Impact
The impact of singing together
Singing brings people together and a growing body of research is helping us understand why it can have such a powerful impact on our wellbeing, sense of belonging, learning, memory, and our physical health.
Singing in a group can create a strong sense of belonging and social connection. Research with community choirs has found that singing together increases feelings of inclusion and promotes social bonding. Studies looking at the impact of singing for health point to measurable effects such as improved heart rate, blood pressure and boosting our immune function.
Singing also engages the brain in rich and complex ways. Learning music requires us to listen carefully, remember information, sustain attention, coordinate our voices and actions and respond to others in real time. Research looking at the impact of group singing with children has found positive effects on aspects of executive function, inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility. Singing and music making also bring together sound, rhythm, movement and language creating opportunities to develop skills that support communication and learning.
Through drawing attention to the sounds, rhythms, patterns and structures of language learning and performing songs gives children repeated opportunities to hear, remember, sing and speak both familiar and new vocabulary. This relationship between singing, language and literacy is the subject of many studies and has identified links with phonological awareness and early literacy.
At the VOCES8 Foundation we are interested not only in what singing can achieve, but in how, for whom and under what circumstances it makes a difference. Our projects bring singing into schools and communities as a practical, joyful and inclusive way of learning and connecting. Alongside this work, our research and evaluation seek to understand its impact more deeply – from children’s learning, communication and executive function to wellbeing, confidence, team work and a sense of belonging in children and teenagers.
Explore our research and evaluation to discover what we are learning about the impact of singing together.
Sing Together for Well-being
Interest in the potential wider benefits of the arts – including singing – on the health and wellbeing of people throughout their lifetime continues to grow. Thanks to the generosity of two donors, the Foundation was able to commission Professor Graham Welch and Hazel Baxter from UCL’s Institute of Education to study the impact of one of our singing projects in a London primary school. Professor Welch is a leading expert in music education, the psychology of music, and singing and voice science. He holds the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) Established Chair of Music Education as well as visiting Professorships at universities in the UK and overseas. Hazel Baxter is the Foundation Subjects Lead and Music Tutor on the Primary PGCE course at the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. She is an Associate Fellow and the Primary Coordinator for UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education. Hazel is also a part-time doctoral researcher at UCL.
The research began in January 2024 and has followed two classes of children across 3 years from ages 6 and 7 to ages 8 and 9. Graham and Hazel focussed on two main strands of qualitative research: the children’s singing behaviour and development and their perceived health and wellbeing.
In addition to reports for the Foundation, Graham and Hazel have submitted articles to academic journals including Frontiers in Psychology. You can access the journal articles (free of charge) here:
Singing, health and wellbeing in young children
Frontiers in Psychology 20 August, 2025
The potential impact of singing on children’s health and wellbeing: a longitudinal perspective
“Longitudinal data analyses from four separate data collections over 18 months suggest that children’s singing competency continued to improve over time, with younger children showing greater progress due to their less developed skills initially. Participants outperformed national averages in singing competency for children of equivalent ages.”
“…the findings align with global research highlighting the mental, physical, and social benefits of singing. We speculate that the programme continues to contribute positively to the school’s culture and, by implication, potentially serving as a protective measure for their health and well-being. ”
The report looking at year 3 of the project will be available toward the end of 2026.
You can see one of our London Primary School singing projects in this lovely video by Joel Porter.
Sing Every Day
In 2019 we set out to research what impact a project with children in year 1 (ages 5 and 6) and their classroom teachers would have. Could singing sessions with the children and mentoring the children’s classroom teachers make a measurable difference? Could we support the teachers to include 10 minutes of singing every day with their class?
We commissioned Professor Graham Welch and a team from UCL’s Institute of Education to undertake this research and called the project ‘Sing Every Day. Published in 2020, highlights from the report include:
“Overall, the implications from the data are that the mentored classroom-based singing activities across two school terms (approximately six months) resulted in improvements in children’s singing (on average), as well as possible benefits in reading and aspects of Executive Function – the latter being closely correlated to changes in the same children’s reading scores.
….separate qualitative research data suggests that the participant generalist teachers collectively benefited from being mentored by professional singers who drew on an experienced background in working with children and offering school based support….”
Young Leaders Research
The VOCES8 Foundation asked Professor Sue Hallam to evaluate four of its Young Leader Programmes.
The foundation’s Young Leader Programme supports secondary school pupils aged 11 to 19 in learning how to lead a workshop that includes warm-ups, the VOCES8 Method and teaching songs to primary school children. Our team helps the participants develop their leadership and teamwork skills as well as their confidence and musical skills.
The Foundation asked Professor Susan Hallam to evaluate four of its Young Leader Programmes. The results of the evaluation were overwhelmingly positive:
97% indicated that the training was successful in helping them to become a music leader.
94% indicated that the project helped build their confidence.
98% that it had helped to develop their leadership skills.
96% that they enjoyed leading the workshop in the primary school
92% that the impact on leadership and teamwork skills would continue after the project.
The Young Leaders reported that the programme had:
enhanced the range and quality of their musical and performance skills;
improved their confidence, communication and leadership skills;
positively enhanced their musical aspirations with some indicating that they might pursue a musical or teaching career; and
increased the likelihood that in the long-term they would engage in more singing and a cappella activities.
Professor Susan Hallam
Dr. Susan Hallam MBE is Emerita Professor of Education and Music Psychology at the UCL Institute of Education.
She is the author of numerous books on education and has also published several books in relation to music education and music psychology including The Power of Music; Music Psychology in Education; and The impact of actively making music on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people: A research synthesis.