Sing and be healthy

Sing and be healthy

Brian Eno wants you to get some friends together and start singing.

Why?

Here’s how he put it in a recent issue of Resurgence magazine: “I believe singing is the key to a long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, greater intelligence, new friends, increased self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a sense of humour. There! That got your attention.”

Brian Eno is a 60-year-old electronic musician, and record producer. If you’re familiar with the music of Paul Simon, David Byrne, U2, or Coldplay, then you’ve probably heard some of his work.

A few years ago, Eno and some friends started getting together to sing a capella. Some had musical experience and some didn’t, but excellence wasn’t the goal. In fact, there was no goal. They just got together on a regular basis and found they really enjoyed it.

Getting started is easy. After you get some friends lined up, you need just three things: drinks, snacks, and printouts of lyrics to a few songs.

Then once you’re underway, Eno promises physiological benefits (deep and open breathing you wouldn’t normally do), as well as psychological benefits. He writes: “Singing leaves you with a sense of levity and contentedness.”

There are also “civilizational” benefits: “When you sing with a group of people you learn how to subsume yourself to the group consciousness – because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings: to stop being me for a little while, and to become us. That way lies empathy; the great virtue.”

And while you’re singing, you might also want to get out the pup tent and your dancing shoes. In his article, Eno cites a 30-year Scandinavian study that attempted to reveal which activities were most common among people who lived long, happy lives. Three activities stood out: singing, dancing, and camping.

Source:
“Freestyling” Brian Eno, Resurgence, July/August 2008, No. 249, resurgence.org