Have a look at this piece in nature.com entitled 'How the arts can help you to craft a successful research career.'
One passage within the general discussion in particular is illuminating:
''[Music] hones the ability to focus,'' says Elaine Bearer, a neuroscientist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque who is also an accomplished composer. “When you’re doing music, you’re doing that one thing, and you do it with your full brain,” says Bearer, who plays several instruments. “And when you do science that way, you do it really well.”
And another sends you even deeper:
'''Bravery, too, can be honed in the arts','' says Stephon Alexander, a cosmologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He’s been playing jazz saxophone since he was 11, moonlights in a jazz duo called God Particle and considered a career in music before deciding that science was more stable.
''Improvisation is a key element of jazz, and if Alexander hits a wrong note, he has to recover quickly and keep playing. He says that this principle works in science, too. 'In doing theoretical physics research, my practice and my performance in improvisation allow me to take bigger risks with ideas, and not be too attached to the outcomes'.”
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