If you’re not exactly a singing sensation, the shower shouldn’t be your only stage.

I may not be the best singer, but I’ve experienced firsthand how singing can transform your life.

I had choir classes at school and then took additional choir classes at the University, and it always felt good being bathed in those sound waves. I forged good friendships through singing together, and it helped me feel more confident on stage, which I later did quite a lot playing with my bands.

As a psychologist specializing in music, I witnessed how sound influenced people’s psyche in many ways over the years. Not only would it improve people’s mood, but it could also change something as fundamental as their taste perception.

But I digress, back to singing.

Singing boosts your confidence, lifts your spirits, and even enhances your speech in ways you might not expect. You’ll see how singing rewires your brain but surprisingly it’s not used as much as it should in medical interventions.

Singing helps patients find their words again

A big team of researchers from various Universities wanted to explore how singing might help people with chronic aphasia, a language disorder that happens post-stroke. The goal was to see if singing in a group could spark neural changes and help with language recovery.

Scientists divided 28 patients into two groups:

• One got a singing intervention

• The other received standard care (i.e. conventional speech therapy)

Over four months, they tracked brain changes with high-resolution MRI scans and monitored language improvements.

So what did they find?

Consider the story of “M.H.,” one of the patients in the study. This patient had been living with chronic aphasia following a stroke and had difficulties naming common objects, a common symptom of aphasia known as anomia. They couldn’t communicate effectively in daily life but then their life changed.

M.H. went through structured sessions that involved vocal exercises and singing familiar songs. The goal was to stimulate the language centers of the brain by engaging the musical elements of rhythm and melody. After four months, M.H. could correctly name objects like “spoon” and “chair,” boosting their confidence and independence in social settings.

Now back to the group results.

The singing group showed great improvement in brain areas tied to language. Structural connectivity was particularly enhanced in the left hemisphere, a key player in speech production. The gray matter volume in the left inferior frontal cortex, known for speech and language, also increased.

The singing group improved their ability to name everyday objects, like a cup or a pencil, more accurately. It was a 24% increase in correctly naming objects compared to their baseline performance.

This is quite amazing because people with chronic aphasia often struggle with finding the right words to express themselves. It’s very challenging to recover from this so seeing a substantial gain is life-changing. Thus, being able to name things that were difficult before boosts their overall communication skills.

Singing helped them regain a part of their lives they thought was lost forever.

The sound of recovery

Around 20 to 40% of stroke survivors develop aphasia. This can manifest either as a difficulty in understanding or producing speech (or written language).

Most recover to a certain extent, but not completely, and the major gains happen in the first year after the stroke. So it’s vital to start rehabilitation as soon as possible.

Singing helps rebuild the brain’s language network, and according to the study, it can be more effective than conventional aphasia therapy.

Singing is cost-effective, it’s available to everyone, especially useful when other forms of therapy are limited.

And it doesn’t have to happen only during treatment. Families can be brought together to sing and foster closer ties with the help of music. It’s a win-win situation.

The magic behind singing

Our voice is the most unique musical instrument that we can use to connect, heal, and elevate our experience of life.

Singing with others connects you to a tradition thousands of years old. One that has even sparked revolutions. There’s a powerful spiritual component in group singing.

But singing is also a full-body workout for the brain. Your brain releases a cocktail of feel-good chemicals — dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin — boosting your mood and bonding you with your fellow singers.

And when it comes to aphasia, singing taps into the rhythm and melody we all inherently possess, recovering what was lost. Words alone can’t access that language backdoor, but singing can.

Singing is a uniquely human activity, and group singing creates a magical experience that no other species can replicate. Let’s keep singing to remember and keep our humanity alive.

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