Why singing together beats singing alone
2022 will go down as my year of turning forty and making big decisions. Leaving my government job, starting a new business venture and this one may surprise you - joining a choir!
People join choirs for a range of reasons. Meeting new people, doing something new, escaping the house on a week night or maybe they just love to sing. For me it was all of the above. When I joined Menagerie last year it had been a good twenty five years since I’d picked up an instrument or performed in any serious way. That excludes kitchen karaoke sessions and embarrassing children with Coles radio sing-a-longs.
On a personal level the whole choir experience has been immensely fulfilling and much, much more fun than my experiences of choir at school. I've loved reconnecting with music and getting my head around beautiful complex arrangements of some really great songs. From Fleetwood Mac to Thelma Plum, Gotye and Cub Sport - the set list for our XOX show charted the story of relationships from the highs to the lows.
As we worked towards the 2023 Fringe Festival season where we performed three massive shows at the beautiful Heath Ledger Theatre, I was struck by the collective the sense of sense of joy that comes from connecting through song. There is something to learn from this experience about community, about the forces that bring us together and the power of collective creative expression to transform the lives of individuals and the people around them.
“It’s SO much more than just singing”
Humans have been singing together for a long time. Whether it be singing together to pass time on a journey, singing together through mundane work or singing to express collective celebration or sorrow, the practice of collective singing has provided a powerful vehicle for human connection that has endured the test of time. As we sing along to stories of love and loss, we connect with emotions that may be difficult to put into words or share with others. On an individual level singing, in simple terms makes us feel good. Singing together makes us feel part of something bigger than ourselves.
Whilst humans singing together can still be found – think football games, church, pub-singing, karaoke, play-school – it is a practice that has been on the decline. Despite the well-established benefits of singing, consumer culture has seen the commodification of music and a reduction in everyday avenues for musical expression. We love to watch people sing but how often do we engage in the act of singing ourselves? Those of us who do sing often restrict our singing to the private realm – the car, the shower, the kitchen. God forbid we were to break out into song in public, I know I get in trouble from my family everytime I do!
There is also an element of vulnerability involved in singing in front of others. We worry that we’ll be out of pitch, we’ll get the words wrong or we will just sound bad. It is however precisely this act of being vulnerable in front of others that allows us to connect on a deeper level, as we express collectively the whole range of human emotions from joy, sorrow, excitement.
“It really is a family.”
Community choirs like Menagerie provide inclusive and supportive environments that make it easier to overcome fears to reclaim the joy that comes from singing together. My daughter made a comment that resonated with me when I asked her about what she thought about the choir. In typical 9 year old language it went something like this, “choir is great for you mum, you can be as ‘cringe’ as you like because everyone else is being ‘cringe’ too so no-one will notice how ‘cringe’ you are.” Once I got past being called ‘cringe’ , which is a pretty regular occurrence in my house I realised what she was basically saying was that Menagerie provides a safe space where you can let go of your inhibitions, be yourself (as cringey as that may be) and express yourself in whatever way you like.
Choirs teach us that regardless of what we think we sound like on our own, we sound much better when we sing together. They provide an environment where we can sing with our authentic voices, high, low and in-between, weaving all of these harmonies together to produce beautiful sounds.
With a no audition approach to membership Menagerie is a big mix of seasoned musos and people who have little or no musical experience. The process of learning together and going from mastering our parts as individuals, sections and then as whole choir provides a sense of what it feels like to be 'in-sync' with others. The act of listening and leaning on those around you develops a sense of connection and comradery that deepened as we worked towards our show.
The act of creating something beautiful together is powerful. The act of sharing this joy with others is euphoric. As the curtain dropped on our closing show the energy and collective joy was so profound if you could bottle it up and sell it you’d never have to work another day in your life.
On my Menagerie journey I learnt that along with the fun and the music, for many people choir was also about finding something that is missing - whether it be joy, connection with others or connection with your authentic self – choir fills up our cups in all of these ways .
Choirs teach us about much more than just singing . They provide a window to to the possibilities and potential that exists when humans we create spaces and opportunities for humans to get creative together.
Acknowledgements: thank-you to the Menagerie members who allowed me to use their words for this article, to Sal Banyard Menagerie’s amazing Zookeeper and to Anthony Tran who took the amazing photos (with the exception of my selfie below!)
About Menagerie
Menagerie is Perth’s premier indie-pop choir, rocking the city and the suburbs since July 2013. Known for pop-up performances, flash mobs, festivals and multiple sell-out Fringe seasons, at heart Menagerie remains a group of regular human animals who love singing. With no auditions and no prior musical experience required to be part of the zoo, even singers who got kicked out of Year 4 choir leave their shady past behind and sing triumphantly in glorious harmony.
Find out more about Menagerie here.
