from: Professor Graham F Welch, PhD

IoEUL Chair of Music Education

Head, Department of Arts and Humanities
Sunday, December 16, 2007

phone:+44.(0)20.7612.6503
office: +44.(0)20.7612.6550
20, Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
(Rachel Ryder, Administrator)
e-mail<G.Welch@ioe.ac.uk>

Re: The Benefits of Singing – An overview

There have been several requests from within and without the UK Government’s National Singing
Programme Sing Up concerning the benefits that accrue from singing. Similar interest surfaces regularly in
the media (radio and print) in many parts of the world, not least because people have a greater awareness
of the need to have a healthy lifestyle. What follows is a brief overview of our current knowledge.

There is a wide range of benefits from engaging in singing activities. These apply to all ages, from
childhood through to retirement age and senescence. Across the diverse literature sources, there are five
areas of benefit that are evidenced. These are:

1. Physical;
2. Psychological (including emotional);
3. Social;
4. Musical; and
5. Educational.

1. The physical benefits of singing relate to:

o Respiratory and cardiac function Even when seated, singing involves dynamic
thoracic activity with benefits to the underlying structure and function of the breathing
mechanism. Major muscle groups are exercised in the upper body. Singing is aerobic in that
it is a form of exercise that improves the efficiency of the body’s cardiovascular system,
with related benefits to overall health. Aerobic activity increases the oxygenation of the
blood which also improves overall alertness (a study in the news in October, for example,
suggested that breathing pure oxygen was more beneficial than caffeine for increasing
driver alertness). Furthermore, aerobic activity is linked to longevity, stress reduction and
The Benefits of Singing (Welch, 2007) Page 2 of 4

general health maintenance across the lifespan. Improving airflow in the upper respiratory
tract is likely to lessen opportunities for bacteria to flourish by keeping the airways open (to
counter the symptoms of colds and flu). Overall, there are whole body physical benefits
from singing;

o The development of fine and gross motor control in the vocal system The
more that the vocal system is used appropriately, such as in healthy singing, the more that
the underlying anatomy and physiology realise their potential in terms of growth and motor
coordination;

o Neurological functioning Singing is a key musical activity that involves both music
and language. Given the multi-sited nature of musical behaviour, networked across many
different brain areas, this means that singing (whether actual or imagined) facilitates
development and interaction in diverse parts of the brain. These have been evidenced in
several recent neurological studies in the UK, Germany and USA.

2. The psychological benefits relate to:

o Intra-personal communication and the development of individual identity,

both in music and through music Our voices are a key component of who we are;
its use reflects our mood and general psychological well-being, communicated to ourselves
as well as to others. Confident and healthy voice use links to a positive self-concept;

o Singing is a cathartic activity It allows us to experience and express key underlying

emotions that are central to the human condition, such as joy and sadness. Singing
also provides an outlet for our feelings and – through the physical activity and related
endocrine system triggering – allows us to enjoy the activity of singing, to feel better about
ourselves and the world around us;

o Inter-personal communication Healthy singing improves our underlying vocal

coordination and enables us to maximise our potential to communicate with others using
our voices. Voice is a critical tool-of-trade for many professionals (e.g. teachers, lawyers,
telephone salespeople, actors, singers, business people) and singing exercises the basic voice
mechanism and improves its functional capability.

3. The social benefits relate to:

o Better intra- and inter-personal communication This includes the possibility of

empathic relationships with those around us through efficient voice use, especially if
singing is used in a group context, such as a choir, where the physical and psychological
benefits are supported by a positive group identity and an increased sense of community;

4. The musical benefits relate to:

o Singing activity embraces key elements of music as realised in

performance These include an understanding of musical structure, phrasing, the
development of musical memory (including repetition and variation), tone colouring, as
well as other musical building blocks (such as pitch, rhythm, loudness). Singing also is
central in the creation of a musical repertoire (whether as a listener or performer or both).
This has concomitant social and personal benefits through increasing the likelihood of
understanding others and ourselves by the kinds of songs (music and text) that we
experience, whether alone or in groups.
The Benefits of Singing (Welch, 2007) Page 3 of 4

5. The educational benefits relate to:

o Increasing knowledge, understanding and skills about the world around

us, both in music and through music These benefits related to the singing topics,
such as aspects of emotion, people, places, experiences, groups, history, events. There will
also be language skill development because singing involves both ‘musical’ centres in the
brain and also ‘language’ centres. This linguistic skill development is reinforced by the fact
that the underlying structures of songs have linguistic features in their own right (such as
musical syntax). Singing will likely make you more competent in your own language,
including an improvement in reading skills if you have to read the text of the songs and,
even more so, if you read musical notation as well – processed in the same neurocortical
regions for symbol decoding as reading language in print.

