we can all make music

why sing together at your place

Some pointers for agencies

Perhaps you're leaning towards taking our claim seriously that making music together is the foundation of social connection; at least enough of a lean to be wondering how this insight might affect the activities of your organisation, or at least, how you might present a convincing argument to the decision-makers.

Before we get totally practical, you may find it useful and/or enlightening to have a sense of the sort of singing together we're on about. We're convinced that the most intense benefits are in the making - not in the showing to others, nor in the watching of others. So, we promote 'singing circles' - people singing with each other for the sheer joy of the act in the moment.

A singing circle, established and led according to the principles espoused by CMV, displays these characteristics:

it takes place in an environment that is free, fearless, safe and nurturing;
newcomers are always welcomed;
difference is expected and valorised;
the creativity of all participants is acknowledged and nurtured;
tentative, hesitant, recalcitrant and/or self-perceived incompetent participants are encouraged and won over; and,
it is locally owned and sustained.

These behaviours create the feeling of community in the room, and facilitate the dissemination of this consciousness into the everyday lives of participants.

First and foremost, group singing offers participants an avenue through which to joyfully express themselves as a group. The profound pleasure that arises out of making beautiful music together is one of the peak human experiences, and its outcomes are manifold: enhancement of confidence, co-operation and expressiveness being not the least, while the physical and intellectual benefits have been copiously documented. We acknowledge that many have had excruciatingly awful singing experiences - we can guarantee that our techniques minimise this possibility.

Singing together creates a forum in which the tangible experience of diversity combining to create a unified expression becomes joyfully real.

From the perspective of an agency that works with communities, there are two ways in which these benefits can be applied:

enlivening the communities with which the agency works, and
enlivening the culture of the agency itself.

In a community context

Researchers have made firm connections between the extent of group singing that takes place in a community and increased levels of wellbeing and social bonding. There are many benefits and uses, for example:

Facilitating creative expression and solution of problems
Experiencing joy and beauty
Stimulating inter-generational, inter-cultural and inter-gender dialogue
Imagining the future
Celebrating survival; bravely reflecting on loss and pain; healing
Building and exploring identity
Reviving and focusing group dynamics (it can be used to pump energy and to relax)
Effective start and finish rituals
Building and celebrating identity
Communicating with others

In a workplace context

Group singing can be integrated into an organisation's internal operations as a way of:

enhancing productivity, morale and workplace pride;
team-building;
facilitating creative problem solving;
improving communications; and,
enlivening gatherings.

And there's help