Choir Singing to Health

"Choir singers not only harmonise their voices, they also synchronise their heartbeats, a study suggests.

Researchers monitored the heart rates of singers as they performed and found that as the members sang in unison, their pulses began to speed up and slow down at the same rate. Writing in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the scientists believe the synchrony occurs because the singers coordinate their breathing."

The "paper aims to illuminate and discuss how singing and especially choir singing promotes wellbeing. We focus on the interplay between two oscillators: the respiratory organ and the heart, while singing."

Source Link: Frontiers

This story has been all over the news here, for some reason. I guess that singing has been quite an 'in' thing to be doing in the UK since all the Gareth Malone nonsense took off.

When I first read about it it actually seemed like one of those things that stares you in the face before you spot it...I mean, often singing in a choir or group does indeed involve co-ordinating breathing so that everyone breathes at specific moments...when you think about it properly it doesn't seem so strange that it would mean that our hearts do similar things. Assuming that everyone takes in similar amounts of air and expends it at a similar rate it seems kinda obvious in hindsight that they would then pump blood around the body at a similar rate.

I did find this study really interesting - and although I'm a singer, it's also been interesting that it has captured the interest of people from all walks of life.

I think that maybe what captured my imaginaton most was the undertones of the idea that we are all linked...that something like singing can make our physical bodies work almost as one...can synchronise us without our even being consciously aware of it.

All is one and one is all...