Overall, these combined benefits suggest that singing is one of the most positive forms of human
activity, supporting physical, mental and social health, as well as individual development in the same
areas.

Indicative bibliography
Avanzini, G., Faienza, C., Minciacchi, D., Lopez, L., & Majno, M. (Eds.) (2003). The neurosciences and music.
(Vol. 999). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Avanzini, G., Koelsch, S., Lopez, L., & Majno, M. (2005). The neurosciences and music II. (Vol. 1060). New
York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Bailey, B.A., & Davidson, J. (2005). Effects of group singing and performance for marginalised and
middle-class singers. Psychology of Music, 33(3), 269-303.
Beck, R.J., Cesario, T.C., Yousefi, A., & Enamoto, H. (2000). Choral Singing, Performance Perception, and
Immune System Changes in Salivary Immunoglobulin A and Cortisol. Music Perception, 18(1), 87-106.
Brown, S., Martinez, M. J., Hodges, D. A., Fox, P. T., & Parsons, L. M. (2004). The song system of the
human brain. Cognitive Brain Research, 20, 363-375.
Brown, S., Martinez, M.J., & Parsons, L. M. (2006). Music and language side by side in the brain: a PET
study of the generation of melodies and sentences. Eur J Neurosci. 23(10), 2791-2803.
Clift, S., & Hancox, G. (2001). The benefits of singing: findings from preliminary surveys with a university
college choral society. Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 121(4), 248-56.
Costa-Giomi, E. (2005). Does music instruction improve fine motor abilities? In Avanzini et al (Eds.) The
Neurosciences and Music II: From Perception to Performance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060,
262-265.
Hargreaves, D.J., Miell, D. and MacDonald, R.A.R. (2002). What are musical identities and why are they
important? In R.A.R. MacDonald, D. Hargreaves and D. Miell (eds). Musical Identities. (pp. 1-20).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kenny, D.T., & Faunce, G. (2004). The impact of group singing on mood, coping and perceived pain in
chronic pain patients attending a multidisciplinary pain clinic. Journal of Music Therapy, XLI(3), 241-
258.
Kleber, B., Birbaumer, N., Veit, R., & Lotze, M. (2007). Overt and imagined singing of an Italian aria.
NeuroImage, 36(3), 889-900.
Kreutz, G., Bongard, S., Rohrmann, S., Hodapp, V., & Grebe, D. (2004). Effects of choir singing or
listening on secretory immunoglobin A, cortisol and emotional state. Journal of Behavioural Medicine,
27(6), 623-635.
Peretz, I., & Coltheart, M. (2003). Modularity and music processing. Nature Neuroscience, 6(7), 688-691.
The Benefits of Singing (Welch, 2007) Page 4 of 4

Thurman, L., & Klitzke, C. (2000). Highlights of physical growth and function of voices from prebirth to
age 21. In L. Thurman, & G.F. Welch (Eds.), Bodymind and Voice: Foundations of Voice Education.
Revised Edition (pp. 696-703). Iowa City, Iowa: National Center for Voice and Speech.
Thurman, L., & Welch, G.F. (Eds.), (2000). Bodymind and Voice: Foundations of Voice Education. Revised Edition. Iowa
City, Iowa: National Center for Voice and Speech.
Titze, I. R. (2008). The Human Instrument. Scientific American, 298(1) [Jan] 94-101.
Titze, I.R., Hunter, E.J., & Svec, J.G. (2007) Voicing and Silence Periods in Daily and Weekly
Vocalizations of Teachers. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 121(1), 469-78.
Welch, G. F. (2005). Singing as communication. In D. Miell, R. MacDonald & D. J. Hargreaves (Eds.), Musical
Communication. (pp.239-259). New York: Oxford University Press.
Welch, G.F. (2006). Singing and Vocal Development, In G. McPherson (Ed.) The Child as Musician: a
handbook of musical development. (pp. 311-329). New York: Oxford University Press.
Williams, J., Welch, G.F. & Howard, D.M. (2005). An exploratory baseline study of boy chorister vocal
behaviour and development in an intensive professional context. Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology,
30(3/4), 158-162.
Zatorre, R.J., & Peretz, I. (Eds.) (2001). The biological foundations of music. (Vol. 930). New York: Annals of
the New York Academy of Sciences.

See also news articles, such as:

http://chorusamerica.org/vox_article_singinghealth.cfm
http://pslinstitute.com/singinghealth.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4448634.stm
http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/stories/s1497206.htm
http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/06/06/07/how_singing_improves_your_health_even_if_other_peo
ple_shouldnt_hear_you_singing.htm
http://www.heartresearch.org.uk/Singing_is_good_for_you.htm
http://www.womenone.org/etcetera_sing.htm

Professor Graham F Welch

16 Dec 2007