Community singing’s remarkable impact on mental health.

How often do you feel disconnected from yourself or the world around you? When was the last time you felt overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of everyday life? 

If these questions feel uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone. According to the mental health charity, Mind, the number of people reporting common mental health problems has increased by a fifth in the last two decades. Based on their recent findings, one in four adults in the UK can expect to deal with some form of mental health issue in the next twelve months.

The rise of the community singing movement is in no small part a reaction to rising figures like these. Group singing’s ability to positively impact our mental health is pretty staggering. Numerous studies have identified the positive mental health impact of group singing - in fact, Show Choir have been involved in one such study recently, with St George's Bristol's Sing for Happiness programme.

The UK is in the grips of a loneliness epidemic, with home working and screen-based lifestyles leaving us less connected to those around us than ever before. Community choirs can be a remarkable antidote to this - encouraging us to get out the house and enjoy the company of our neighbours, if only for a couple of hours a week.

To mark World Mental Health Day 2024, we look at some of the incredible benefits singing can have on your life and wellbeing. But first, lets take a moment to contemplate the challenge in front of us.

AN ARTIFICIAL LIFE

Our lives are more infused with information and instantaneous connection than at any point history. Almost all of us carry a near supercomputer in our pockets, gifting us unfettered access to the entire output of human existence in mere milliseconds. The power of the smartphone is almost too great to contemplate (soon to be further eclipsed by the unrelenting progress of AI), and whilst this utterly transcendent technology fills our lives with abundant opportunities, it also presents very real and tangible challenges to all of us. 

For many, the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 marked a real tipping point in our infusion into the artificial world. Our lives suddenly lurched entirely into an online setting, with travel and human interaction drastically curtailed. Unfettered internet access became an absolute necessity in order to keep the wheels of society turning. Working culture changed, potentially forever, with more workforces moving remote and online – and staying there long after lockdowns were lifted. 

Now we find ourselves in a new kind of normal, where much of our days are spent plugged into the internet and tied to a computer screen. Numerous scientific studies have found that our brains now process as much as 74GB of data every day – a genuinely staggering amount of information that’s believed to increase by roughly 5% every year. When our daily lives are so vastly overloaded with distraction and noise, it’s no small wonder that mental health issues and anxiety are on the rise. Finding moments to decouple from the unstoppable speed of modern life is more important than it’s ever been in the entire history of human existence. But when so much of our everyday lives is locked inside this instantaneous, impossibly convenient world we’ve built for ourselves, how and where do we find the time to switch off, and slow down?

THE POWER OF SINGING

Finding and fostering real human connections when you step outside of your working space can have a remarkable impact on your mental wellbeing. Before we even look at the benefits of song, the sheer act of sharing a room with people who share your intertests and passions for just a couple of hours a week can be genuinely transformative.

But it’s not simply the communal aspect of attending a choir that impacts us positively. The very act of singing in groups has a measurable effect on our mental health. Let’s explore a few of the ways this takes place.

Emotional/Psychological Effects

Singing lowers cortisol and relieves stress and tension. Studies have shown that when people sing, endorphins and oxytocin are released by the brain which in turn lowers stress and anxiety levels. Oxytocin (a natural hormone produced in the hypothalamus) also enhances feelings of trust and bonding which also explains the reports that singing also improves depression and feelings of loneliness. 

 Singing boosts confidence. The release of endorphins gives singers a positive feeling and an energy boost. The act of learning a new skill, improving and being part of a group also helps to influence your confidence and self-esteem. 

 Singing is a mindful activity. So much is going on in your body and mind when you sing that when you are singing you are fully focused on it. This allows you to ‘turn off’ your stream of consciousness and live completely in the moment, distracting your mind from negative thoughts, focusing on the sound, the action, the breathing, the feeling and the pleasure of song. Mindfulness has been shown to have many benefits, including reducing stress and increasing focus.

Social Effects

Singing improves social bonding and social cohesion. Singing is an intimate activity and when you share it with others, it helps strengthen bonds. Research has shown that group singing (no matter the quality of the results) is an excellent icebreaker and has even been shown to synchronise the heartbeats of those people singing together. When people live with mental illness, creating and sustaining social bonds is critical in combatting loneliness and depression. 

​Singing together creates a strong sense of community and social inclusion. Singing with others enhances the possibilities of empathic relationships and generates a positive group identity. Social inclusion is a key part of recovery for people with mental health needs. Feeling connected to others is not only important in terms of having a social and emotional support system where you feel loved, esteemed and valued, it also encourages healthier behaviour patterns and has a positive influence on overall physical health.

Behavioural Effects

Singing helps you believe in yourself, increasing self-efficacy. Through the journey of learning a new skill, engaging with others and performing (even if it’s just within the confines of the group itself), you begin to believe in yourself more and in your power to succeed having long-term impacts in other aspects of your life. Research with The Choir With No Name, a homelessness charity, found 60% of participants in a singing group went on to volunteer, get a job or move in to more stable accommodation.  

Singing provides an unthreatening way to express emotions. Studies have shown that singing can also be a powerful tool in emotion-focused coping. Instead of eliminating stressful situations from your life (which isn't always possible), emotion-focused coping is a way of managing stress with techniques that help you to become less emotionally reactive to stress. 

WHERE TO START?

All of the above comes from deeply researched and peer reviewed scientific studies, and the results are clear. Singing is so much more than just a fun past time. It can represent a very real way to make a positive difference to your own health and wellbeing.

Although we recognise that, for some people, joining a choir can be a daunting thing. There’s an element of inherent threshold anxiety to entering a room with the sole intention of singing your heart out with relative strangers.

But the beauty of community singing is that, by its very nature, it is entirely inclusive of all who step foot through the door. There’s no wrong answers in a choir rehearsal. Just opportunities to have fun, and express yourself creatively.

Even if joining Show Choir isn’t quite the right fit, we’d encourage anyone to seek out a choir near them and give it a go. The Natural Voice Network is a brilliant resource for finding choirs in your area.