music is the least educative of all the arts

Think I see what you're getting at here, MG. And I think I agree as regards music without words. Songs, of course, can engage you completely (emotionally and intellectually, well, beyond both really) - words and music working together and making very strong medicine.

I'd say that it's not just other artists who make musicians - I've certainly met more than one composer who was also good at maths, astronomy and computer programming. And chemistry! As a side note, chemists often make good programmers for some reason .