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Why are people shy about singing in public?
A choir of military wives, brought together for a TV programme, is hotly tipped to challenge X Factor's releases for the Christmas number one. The choir's greatest battle was overcoming a lack of confidence, but why are so many people shy about singing in public?
'Tis the season of mince pies, mulled wine and merry sing-a-longs.
But while some people may have no problem belting out Hark the Herald Angels Sing, many more are only comfortable silently mouthing the words to Silent Night.
Those staying schtum will not be lacking in festive spirit. They will simply be too afraid of messing up and attracting unwanted attention with their less than dulcet tones.
“Start Quote
End Quote Caroline Redman Lusher Rock ChoirSinging is no different from speaking, you are just adding pitch”
Some have been scarred for life by that cruel rejection from the primary school choir. Others will have suffered years of ridicule from their nearest and dearest, and even barred from singing at family get-togethers.
Confidence has been a recurring theme throughout the BBC Two show The Choir, which started back in 2006.
The show's choirmaster Gareth Malone and his latest proteges - the military wives - are hoping their song, Wherever You Are, will give the X Factor finalists a run for their money in the race for Christmas number one.
The fourth series charted their journey from a group of shy left-at-home mothers to a choir able to sing at last month's Festival of Remembrance in front of a packed audience at the Royal Albert Hall.
How musical are you?
- Takes 25 minutes on a computer with sound
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The women have talked about how the choir gave them confidence, a voice and their own mission. Mostly, it was a welcome distraction from all the waiting and worrying.
Malone says even the word "choir" can scare some people off singing in public.
"If you ask members of the public to sing in a church they will be anxious, but not if you ask them to sing along at a football match.
"It's the formal dimension that makes British people feel on edge."
The Choir has seen Malone teach all sorts to sing, from temperamental teenagers at a school in west London to lonely pensioners living in South Oxhey, near Watford.
Singing has become mythologised, he says. It is essentially a skill which can be broken down into compartments such as rhythm and pitch.
"A lot of it is familiarity. Anyone can get better with practice but do not think that everyone has a voice that is just waiting for me to come along and realise it."
People who have never sung will take longer to improve, says Malone.
Gareth Malone champions choral singing
"It's getting control of your voice and when people are not in control, they don't want to sing in public."
There has been a growth of community choirs in the UK in the past decade, spurred on by shows such as Glee and X Factor.
Caroline Redman Lusher, founder of Rock Choir, says the key is no auditions.
Six years ago, the music teacher started offering pop, gospel and Motown classes in her home town in Surrey, and now the business has 64 musical graduates working with 16,000 people around the UK and Ireland.
Its members include housewives, grandfathers and schoolchildren, and Lusher has only ever met two people who are truly "tone deaf".
“Start Quote
End Quote Nikki Slade Voice specialistSinging is the language of the soul and the soul is where you can transcend the drudgery of the day”
"Tone deaf means you cannot tell if a scale is going up or down. We use it so frequently but a lot of people don't know what it means.
"Singing is no different from speaking, you are just adding pitch. Most people are just shy."
Shy is not a word that can be levelled at the thousands of people who queue up each year for a place on X Factor. An ability to sing is seemingly no barrier to this growing band of wannabes - the number of people trying out for the ITV show has jumped from 50,000 for series one in 2004 to 200,000 in 2010.
But vocal trainer Gitika Partington says the majority of Britons could not bear the caustic comments from the judges.
Many of those riddled with such fears will have been told they cannot sing in primary school, she says.
The power of singing
There is evidence that regular participation in group choral activity can significantly improve physical and mental health, according to Grenville Hancox professor of music at Canterbury Christ Church University, and co-director of the university's Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health.
Research carried out with choristers in the UK, Australia and Germany identified a number of benefits. Improved breathing, posture and stature, were some of the positives.
And there was evidence singing could counter feelings of "being down in the dumps or depression", says Hancox.
"We carried out a study under strict experimental conditions over a 12-week period with people who had never sung in a choral situation before. There was a marked improvement in people's mental health. In the following 12 weeks, this improvement wasn't maintained, it declined."
The De Haan centre would like to see group singing prescribed on the NHS. "If we medically intervened in this way, it's possible that the health of the nation's population would be better."
Hancox uses the metaphor of Welsh miners, who are famed for their singing. "After they had been underground in the darkness for, say, 12 hours at a time - what did miners want to do when they came out? They wanted to sing - twice a week."
If someone is going though a difficult time, singing can be like the miners' light at the end of the tunnel, he says.
"When you sing [in a choral situation] your brain is flooded, it is totally occupied, everything else is sent away. And when people come together to sing, there is a strong collective effort. Someone who has felt isolated feels part of something."
"We've had 50 years of people saying you're a crow and you're a bluebird. It's a trauma that stays with you for the rest of your life.
"If a kid is not singing with their parents between the ages of nought and five, they will come into school and sing in one note, like a drone. But as they sing with other people, they will learn pitch."
