10 Reasons Why Singing Is Good For You

I like all kinds of singing: barbershop, opera, popular, folk…it’s all good. So recently I read an article posted on an opera company’s website and couldn’t resist sharing the key points with you. I’ll include the link so you can read the entire article if you like. But here’s the take-a-way.

  1. Singing makes you feel better. There’s an increasing amount of evidence that singing releases endorphins, serotonin and dopamine – the ‘happy’ chemicals that boost your mood and make you feel good about yourself. Scientists believe that’s one of the reasons why people report being on a high during choir sessions and continuing to feel positive, uplifted and motivated afterwards. Singing also counts as an aerobic activity as it introduces more oxygen into the blood leading to better circulation – and a better mood.
  2. Singing enhances lung function. We often take our lungs for granted, but most of us rarely use them to their full capacity. The way singing requires you to breathe makes you do just that, increasing your lung capacity as well as engaging the muscles around the rib cage.
  3. Singing helps you beat stress and relax. As well as benefiting our lungs, breathing properly and with more awareness is good for releasing anxiety and helping us transition to a state of rest and relaxation. If you’ve had a bad day, give singing a go.
  4. Singing helps improve memory. Singing can help improve mental alertness, memory and concentration as it involves focusing on multiple things at once, engaging many areas of the brain in the process. Music is also increasingly becoming a feature of dementia care, in part because it has proved to be a powerful tool in sparking memories often long after other forms of communication have diminished.
  5. Singing builds a sense of community. Singing is a fantastic communal activity. Singing with other people, whether in the flesh or on screen, can help build connections and feelings of togetherness. Recent research has also shown that the sense of merging our self with others that we experience by synchronizing our voices with others is a great way to fast-track social bonding. There’s also the pleasure to be found in sharing an interest, ensuring you always have something to talk about before or after the session.
  6. Singing lets you express yourself. Singing is the perfect way to let go and express how you feel. And, when you sing in a group, there’s the added fun of watching other people enjoying themselves too!
  7. Singing can help with pain relief. By supporting wellbeing and giving participants a healthy dose of joy, singing can be beneficial for people who experience pain. It helps them shift from yet another day ‘enduring pain’ to having joyful, fun times and feeling connected to others.
  8. Singing boosts your confidence. Many people get nervous at the thought of performing in public, but singing in a group can actually help boost your confidence and fire up your self-esteem – and the more you do it, the more confident you’ll feel. Good posture is also a key factor in hitting the high notes, so you’ll find you’re naturally standing taller by the end.
  9. Singing features in well-being studies. The University of Leeds is so convinced of the impact music can have that they offer a MA in Music and Wellbeing, exploring in more depth the relationship between engaging with music and the positive effects on health and happiness. Dr Freya Bailes, who leads the MA, says: “Singing with others contributes to positive mood, is engaging, promotes relationships with others, is experienced as meaningful, and can afford a strong sense of accomplishment.” Surveys conducted over the past 20 years by Chorus America also substantiate a direct connection between singing and a sense of well-being experience by singers, not just while singing but throughout their life.
  10. Singing is for Everyone! The good news is, it doesn’t matter whether you think you can sing in tune or not: the health benefits will still be the same. As Oliver Rundell (Opera North Chorus Master) puts it: “Everybody has a voice and everybody can sing. It’s a brilliant way of just giving yourself some time. Simply tune out the rest of the world and enjoy the physical sensation of breathing in and creating a note with your body.”

Published February 1, 2023 by Opera North, Leeds, UK

10 Reasons Singing is Good for You

If Not Now, When?

“Yeah, I used to sing in the high school choir. It was fun, but I haven’t really sung since then.”

“I was in a choir at my church when I was little but other than that, I’ve only sung in the shower. I like to sing, though, I really do.”

If you’ve ever heard yourself saying something similar, there is a singer in you that is waiting for another chance to be heard. All you need is that chance and perhaps a little encouragement. It’s time to knock the rust off your “pipes,” be brave, and go find a group of singers to join.

