I once wrote an essay on this that got pretty good reviews.

If you think about it we are:
A. Working in divisions of real time (math) happening continuously as we play while reading music
B. Reading a foreign language (none of us were taught music before our native language or we wouldn't understand it).
C. Improvising; creating things by thinking beyond the above 2 processes. We have to process and create 'before' the moment arrives in order to play the right note 'when' the moment arrives. So we are reading ahead, analyzing what is coming, reacting/creating beforehand, performing 'behind' what we are reading/processing so when the moment arrives we are in time .. being late is unacceptable. Not many other skills require this kind of processing! That's a lot to keep track of.

Then realize that IF we are good, we are listening to what the rest of the band is creating and including that in our end result so we are analyzing the 'now' and it is affecting what we are responding with within (sometimes) milliseconds .. let alone a guy from Russia and a guy from US can both look at a sheet of music and 'communicate' even though they do not know each others native language. It binds societies/races/countries.

It really is an amazing thing when you think about it.
And I see why it makes for a better student, regardless of path.

The fact that this seems to 'stick', even when other memory is gone, makes it even more amazing. Musicians.
We're 'different'.

I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!