News

Did you know that singing can give you the same ‘high’ as cannabis, and help chronic pain? It can boost sporting performance and immune systems even if you ‘can’t sing well’. The benefit comes for as little as five minutes a day (in the shower if you’re not ‘a natural’?) over a few weeks.

These and other intriguing snippets come from a 15-minute BBC Radio podcast.

The programme also talks about the power of listening to music – so come to our next concert!

As choir members returned to rehearsals after the enforced break, there was no doubt some apprehension about the work necessary to get our voices back into shape. Despite the excellent online tuition that we enjoyed from our Musical Director, Andrew O’Brien, while in lockdown, our first rehearsals were a nervous occasion for some, but the breathing and other warm-up exercises at the start of each rehearsal have been very valuable.

Richard Place is a tenor, currently taking a backseat from singing with the Royston Choral Society. While resting, fellow RCS tenor Chris Lee had a very enjoyable chat with him and learnt lots about Richard’s musical connections.

A series of four BBC Radio 4 half-hour programmes in which journalist Jude Rogers speaks to musicians, neuroscientists, psychologists and music-lovers to discover how fundamental music is early life, teenage life, adult life and later life. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vytn/episodes/player.