Health Promotion: Community Singing as a Vehicle to Promote Health

Singing is a great vehicle for communal activity, but it has disappeared as a part of adulthood in many communities. Children still sing in kindergarten, but when do we as adults sing together? Singing has a wide range of personal benefits besides learning about music and how to create it. Developing and improving healthy singing techniques has been shown to have multiple physiological and social benefits for the participants, while also being a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Working with the voice has many physical benefits, such as improved posture and respiratory strength, increased energy levels and also stimulation for the mind. There are also many social and personal benefits, such as boosted self-esteem and confidence, improved communication and listening skills, raised self-awareness and awareness of others and developed team working skills. One area of communal activity that has received increasing attention is participative community singing, because it entails aerobic exercise, social interaction and promotion of a sense of connectedness. We believe it may be a good avenue to increase sense of connectedness and to promote participation in exercise activities. In this book we provide persuasive evidence from research to demonstrate the power of community singing in promoting social and emotional wellbeing, preventing depression, promoting healthy behaviours and promoting access to health services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. In addition, the health effects of Tai Chi as another form of the arts is also explored. Academics have collaborated with practitioners to produce the study results, all of which are quantitative and report on the effects of community singing practices for a marginalised population in Australia.