Group singing is not only good for our health – it's also a powerful and peaceful way to raise a collective voice, says English singing therapist Julia Hollander.
"The singing voice can reach out towards other people … and towards a kind of better world,'' she tells Kathryn Ryan.
English singing teacher and writer Julia Hollander Photo: Colin Grant
Hollander's new book Why We Sing was inspired by the "miracles" she saw while singing to people with dementia and their carers.
People in their 70s and 80s tend to know a lot of songs and often sang with their families in childhood, she says.
As well as regular visits to music halls – where they'd sing songs deliberately created for joining in such as My Old Man's A Dustman – there was always a radio at home and often a piano, too.
"They remember all the generations gathering in the pub or fathering in the front room and singing. That was their entertainment.
"And gradually... hey, what took over? Technology. And we were encouraged to think of songs as something we bought, not something we played ourselves."
Many people develop the idea they are "bad" at singing – and thereafter avoid doing it – after just one discouraging comment, she says, but our life-long relationship with melody begins in the womb.
In utero, we hear the "singing tones" of other mothers' voices, Hollander says, rather than her distinct words.
"The first thing we become familiar with is the sound of our mother's voice as song."
Later, synching our own voices with other people has been shown to produce oxytocin, boost the immune system, lower cortisol levels and bring stress relief to those living with cancer.
Group singing can also be a powerful form of 'nonviolent direct action', Hollander says. Her own sense of democratic disempowerment led to her joining the Rebellion Choir of the climate activism group Extinction Rebellion.
"By singing together we can actually create a peaceful atmosphere - a really important tool on the main street in London."
While researching Why We Sing, Hollander was greatly moved by how much an online singing and breathing course from the English National Opera benefitted a group of people with Long Covid.
After completing the six-week ENO Breathe course, a number of Long Covid patients – including a 22-year-old former tennis pro who'd been consigned to her bedroom for a year – started having normal lives again, she says.
"That was a bit of magic that really touched me."
Related:
Listen - SoundsWell Singers: a Wellington-based therapeutic choir
