‘Singing is one of the most positive forms of human activity, supporting physical, mental, emotional and social health, as well as individual development in the same areas.’
(Professor Graham Welch for Sing Up).
Scotland has a powerful singing tradition, with hundreds of groups across the country meeting weekly to sing a huge variety of music. Now that the tangible health benefits of singing are better understood, that tradition can be drawn on to support people towards improved health and wellbeing. But with such a range of choirs in our communities, how do you find one that will be a good fit for a patient who wants to sing?
Singing in a group has a growing evidence base which highlights the benefits for a range of health conditions. Singing can be particularly effective for improving mental health and wellbeing, and combatting loneliness and isolation. It can support lung health and be used to help the management of symptoms for conditions such as Dementia and Parkinson’s. The Singing for Health Network has a research overview of singing for health where you can read more about the benefits of singing to our health.
The great news for the nation’s health is that choirs are everywhere! The Big Choral Census of 2017 estimated 40,000 choirs and over 2 million people singing regularly in the UK, which makes singing one of the nation’s favourite pastimes. Classical choral, barbershop, rock and pop, gospel, Gaelic and Scottish folk – there’s a repertoire to suit most people’s music tastes. But some singing environments are better suited to social prescribing, including some whose core purpose is health support – like The Cheyne Gang for people with long term respiratory conditions, and the groups in the Dementia Inclusive Singing Network
The Singing for Health Network has built up an expertise on how social prescribing works best in singing environments. To promote and grow this, they have produced a guide for link workers on social prescribing to choirs and singing groups, and another for the groups themselves. In the guide, Singing for Health suggests that Social Prescribing is likely to work best with community choirs and singing groups, which are more focused on the benefits of singing for all, than auditioned choirs, those who use sheet music, or work quickly towards a performance. However, your patient may be a confident singer with previous experience in choirs and they might like to return to this. Whatever type of group a patient is interested in, you can search for choirs in your area using online listings:
Making Music’s Find a Music Group
The Singing for Health Network has created a suggested process and a timeline for social prescribing to a choir, which includes setting up a taster visit and supported attendance at a first rehearsal. As choirs are so different, they strongly recommend Link Workers connect with the singing group before referral, to make sure the group is the right fit.
The resource has suggested questions for a patient, such as ‘how confident would you feel to sing with other people?’ and ‘what sort of singing group might you be interested in?’ There are also questions for the choirs, such as ‘is the group auditioned, or is there a particular level of skill required?’ and ‘do participants need to be able to read music?’
The Singing for Health Network and Making Music both have representatives in Scotland who are happy to talk to you about social prescribing to choirs. We also advocate for this at a local and national level, so please contact us to help make the case for social prescribing to singing or other music activity.
You can contact Baz Chapman, Network Manager, Singing for Health Network or Alison Reeves, Manager in Scotland, Making Music, to find out more information.
Alison Reeves is Manager in Scotland for Making Music which is the UK’s membership organisation for leisure time music with around 3,850 groups representing around 228,000 music makers across the UK. They are dedicated to empowering everyone, whatever their background or experience, to come together in their community to make or present music.
