Singing for Health and in Public? · Rock Singing Success

Singing for Health and in Public?

I know it’s weird, but I often go down a path of research, ending up reading scientific papers about singing and health. I want to share some of my thoughts with you from these studies, and perhaps propose an invitation or challenge of sorts that would be fun to share stories from.

SINGING AND OVERALL HEALTH

I remember a few studies that came out during COVID about singing affecting VO2 Max (essentially how our body best processes oxygen) and how the benefits to the lungs actually helped COVID victims. I had a friend who had COVID pretty bad, but sang his way through it every single day, using an announced livestream to keep him motivated to show up. It was brutal, but he did it, and it got him through it—likely mostly the emotional aspect of it.

That got me wondering about overall health being affected by singing, which led to a lot of studies on singing's emotional calming affects on the body. I'm sure you'll agree, this makes total sense as a singer. From the most passionate screams and belts, to the most intimate and soft, singing is cathartic, and we cathart all over the place; Haha! It was cool to see real scientific studies behind it.

SINGING AND BLOOD PRESSURE

Yesterday, I came across a study on neurogenic hypertension, or rather the study of how you stress can affect blood pressureI how singing affects blood pressure. It turns out there's a large amount of studies on how singing can cause acute hypertension when pushing or straining your way through singing, or from extreme emotional expression.

I guess that's no surprise after seeing veins popping out of people's necks, singer's of bands I've been in before blacking out while sustaining a long and loud note, people turning red in the face, and some screaming students I've had giving themselves headaches. Thankfully, that affect is only temporary. But it still begs the question of how blood pressure is affected when singing comfortably, shaping rather than pushing, and relaxing into the release of the voice, no matter how harsh the resulting sound might be.

Then I came across an example in one of the studies of a woman in her 70’s who had acute blood pressure issues pre-surgery, like a situational acute rise in blood pressure. Singing normalized her before surgery. That opened up a whole new path of scientific studies for me to look at while avoiding doing the more urgent work I should've been doing; haha!

You might be interested to know that [non-extreme] singing is scientifically proven to lower situational blood pressure, and over time, teaches the body to relax in stressful situations in general (or at least shows promise for that in the current studies). Maybe singing at the doctor’s office isn’t a bad idea. Maybe singing while walking isn't a bad idea. Maybe singing as much as humanly possible, in any situation, is a great thing to do, especially since you ARE a SINGER.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR SINGING IN PUBLIC?

(A Challenge)

The affects and health benefits of music an experiencing emotional singing performances has been long studied. Singing around others is soothing to them as much as it can be to you. Granted, some places may be inappropriate or inconsiderate for singing, but I'm starting to think that MOST are not.

Being a professional singer myself, and have been singing on my walks too, I’m at the point where I don’t care about bothering others with my singing anymore, so I’m going to use this information more often. I'm going to experiment with singing out loud in more places, unless it's understood that it's not the place. But even then, why not sing just outside the library, courthouse, or other "quiet" places?

It calms you, it calms others, it's scientifically proven to reduce stress both emotionally AND physically. I’ll do it until I get asked to stop. Haha! Who wants to start this experiment in health with me? Sure, it's a pushing of your comfort zones, but one that calms you at the same time. You're a singer, not a dying cat. Share that gift. Maybe not at the top of your lungs all the time, maybe not screaming to deathcore.But for health, for bringing some calm and beauty to your life and others?

Life would be better if more singers would genuinely sing in public, wouldn't it? That starts with you.

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