Science says music is good for you – and Eric Whitacre has proved it

"Choral conductor and his choir turned guinea pigs in a huge experiment looking at the health benefits of singing in (and even just listening to) a choir. 

But what's the scientific basis for that?

Daisy is a scientist working in the centre for performance science at the Royal College of Music.

She's been working with Eric for a few years now on studies looking at the psychological and physiological effects of singing.

"We hear a lot about the health benefits of singing but are there any benefits to attending concerts as well?" she explains. "Every psychological process has biological effects, and we’re able to measure these biological changes in saliva and heart-rates."

ECGs (electrocardiograms)

At the Eric Whitacre Singers' concert back in March, the world's favourite choral conductor and a handful of his elite singers were wired up with electric nodes and a breathing belt to measure how their bodies behaves during a rehearsal and a concert.

All wired up...

A photo posted by Classic FM (@classicfm) onMar 5, 2015 at 12:59pm PST

 

And the audience got involved too

Daisy and the team wanted to find out if just going to a concert had an effect on health and well-being. So the audience filled in questionnaires

And gave saliva samples. Nice. We didn't take photos of that.

And some were wired up to take physiological data too.

So what were the results?

Music is good for you! For the first time, it has been scientifically proven that going to a concert actually has a beneficial effect on your body.

Audience members were found to have lower levels of the stress hormones cortisol and cortisone after watching the concert. There was also a decrease in negative mood states (such as feeling tense, sad and anxious) among audience members and an increase in positive mood states (such as relaxed).

For the singers, too, there was good news. Singing in a low-stress environment such as a rehearsal was found to reduce stress hormones in the singers. However, performing during the concert was found to increase stress hormones and psychological anxiety among performers.

But the study concluded that overall, the act of singing has an inherently relaxing effect (something that the choral singers among you might have suspected already…).

What does Eric think of all this, then?  

"Singing is something that many people inherently feel is good for them and relaxes them. But to actually show biologically (and demonstrate scientifically) that it can reduce stress is very exciting.

"Reducing stress has a direct benefit not only in general terms in our home lives and the workplace, but also in pain reduction, recuperation and even the advancement of some diseases."

So you should listen to this clip immediately, for the good of your health

We don't need a scientific study to tell us Eric and his singers make our hearts beat faster.

Here they are sounding wonderful.

@ericwhitacre's Sleep. The epic part.

A video posted by Classic FM (@classicfm) onMar 5, 2015 at 7:41am PST

Eric Whitacre and his singers perform at the Cheltenham Festival on 11 July where the study will be carried out again. There will also be a talk about the findings of the experiment with contributions from Eric himself, The Times' music critic Richard Morrison and Aaron Williamon and Daisy Fancourt from the Royal College of Music's department of Performance Science."

Source http://www.classicfm.com/composers/whitacre/news/science-experiment/#64hb6bO11WpXdpcG.99

To learn on how you can experience all the benefits of music for health and wellbeing join our Luscious Lifestyles Program video classes.

 Love,
Cristiana Dragomir  
Holistic Therapist & Coach 
(Soul Healing)  
Tel:+4 0746 165 813
E-mail: cristiana.dragomir999@gmail.com
Youtube: Cristiana Dragomir