Well, originally humans sang to communicate. In fields, to keep time when felling trees or other back-breaking work, across valleys. Over thousands of years, it evolved to express and communicate our deepest feelings as humans. To soothe a babe, around a table (with music that was printed four different ways on the paper for people to read at home), to lament a lover taken too soon or to buoy the spirits of those in the frontline of battle.

Nowadays, singing is a constant, but most of it is electronic. Boomed into our lives in lifts, shopping centres, radios, even wirelessly. Somehow that human connection is diminished. However, when we participate in that singing, in the shower, the car or in a choir, we reconnect with the more foundations of singing, communicating with each other about what it is to be human.

And it feels good. When you sing in a choir, you connect with others in a way that is hard to replicate elsewhere in life. There is no competition, no striving to be better than each other, but actually striving to be one, coherent whole. No individuals but a group made up of each voice striving to meld into one, melodious whole. Each member must listen, watch and feel for each other’s smallest gesture, movement or sound, and respond. That primitive drive to communicate with other humans is at the foundation of all we do when we sing. And to do that together with other people, such as in a choir, is to share in the expression of all that is human.

And despite all the striving, it feels good. Really good. For scientifically validated reasons too. Just like exercise, singing releases endorphins, reduces cortisol and makes your body, mind and spirit feel better. The perpetual attention one must give to all the details a choir demands, musicianship, vocal production, responding to aural and visual cues and the myriad of other skills, means that the mind is completely engaged and absorbed in the task, in every single moment. And that’s what the research says. Singing in a choir is like doing mindfulness, physical exercise and social engagement all in one.

So, why do we sing?

We sing to connect with each other. To express the things we could never say. We sing because we can. We always have and I hope we always will.

Leanne McKean