Background and Philosophy

Community singing is one of the purest and strongest creative bonds we can share. Humanity has always sung together: it’s a great social leveller, it strengthens community, forges new connections, improves breathing, sparks creativity, and releases endorphins to make us feel fantastic! Even those (and especially those) who feel they ‘can’t sing’ or who were once told to ‘stand at the back and mime’ – can find joy and connection and a reclaimed musicianship through it.

The mute button

So why have we, as communities become dispossessed of our voices? What was once an ordinary part of daily life for families, villages and workplaces has become something to ‘attend’ – or avoid – altogether. The Industrial Revolution shifted people away from shared, artisanal work, and younger generations moved to cities, eroding regular music-making traditions. The printing press and printed scores inadvertently created a divide between those who ‘could’ and ‘couldn’t’ read music, and by implication, who was and wasn’t musical. Later, radio, TV and recording technology reduced the impulse to make music ourselves – why sing when we could listen to ‘better’ singers?

Finding our voices

Happily, the last 50 years have seen a revival, thanks to pioneers like Frankie Armstrong and Venice Manley, and even mainstream figures like Gareth Malone who, despite their limitations as community musicians, have reignited public curiosity. People are rediscovering the magnetic pull and palpable joy of singing together.

Singing together is part of our heritage and a simple tool for happiness. Its normality is its radical power. We don’t need formal training to sing, but like any skill, the more we do it, the more versatile we become. Singing regularly with an experienced facilitator offers that development in fun, engaging ways – through warm-ups, focused listening, and deeper somatic connection.

I love the nakedness, naturalness, and sheer normality of a group of people singing together – and the raw empowerment that brings. This ethos underpins the Natural Voice Network, a movement I’ve been part of since its inception. The NVN champions singing without audition or formal training, and without the need to read music, and emodies Frankie Armstrong’s concept ‘singing from the soles of your feet’.

Rhythm and roots

Using pitch and rhythm to express ourselves is primal. We do it instinctively, at a cellular level, before we learn language. Yet socialisation, criticism, teenage embarrassment and the belief that “not reading music” means “not musical” can silence us. We humans are hardwired to use pitch, rhythm and dynamics to express ourselves (with considerable subtlety) – none are so free with this as babies – this is what we mean when we say that SINGING IS YOUR BIRTHRIGHT!

However, we begin to lose the natural, beautiful music we instinctively make as babies, as we grow up – through socialisation, negative reinforcement from others (teachers, parents, peers, siblings) through a mortifying, existential teenage embarrassment, and through an unwritten perception that ‘we can’t read music so we are therefore ‘not musical’… Maybe that has been/is your script?

I regularly return to another of Frankie’s concepts, namely “I am a vehicle for song,” rather than “the song is a vehicle for me.” Both phrases relate to us as singers and artists, but the intent is diametrically opposed. So with this in mind, here’s the deeper reflection: group singing, and in particular a cappella, harmony singing, is the perfect blueprint to building and bonding a positive community. It requires a profound and subtle sense of listening (different to everyday listening), a heightened and satisfying sense of teamwork, a healthy dose of altruism, and, to misquote Brian Eno, the ‘immersion of self into the community’!

The Gestaltian whole

On your own, you might be singing a playful phrase like “dm daga” or “ka ta kiri”, goofing around. But when all those individual parts come together, something alchemical happens. Harmony singing is a truly Gestaltian experience – the whole becomes far greater than the sum of its parts. We hear it happen and feel the change in the air – the endorphins kick in, and the sense of being an integral part of something deeply musical, creative and fun can brings a wildly energising and empowering buzz…and even radical change!

So come on into the world of community singing… what’s not to love?!