If you take exercise every day - and you should - you will find that music helps to move and motivate you. It does not matter what that music is. It could be Beyonce, Abba, some of the Beatles, or, a minority taste, brass band music. As long as it motivates you and keeps you going at a steady rate, that is the music for you.

All of this has been known for a long time. Which is why exercise classes have loud music; armies tend to march to brass bands; national anthems are played on important occasions.

Music moves your mind and your body.

Now, a lot of research is showing that music also has an effect on your body and psyche. In fact, there's a growing field of health care known as Music Therapy, which uses music to heal.

One has to be a bit careful of some these new trendy therapies. They come and they go. It would be totally wrong to say that music cures, or that music is the answer to physical or mental problems. That music is, in itself, a total therapy.

But it is true that music and music therapy can help with pain management, can help to ward off depression, can definitely promote movement and can equally help to calm people.

There is, indeed, research going on which showing precisely how music affects the brain.

Music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves to resonate in sync with the beat and make the body synchronize. Which is why the right tempo music helps you exercise and a slower, quieter tempo seems to promote a calm, meditative state.

It is now known that the parts of you governed by the autonomic nervous system, such as breathing and heart rate, can be altered by the changes that music can bring. This is fairly simple to test yourself.

Measure your pulse rate while you are listening to your favorite piece of pop music. Wait a while and then play Four Seasons by Vivaldi or any similar type of slow, relaxing music. Your pulse will be much slower and your breathing, at the same time, will have steadied down. The difference will vary from person to person, but a 25% drop would appear to be average.

Note that this is not a scientific test. It is just a way to show how music works on you, and that it can slow your heart rate and your breathing.

If music can encourage relaxation – and it can – then it can help relieve chronic stress which, in turn, improves health. Music appears to be able to lower blood pressure and, again, this is easy to test. With the right music (bit of experimentation to find what it is) you can bring your blood pressure down which is an aid to improving your health.

You will find through simple testing that music can also be used to induce a more positive state of mind, and help to keep depression and anxiety at bay. And, incidentally, it can do the opposite. You need to choose your music with great care and through experimentation.

For me, Edith Piaf is uplifting wonderfully restoring music. For you, it might be the opposite. Modern jazz guitar sends me into a quiet despairing frenzy. There are probably people for whom that sort of music has the opposite effect.

Is there a problem? A small one.

There are, as always, people who believe that music is the answer to everything. That the right music can cure all ailments. This is nonsense. But choosing music to enhance a mood, to maximize an exercise, to soothe the savage beast and bring calm and contentment -- that certainly works.

PS Try having sex while listening to Ravel's Bolero. It worked for Dudley Moore. It might work for you.