Music is all around us, made up of vibrations of different frequencies, heard in the sounds of nature, the sea and the birds - even the electrical hum of the fridge has a frequency.

In eastern philosophy the beginning of all life is understood as starting with a single vibration, to which there was a response, thus creating a resonance. People may either ‘resonate’ in harmony with each other or grate on each other’s nerves.

Music is a powerful tool that can be used to improve our wellbeing in many different ways:

1. Music to reduce anxiety: Whether played on a hospital ward, in an exercise class, or a religious ceremony, music underpins the movements and pace of events through the tempo, rhythms, mood and harmonies.

Some anxiety is simply unprocessed energy, which can be expended by moving to music. Moving and being creative can help people to extend themselves and to be more spontaneous in having fun.

2. Music to change your mood: Music is an art form available to almost everyone. Anyone can explore safe and appropriate ways in which music can lift their mood.

In some public places classical music is played to enhance a calm mood across a busy, crowded environment, where people might otherwise get stressed and become aggressive. Healthcare practitioners frequently use music to stimulate a better ambient mood, for example in a secure hospital unit.

3. Music for nostalgia: Pre-recorded music has associations to times and places in our lives. If we hear a song from a different time in our life it can bring back all those old feelings.

For example, when an elderly person hears a favourite old song it can bring back happier times and they can then often recall the lyrics, which may not have been thought about in ages - then the individual can enjoy sharing their memories.

4. Music for mental health: Music Therapy is particularly effective for people who live with schizophrenia. It helps with mental organisation because music alone can cross the bridge between the two hemispheres of the brain, thereby integrating emotional responses and cognitive thinking processing.

Once a person has expressed their inner feelings non-verbally through jointly-creating music within a trusting therapeutic relationship hen they may be able to more easily recognise what they are feeling and start to find the right words to be able to talk about their problems and thereby receive help from others.

5. Music and Learning: Practising a musical instrument is associated with enhanced verbal ability, the ability to work things out and improved motor co-ordination. This is because a lot of components and hours of discipline are involved in becoming accomplished on an instrument.

Let me tell you about Irvine (not his real name).

Irvine was eleven and had just scraped into the school where I taught. Irvine was a sensitive child, but he didn’t seem to have a sense of rhythm, and so I worked to instil a steady pace, demonstrating first so that he could copy me.

As a music therapist I knew how to find his inner rhythm and pace. By the end of his first year he had moved academically from the bottom of the lowest set of kids in his year into the top set.

Individual instrumental lessons gave him the confidence he needed to be better co-ordinated physically, with improved attention span and greater ability of mental processing.

Music can enhance our lives in so many ways; it can help us feel more energised, or more relaxed, it can help us communicate with others, and it can even enhance our ability to learn new skills.