The great psychologist and cocaine addict Sigmund Freud believed that one’s personality was dictated by the astrological star sign you were born under! Meanwhile, in other news, other research has proved over and over again that music lessons and musical training from an early age can improve spatial awareness.

Research has shown that the motor cortex, the cerebellum and the corpus callosum, which connects the two sides of the brain, is more developed in musicians than it is in those who have never had the opportunity to play a musical instrument… and children who grow up with an appreciation of great music really do end up smarter than those brought up on a diet of endless ‘pop’ junk.

Music lessons improve hand/eye coordination and pattern recognition. All those scales and arpeggios really do come in useful! And then there’s the purely therapeutic and soothing effect of great music and the many and varied components of really great music. Variations in mood, pitch, rhythm, speed, tone, etc. can be both profoundly relaxing and positively uplifting and exciting.

The appreciation of great music can activate the brain’s reward centres and depress activity in the amygdala, reducing the effect of negative emotions such as depression and fear.