Can music be good for your health?

Have you ever noticed that the musically minded are often quite calm and peaceful people? or that musicians generally are a good looking bunch? I am tempted to believe that there could be certain physiological reasons for this, namely that music is a form of exercise for the mind, body and soul. OK so I'm not the first person to suggest this and then there will those who think I'm talking a load of nonsense but i can personally say from my own experience that i have noticed certain changes in my physiognomy since i took up music. It seems that music is a way of balancing out the body and bringing us in touch with different parts of the brain that we may not use so often in our modern day lifestyles. Take for instance a drummer (and I'm not talking about some bird brained, high as a kite rock drummer, I'm talking about serious percussionists; people who play Latin percussion or the Indian Tabla) surely this act of co-ordinating the left and right parts of the body is good for us in someway. Its like our brains are working things out, learning how to judge distances and time frames, improving our reactions.

On the other hand you could say that it is the more beautiful among us who have natural musical ability and that beauty suggests strong genes which in turn suggests good hand-eye co-ordination, good hearing etc. This theory however is a little unfair but i can back it up to some degree with an article i read recently in 'The Economist' in the December 2007 edition titled 'To those that have, Shall be given' it basically suggests that the beautiful are more likely to be successful because beauty suggests strong genes. So the where does this leave the ugly?

It is hard to say whether music will make us more beautiful but it certainly helps a lot of people feel better. A friend of mine, Yaw Freeman, who is an African drummer and Balaphone player, told me that in Africa when someone is ill, it is a tradition that they should hear the sound of a drum. I can also say from my own experience that sometimes sitting down at a piano and improvising for half an hour has made me feel a lot more relaxed and centered. Perhaps music is like a form of meditation, yoga or tai chi. All these art forms are known to improve mental and physical well being so why not music too?