The joy of music is making it together

🌟 Editor's Note

This is a note based in part on remarks that I gave at a recent choir concert as part of the Capitol Hill Chorale’s Drummond Conducting Fellowship. Several people asked for a copy of my text, and considering it has a bunch of citations (very me), I thought I would put it here instead.

Music is joy

If you’ve met me in person, you will probably soon learn: I sing in a choir. Several of them. I’m a soprano (and if you want to be a REAL nerd, you can call me a lyric or a soubrette). I’m decently good at it, but don’t ever invite me to karaoke. I still recall when I first arrived in grad school, people asked what I did for fun, I said I was in the college choir. They looked down their nose and told everyone that I sang opera. Wrong and judgmental on a number of levels.

But most people I know do not sing. In a choir, or sometimes even alone. To some people it’s just, well, really nerdy. I do get it. Not everyone wants to have strong opinions on Thomas Tallis or Morten Lauridsen! (Though there are also some really amazing choirs like the Gay Men’s Chorus in various cities that focus on more pop-style music). To many people, the most accessible choir might be one affiliated with a local religious group (usually a church choir), and not everyone wants that.

And of course, a lot of people have shame around singing. Many people got told at one point that they didn’t sound good (deeply unfair if no one has ever taught you how to make musical noise with the mucous membranes in your throat, it’s not actually a natural thing). For some, I know their voice can be a source of discomfort or dysphoria. Even for playing an instrument, people might get told they don’t have the talent, or the money and time to learn. Singing together can be humbling, as you find out you’re on the wrong note or the wrong rhythm. Never mind that we all make mistakes, you’re doing it out loud. In public!

But it makes me so sad when people don’t feel they can make music. Making music in a group, with your voice, with your hands, with an instrument, is one of the most joyful things I can imagine. Is there any better feeling than driving fast down a road with your best friend, screaming your favorite song? There is a reason so many religious services involve music, chanted or sung, and often sung together.

Making music in groups is more than joyful. In 2011, scientists hooked up electrocardiograms to a choir and conductor as the group sang. They showed that when the choir was singing, not only did they breathe together, the hearts of the singers also coordinated, they beat in rhythm. A 2015 study then showed that singing together ran even deeper--people's brains literally interact with each other when we sing, exhibiting similar electrical activity. Singing together has been shown to increase social bonds and improve mood. It can improve physical and mental health.

Based on results like this, scientists have proposed that a choir singing together is a form of superorganism, a group that is more than the sum of its parts. Singing together literally brings us together; it makes us hear each other in a world where we are encouraged to only listen to what we agree with.

It makes me wonder what would happen if we all sang together. If we all listened, and felt, together, maybe we would understand each other, feel for each other. People like to say that all you need is love, but maybe for love, we need more song.

References

• Delius JAM, Müller V. Interpersonal synchrony when singing in a choir. Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 11;13:1087517. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1087517. PMID: 36710769; PMCID: PMC9875726.

• Campbell Q, Bodkin-Allen S, Swain N. Group singing improves both physical and psychological wellbeing in people with and without chronic health conditions: A narrative review. J Health Psychol. 2022 Jul;27(8):1897-1912. doi: 10.1177/13591053211012778. Epub 2021 Apr 29. PMID: 33913360.

• Boyd, M., von Ranson, K. M., Whidden, C., & Frampton, N. M. A. (2020). Short-term effects of group singing versus listening on mood and state self-esteem. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 30(4), 178–188. https://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000266

• Müller V, Lindenberger U. Cardiac and respiratory patterns synchronize between persons during choir singing. PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e24893. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024893. Epub 2011 Sep 21. PMID: 21957466; PMCID: PMC3177845.

• Osaka N, Minamoto T, Yaoi K, Azuma M, Shimada YM, Osaka M. How Two Brains Make One Synchronized Mind in the Inferior Frontal Cortex: fNIRS-Based Hyperscanning During Cooperative Singing. Front Psychol. 2015 Nov 26;6:1811. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01811. PMID: 26635703; PMCID: PMC4659897.

• Keeler JR, Roth EA, Neuser BL, Spitsbergen JM, Waters DJ, Vianney JM. The neurochemistry and social flow of singing: bonding and oxytocin. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015 Sep 23;9:518. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00518. PMID: 26441614; PMCID: PMC4585277.

• Bowling DL, Gahr J, Ancochea PG, Hoeschele M, Canoine V, Fusani L, Fitch WT. Endogenous oxytocin, cortisol, and testosterone in response to group singing. Horm Behav. 2022 Mar;139:105105. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105105. Epub 2022 Jan 6. PMID: 34999566; PMCID: PMC8915780.

• Pearce E, Launay J, Dunbar RI. The ice-breaker effect: singing mediates fast social bonding. R Soc Open Sci. 2015 Oct 28;2(10):150221. doi: 10.1098/rsos.150221. PMID: 26587241; PMCID: PMC4632513.

Where have I been?

Writing SO many things.

• I got to write about the protein-packing craze for Scientific American, including why protein in processed foods is so popular, and whether any of us really NEED all that extra protein (spoiler, most of you do not). They even had me on the podcast to talk about it!

• Sure, bears poop in the woods, but did you know porcupines poop in trees? Not FROM trees. IN trees. A scientist doing a tree survey in Costa Rica found latrines (la-tree-ns?) that 17 mammal species were using in the branches of strangler fig trees!

• I got to write for National Geographic about bowhead whale migrations…and about how increased boat traffic and climate change might be changing where whales go and when.

• It’s not blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean (iykyk). National Geographic let me write about the history of the color cerulean, and how scientists are trying to recreate a famous artistic pigment.

Where have you been?

Oh wow I’ve been reading some very depressing stuff.

• HHS Secretary RFK Jr. is coming for antidepressants. He’s already spreading doubt and misinformation, in particular around antidepressant withdrawal. The NYT covered this with…very little questioning. But I’ve got a lot of thoughts.

• Also drug related, the Trump administration is changing the approach to treating opioid overdoses, focusing on naloxone and taking money away from harm reduction. This is going to kill people, as Maia Szalavitz skillfully points out.

• And babies in the US are now dying from something incredibly preventable: Bleeding. There’s a vitamin K shot most babies get that prevents this. But more and more parents are passing it up. Because people are spreading completely false fear.

(Header image by samy benabed on Unsplash. It is not my choir but it looks like a great spot to sing)