Singing In The Choir

Apparently, it's good for you to sing in choirs.  It reduces anxiety.  I have sung in choirs.  I have enjoyed it, sometimes loved it, despite some really significant screw-ups in my day.  I used to have a nice voice, acceptable for both solo or choral work. It is getting better again, now that I am not smoking, and not forcing my voice because of the necessities of a small congregation and leading worship in whatever range is on the page.

I find the mere act of singing in the congregation a joy now.  I don't have to pick the music, "perform" it, and endure the criticisms, however oblique.  Thus I am a great audience for whoever is worship leader.  I pretty much like everything, so long as the tempo isn't deadly for hymns, or the lyrics unusually banal for contemporary. Really.  The idiosyncrasies of each style which drive non-fans nuts don't bother me much.  I don't notice.  I like singing, and drumming on the pew in front of me.

Choir, though, still seems to be just one more thing to squeeze in.  I'm not going back to that.

The study corrects some for whether the correlation is more in the type of person who sings in groups than in the singing itself; a lot of the linked research on the topic, however, does not make that distinction.