favorite quotes is from Woody Allen (clarinet), “If you want to play at all you have to practice. I have to practice every single day to be as bad as I am.” :D
"It takes a lot of devotion and work, or maybe I should say play, because if you love it, that's what it amounts to. I haven't found any shortcuts, and I've been looking for a long time."
-- Chet Atkins
-- Chet Atkins