Barbershop singers are some of the coolest, most helpful, most optimistic and community-minded people you will ever meet. Their attitude: everyone can sing! That was mine, too, even before I encountered the Barbershop Universe where not only do they SAY it, they SING it. Walk up to 4 guys at a barbershop conference and I dare you to tell them you don’t sing; they’ll have you holding your own part on a “tag” within 5 minutes (no brag, just fact!). After that, if you aren’t convinced, they’ll teach you another one, and eventually hand you a folder of music and show you to your seat. It’s really that easy.

Barbershop music is crafted so that it’s beginner-friendly. That’s not saying that all barbershop arrangements are easy: they’re NOT! But most of us have grown up listening to music on the radio, on TV, everywhere and we have learned what to expect in a song. Most popular songs follow a tried-and-true structure that we’ve all heard a thousand times, and barbershop music takes advantage of that unconscious knowledge. You may not think you know much about music (“can’t read music,” “really don’t see any reason to learn to read music”) but you do.

Find a barbershop group and go find out just how much you DO know about music. It’s time you had some fun singing!

Calling All Singers…and Wanna-be Singers!

Singing has been problematic for the last couple years. Yes, we know. Now it’s time to dust off those voices and get them in the mix once again.

Or maybe you finally realized, after singing along to all the virtual offerings online and the radio in the kitchen, that you’d like to sing in a group. Well, now is the time to go find that group and sing!

Barbershop singers are some of the friendliest people on the planet. We LOVE to sing! We love to get everyone around us singing. So if you’re looking for a group, try us out. We’re just returning to singing together (as the situation permits) and we’d love to have you join us. Please go to the CONTACT US – Enquiry form and get in touch.

We’re hoping to hear from you SOON.

Restoring your voice after lockdown: The Straw Technique

The muscle tone that you are accustomed to having will decrease significantly if you don’t sing. Here’s how to get it back.

I no longer had a reason to sing once the pandemic hit, so I didn’t. Yes, I know, “Use it or lose it.” But this would all be over soon anyway, right? Six months later, the church where I serve decided to conduct services in the parking lot, and I was asked to sing. I found that the muscle tone I expected to have in my vocal folds was no longer there. I had to do some restoration work. Have you ever stopped exercising for an extended time and then had to suffer the experience of getting back into shape? It’s not fun, and neither was getting back into vocal shape.

The primary technique I used was the semi-occluded vocal tract, more commonly called the “straw technique,” developed by vocologist Ingo Titze. Many vocal pathologists and singers have used this technique to repair and maintain vocal health.

Below are some steps and cautions when using the straw for general vocalizing and building back your voice.

  • Use a straw that has a smaller diameter than the ones in the fast food chains—preferably .5mm or smaller. Vocal pathologists often use a coffee stirrer, but I’ve found, for me, that creates too much back pressure and can create inappropriate tension, which is not our friend.
  • Cut the straw in half. For me, longer straws produce a weird, unpleasant vibration. Plus, it doesn’t use as many straws over the long haul.
  • When putting the straw in your mouth, be sure to have your tongue under the straw with the tip of your tongue touching the back of your bottom front teeth. If your tongue is pulled back as if you are sipping a soda, the back of your tongue is pushing down on your epiglottis and partially covering your larynx. This will also create inappropriate vocal tension, which is not our friend.
  • Using gentle phonation, hum into the straw at a comfortable pitch range with narrow pitch glides (glissandi) up and down. You can do these narrow glides in your
    low range and middle range.
  • Gradually, increase the range distance from the “chest voice” through the mid-range and into the head voice. You can also start in your higher, light head mechanism and do downward glides. As you use the higher registration, allow the vocal folds to thin out. Avoid trying to ram the heavy chest mechanism into the upper registration. The sound you are aiming for is one voice—not three separate voices.
  • Repeat. Avoid strain and oversinging.

