1. WHAT CAN SINGING DO FOR YOU?
I learned to sing quite late in life. I had always had an interest in making music. I had piano lessons
as a young child and then, as a teenager, I played a violin in a school orchestra for a year. However,
it was not until I decided to take singing lessons that I realised my real passion for music and, in
particular, for singing.
Learning to sing was one of the things I did to build myself a new life. In a period of approximately
eighteen months firstly, my husband died and secondly, I was made redundant from the tertiary
institution for which I had worked for over twenty years. I needed to find purpose and meaning in
life. Discovering my passion for singing brought peace and happiness into my life. A singing course
at a local community college was the way I started but I soon decided to take private lessons. As a
result, I helped to establish a new a cappella choir. I also joined a large established choir and
experienced the excitement of singing with a professional orchestra and alongside professional
singers in stage productions. I began to arrange and write choral music and I set up my own small a
cappella group of five people. We sang in Festivals, at Folk Clubs and other events.
Through learning to sing and through the experiences of establishing the new choir and setting up
my own group, I became very aware of how learning to sing affected the self esteem and the
motivation for life of the people involved. To sing, you need to stand tall and to breathe deeply.
Singing involves your whole body. To sing well requires a lot of energy and it was obvious that the
more energy people put into their singing, the more fun they had. Think how all of those functions
reflect the way that we feel when we are living a full life. To harmonise in the group involves
listening to and working with the other people in the group. Again, this is a reflection of the way to
live a full life.
People have sung to express their feelings and to help their lives for a very long time. We know of
work songs from the past, particularly sea shanties. Those songs helped the group to maintain the
rhythm of the work. Folk songs, madrigals and spirituals told of the state of peoples’ lives and even
acted as codes for keeping group secrets. The churches commissioned music to inspire their
congregations and the musicians gave people hymns to sing during the service to inspire worship. At
various times, some churches have banned singing and music altogether because it encouraged
people to enjoy life. The divide between the singing and music of the church and the popular and
folk music and singing of the day is something that many churches have been trying to address in
more recent years. In our current society where there is so much emphasis on qualifications, I
believe that a false divide has been created between professional and amateur singers and
musicians. It is not only those who earn a living from singing who are good singers. Many people
enjoy the benefits of singing and create beautiful sounds and music simply because they love to do
it.
Singing brought peace and happiness to me. In summary, what can singing do for you? It can:
help you physically by teaching you to stand tall, to breathe fully and freely, and to energise
yourself,
help you to meet new people and learn to work in a group,
bring fun and happiness to your life,
surprise you by making you more confident in yourself, and
surprise you by motivating you to express yourself freely and easily in life.
If you are already singing in a group, think about how you are applying yourself. Are you making the
most of the experience? If you are not a singer, would you like to try to sing? What is there to stop
you? Just get out there and find a way to join a singing group.