I am a firm and staunch believer in education in general and music in particular, so I always suggest music lessons if only so everybody in the project can speak "music" with equal fluency. There is nothing more fristrating to me to tell a singer "That phrase needs to be anticipated" and he doesn't know what I mean. Or "play that for 2 extra measures" and they don't know what a measure is. Now, that comes from one who has a string music education background. Not at the level of a Matt Finley kind of guy who was a music educator, but I know my way around charts and sheet music.

Knowing how to read, however, doesn't equate to strong improvisational skills, nor does it make anybody a better or worse player, depending on which side of that line they are on. I guess what I am saying is that they are two different skills and while they have a tangent effect on each other, they are different and complimentary skills.