Malone says schools have changed and now offer more than just your traditional choral choir. He actually volunteered for his school choir.
"I grew up with music. There has never been a day in my life where someone has not been singing. It's like holding a pen or using a knife and fork."
Partington, who leads workshops in schools, says people are also afraid to sing in public because they assume there is only one type of voice - "the voice of an angel". She tells teachers to embrace all kinds of voices.
"It's about making it less professional and making it a community thing. The performance aspect changes everything."
But Malone believes performing is the "only way to learn" and you have to give people a "vocal challenge".
"That's better than just practising for a whole year. You just have to get out there and throw them to the lions."
But singing is about more than just unleashing your untamed voice into the world.
"Everyone has a unique sound in their body and it's coming from inside them. It's not like playing the piano where you can hide behind something," says Lusher.
Voice specialist Nikki Slade, whose clients include corporate firms, says everyone has a core sound. She uses ancient mantras and chants to help people connect with their "inner voice".
"Singing is the language of the soul and the soul is where you can transcend the drudgery of the day.
Few have the voice of an angel like Charlotte Church
"We get so busy, we don't stop to connect with what really matters. When it gets really bad, just sing and most of your troubles will drop away momentarily. It's very hard to be upset and sing."
It seems all the experts agree that singing is everyone's birthright. So next time you hear Jingle Bells, just let loose.
"What's the worst that can happen?" asks Malone. "Someone may look around at you but if it really is a community event, then it is for you as much as everyone else."
A selection of your comments is published below:
I was traumatised by my Primary 6 music teacher. After my experience in her class I refused to sing again in public until I was about 27 years old. What broke me out of my fear was moving to Tokyo where Karaoke was a huge part of my friends' social lives.
After years of not singing and telling people that I couldn't, I was told, by members of a choir, that there was no one who could not be taught to sing. A different local choir put on a ten week Absolute Beginners Course, and I enrolled. At 60 year old, they now want me to join their choir, permanently.
I joined the Fishpond Choir in Matlock 8 years ago after my marriage ended, having never previously been involved in music, and there is absolutely no doubt that the whole experience is good for you. I have made a lot of good friends and weekly rehearsals easily dispel any blues from a day at work.
My 4 year old daughter has congenital total blindness, and her world is dominated by singing and music. Everything she learns she learns through song and rhythm. She passed her London School Of Music Grade 1 exam at three years old and loves to sing about everything she does or hears about.
I have had many years of vocal training and achieved a Grade 5 singing qualification, yet I still have a morbid fear of singing in front of people, so much so that my family have never heard me sing on my own. I have participated in choirs and performance groups from a very young age, but never dared sing alone.
I've never considered myself very self confident in my working or public life, but something happens when I sing - I'm suddenly happy to take centre stage. I enjoyed singing as a child, but re-establishing as an adult that I have a nice voice, can hold a tune without being able to read music, and can reach the top notes fills me with a real sense of achievement.
I joined Rock Choir just over a year ago and it really has done me the world of good. Our choir leader is so fun and full of enthusiasm and she encourages us to "just go for it".
I can sing just about any song in time and in the right pitch. I have always thought it would be great to be able to stand up and sing a song that would make people clap and be happy. The problem all my life ( I am now 75) has been that the thought of getting on stage and singing to an audience absolutely petrifies me. If I could have found the courage who knows now where my life would have been.
When I was in school doing my GCSE music my wonderful music teacher said to me "Huw......you have a voice like a drain. Stick to playing the trombone; you're good at it". 8 years later whilst messing around with my guitar I got overheard singing, and before I knew it I had ended up in an amateur production of Fiddler on the Roof. Since then my singing has gone from strength to strength, and apart from playing Javert in the World Amateur premiere of Les Miserables in Madeira in 2008 I have now sung the lead in Don Giovanni.
In Wales, choirs have been the norm for decades, not only among aged gentlemen in the southern valleys, but everywhere, and particularly among young people. I have sung in choirs for years, since I was a child, certainly before X Factor and Glee made this kind of activity seem new. I would even go so far as to say that choral singing is so popular in rural Wales that to NOT participate in this aspect of culture is considered unusual behaviour.
My parents and sister have always hated my singing and have asked me to stop singing at Christmas time - despite being a soprano in the school choir. I grew up thinking I had an awful voice. My husband doesn't agree with my family and he got me Singstar for Christmas two years ago. I now have my own repertoire and moves!
I'm one of those people who were told at primary school that I was "tone deaf" and "couldn't sing", and yes, it scarred me for life. It was an awful thing to tell a child, and now I realise it was just a lazy teacher who couldn't be bothered to work with children who needed a bit of extra coaching. Today, I can't sing a note, having being too terrified all my life to let rip for fear of ridicule. Having read this article though, I may well look into the possibility of some lessons, just for my own pleasure in proving an old teacher wrong...
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