Singing has a wide range of personal benefits besides learning about music and how to create it. As well as developing and improving healthy singing techniques, and also being a thoroughly enjoyable experience, a recent education research project at Roehampton University has shown these workshops to have multiple physiological and social benefits for the participants.
Working with the voice has many physical benefits, such as improved posture and respiratory strength, increased energy levels and also stimulation for the mind. There are also many social and personal benefits; boosted self-esteem and confidence, improved communication and listening skills, raised self-awareness and awareness of others, and developed team working skills.
Click on the links below to go straight to each section:
"Apart from having a musical function, collective singing has, undoubtedly, a social function. Humans are essentially social animals; music is essentially a social activity. The very structure and nature of the communal singing activity makes it a social phenomenon. As with team sporting activity, choral singing enables people to work together toward a common goal. People come together with others who have a common interest. People of different backgrounds, social status, and ethnicity can relate to one another through musical participation." (Durrant, Choral Conducting: Philosophy and Practice, 2003, p.45)
As well as having a variety of personal skills, an individual must be able to engage trust in their collegues if they're to find their place (or relevance) within a singing group - For instance, trusting that everyone else is going to sing their line and contribute to the team effort. Trust can develop more easily in a singing group than in almost any other type of social group. "As an inherently cooperative and interdependent enterprise, multi-vocal singing offers a number of non-verbal conduits in which singers can be heard and can express their feelings and inner voices without risking unnecessary personal exposure."(Silber, Bars Behind Bars: The Impact of a Women's Prison Choir on Social Harmony, 2005, p262)
Also, according to one researcher, singing can "be a gender-balanced activity where men and women share rather than compete, that is not based on physical prowess, and is free from the threats associated with a re-distribution of power (for a couple of hours at least)". (White, Singing is Good For You, Paper for the National Rural Health Conference, Canberra, 2001)
"Most musical activity is carried out with and for other people - it is fundamentally social - and so can play a part in promoting interpersonal skills, teamwork, and co-operation." (Hargreaves & Marshall & North, Music Education in the Twenty-First Century: A Psychological Perspective, British Music Education Journal Vol. 20 Issue 2, 2003, p.160)
Dividing groups into small teams can be considered a method for facilitating 'co-operative learning', a widely used educational tool. Students rely on each other to achieve their personal goals, whilst working together to achieve a shared goal.
"Music making requires many qualities that are inherent in cooperative learning: positive interdependence, individual accountability, emphasis on tasks, direct teaching of social skills (as they relate to music making), and frequent teacher observation and intervention" (Kassner, Cooperative Learning Revisited: A Way to Address the Standards, Music Educators Journal Vol. 88 Issue 4, 2002, p17)
"Because singing is visceral (relating to, or affecting, our bodies), it can't help but effect change" says Suzanne Hanser, chair of the music therapy department at Berklee College of Music, Boston.
People who sing are healthier than those who don't. Singing exercises the lungs and tones up the intercostal muscles and diaphragm. Singing also causes deeper breathing than many other forms of exercise, opening up the respiratory tubes and sinuses as well as increasing aerobic capacity. This leads to a greater intake of oxygen, benefiting the heart and circulation, and decreasing muscle tension. Further studies have linked singing with a lower heart rate, decreased blood pressure, and reduced stress.
Several studies have found that singing also enhances immunity. One study, conducted at the University of Frankfurt, found that singers had higher levels of immunoglobulin A and cortisol (indicators of enhanced immunity) after singing Mozart's "Requiem" than before. The activity of singing is also thought to block some of the neural pathways that pain travels through. Researchers at the University of Manchester have discovered that the sacculus, an organ in the inner ear connected to the part of the brain responsible for registering pleasure, responds quickly to low frequency, high intensity sounds, commonly found in singing. Under the right circumstances this can lead to the release of pain relieving, or pleasure giving, endorphins.
Increased confidence and self-esteem are further benefits that teachers and educators deliberately aim to develop in their students. "Self-esteem, where the personal and the relational meet, is also an area where the choir can contribute. The development of new skills, the successful mastery of the complex tasks involved in choral singing, and the affirmation that comes after a well-received performance, may contribute to a positive self-image." (Silber, Bars Behind Bars: The Impact of a Women's Prison Choir on Social Harmony, 2005)
"Warm-up exercises are a series of activities that get the body and brain into gear and introduce healthy and effective singing practice at the same time… We all learn in different ways and each singer will respond to different stimuli. Some people need to understand the physical processes before enjoying an action, while others respond instinctively and are less interested in the techniques involved." (Brewer, Mike Brewer's Warm-ups!, 2002)
Breathing exercises have the benefit of sending larger amounts of oxygen to the brain, but the effects of stretching exercises are not entirely obvious. Stretching can certainly help to improve circulation, and exercises to lengthen the body are particularly good for this (Dennison & Dennison, Brain Gym: Teachers Edition, 1989). Neck-rolls, in particular, can help with circulation of blood to the head, but also have the benefit of heightening binocular vision and binaural hearing.
This type of exercise is also expected to be beneficial to those participants for whom singing is a new experience, and Dennison and Dennison, authors of Brain Gym, give a detailed explanation of the body processes involved:
"The Brain Gym Lengthening Activities help students to develop and reinforce those neural pathways that enable them to make connections between what they already know in the back of the brain and the ability to express and process that information in the front of the brain… The front portion of the brain, especially the frontal lobe, is involved in comprehension, motor control, and rational behaviours necessary for participation in social situations. The Lengthening Activities have been found to relax those muscles and tendons that tighten and shorten by brainstem reflex when we are in unfamiliar learning situations." (Dennison & Dennison, Brain Gym: Teachers Edition, 1989)