OTHER VARIATIONS

  • Sing simple songs that are in your comfortable range, and then sing them in different keys.
  • Sing the songs you are working on in the correct keys.
  • Use the straw with the vocal warm-ups your director uses in rehearsals

SOME SUGGESTIONS AND CAUTIONS

  • Go slowly.
  • If there’s pain, STOP! You’re doing something wrong. Work carefully through the sequence, noting where discomfort begins. Is it tension? Poor technique? Too much too soon?
  • Experiment with different diameter straws.
  • Keep your tongue forward and your larynx comfortably low at all times, because inappropriate tension is not our friend.

5 ways to practice by yourself

New music…Yay! Now you have to learn it. Rehearsals only occur once every week. What can you do, by yourself, to make progress?
1- Look at the words. Get familiar with them, reading them as a poem and then reading them in rhythm. Are there sections that repeat? Do they repeat exactly or do some words change with each section? Do you understand all the words, or all the references that are made in the song?
2- Tell a story. To sing a song with any kind of conviction, you need to know what you are singing about. If there’s no story obvious in the song, make one up that works for you and sing THAT story, convincingly.
3- Find a recording. There is a wealth of recorded material on the Internet and on cd’s. Find one you like and listen. Focus on the total sound while looking at your music. Then focus on your part while looking at the music.
4- Audiate. Once you’ve learned your part, sing it in your head. If you’re not sure of your part yet, recite the words in your head.
5- Mark your music. Write down what is discussed about the songs in rehearsal, so that you can refer to it when you practice alone. Circle the parts you have trouble with in rehearsal so you can go through them slowly in your own practice.

Sing with a smile and you’ll enjoy your practice and be practicing for a great looking performance too.

Sing Your Way Home: Background on the “Going Home” theme

Antonin Dvorak (September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904), a Czech composer, gained international attention for his compositions based upon the folk songs Moravia and his native Bohemia. At this time, composers in many countries were likewise developing national musical styles that used traditional themes as the foundation for music that could be uniquely identified with their own countries. This era in musical history has come to be labeled, “nationalism.”

In 1892, Dvorak was invited to move to the US to become the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City, a position he held until 1895. It was his belief, and that of his benefactors, that the United States was uniquely positioned to create a new musical style, and a nationally supported music and arts movement. The Conservatory was was open to men and women, of all ethnicities–quite unusual in that day and age.

As he traveled the US, recruiting students, he heard Native American music and African-American spirituals. He was quoted in a newspaper article as saying: “I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them.” To Dvorak, these melodies and the Native American songs he heard both shared the same earthy qualities. In fact, both share a strong use of the pentatonic scale.

The Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World,” Op. 95, B. 178, popularly known as the “New World Symphony,” was composed in 1893. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular of all symphonies. “Goin’ Home,” the melody quoted in “Sing Your Way Home,” is based upon the Largo melody in the 2nd movement. It is an original melody, not a traditional spiritual, as is sometimes believed. It was adapted into the spiritual-like song by one of Dvorak’s students. William Arms Fisher wrote the lyrics in 1922 to his teacher’s melody, and a new American traditional song was born.

Singers’ Health- tips from Angel

As singers, we spend a lot of time standing and sometimes, the legs begin to protest, loudly and painfully.  Here are some possible ways to alleviate some of that leg pain (bear in mind these are coming from a singer, not a PhD):

1-Make Micro-movements.  Instead of standing absolutely still, keep moving, in micro-increments.   Shift your weight, move slightly forward or back; keep the movements easy & natural, and small (unless you want to call it “choreography!).

2-Drink water.  As one very experienced singer/doctor once told me, “Sing wet, pee pale.”   If you get very dehydrated, you may need to replace electrolytes as well (a “sports drink” may be needed as well as water).

3-Some foods that MAY help alleviate leg cramps are quinine (in tonic water) and potassium (in bananas, for one).

4-Stretch out with a good walk or with toe-touch exercises before you know you will be standing for long periods of time.