What Are the Benefits of Joining a Community Choir? Evidence on Loneliness, Confidence & Belonging | The People’s Show Choirs

What Are the Benefits of Joining a Community Choir? The Evidence on Loneliness, Confidence and Belonging

According to the UK government’s latest Community and Engagement Survey, 7% of people aged 16 and over say they feel lonely often or always — unchanged from the previous year despite growing public attention on the problem. Read the GOV.UK loneliness report.

Against that backdrop, a question we hear constantly at The People’s Show Choirs is a fair one: does singing with a group of strangers once a week actually change anything, or is “joining a choir is good for you” just something people say?

Research and our own member survey data suggest it can. Community singing may help ease loneliness, support confidence and create a strong sense of belonging — although the benefits people experience will vary by their circumstances and starting point.

Is There Real Evidence That Community Choirs Improve Wellbeing?

Research suggests that group singing can support wellbeing and social connection, although the populations, methods and outcomes studied vary. A systematic review published in the European Journal of Public Health examined 13 studies involving 667 adults with mental health conditions. It found moderate-to-large improvements in mental-health and wellbeing outcomes during participation, with qualitative evidence also pointing to belonging, connection and confidence.

The NHS also recognises social prescribing as an approach that connects people with activities, groups and services in their community to support practical, social and emotional needs. These opportunities can include creative activities such as singing. Read NHS England’s social-prescribing guidance.

What Does Our Own Member Data Show?

We do not want to rely only on external research, so here is what is happening inside The People’s Show Choirs. Our most recent member survey, with 153 respondents, produced a Net Promoter Score of +85.6: 87.6% promoters and 2% detractors.

Ninety-seven percent of members say they enjoy rehearsals “always” or “often”. Members also report improvements since joining in:

• Connection to others: +64%
• Confidence: +63%
• Mood: +63%
• Getting out of the house: +62%
• Sense of purpose: +52%
• Coping ability: +43%

There are limits to this data. Ninety-five percent of respondents attend almost every week, so the sample is weighted towards people who have stayed and thrived. It does not capture the experiences of people who tried a choir and decided it was not for them.

Can Joining a Choir Help With Loneliness?

One of the strongest studies in this area is Community of Voices, a three-year cluster-randomised trial involving 390 adults aged 60 and over across 12 San Francisco senior centres. Compared with a delayed-start control group, people offered weekly choir participation reported significantly greater improvements in loneliness and interest in life at six months. The study retained 92% of participants at the six-month follow-up. Read the UCSF overview of the study.

The effect is not universal. A controlled study involving a university choir found no significant change in loneliness where loneliness was not elevated at the start. Taken together, the research suggests that choir participation may be especially helpful for people who begin with low social connection or isolation.

That pattern reflects what we hear from people before they attend a first rehearsal. In our survey, the two most common barriers were not knowing anyone (23%) and feeling nervous about going alone (21%). Both are socially shaped fears rather than practical barriers such as cost or travel, each reported by fewer than 6% of respondents.

After joining, members report getting out of the house more (+62%) and feeling more connected to others (+64%). Singing matters, but so does the regular, low-pressure contact with the same group of people each week.

Does Singing in a Choir Build Confidence?

Confidence in a choir is not only about becoming a technically stronger singer. A qualitative PhD study of 34 adult amateur choral singers, hosted by the University of Sheffield’s White Rose eTheses repository, found that confidence was shaped by group dynamics, musical leadership, feedback and relationships with fellow members — not simply vocal ability. Read Michael Bonshor’s thesis, Confidence and the Choral Singer.

A controlled evaluation of a university choir also found a statistically significant rise in choir members’ self-esteem over six to eight weeks (p = 0.013), alongside an increase in meaning and purpose. The non-choir comparison group did not show the same pattern. Read the open-access UQ Voices study.

This reflects what The People’s Show Choirs sees in practice: 63% of members report improved confidence since joining. One in five survey respondents said they had worried they “weren’t good enough” before attending. That is a singing-confidence-specific concern, and it is exactly what our “no auditions, no pressure” approach is designed to address.

Why Do Choirs Create Such a Strong Sense of Belonging?

Belonging may develop quickly in a singing group. A widely cited University of Oxford study, published in Royal Society Open Science, tracked adult-education classes over seven months and compared singing with craft and creative-writing groups. Singing participants reported a faster rise in closeness to fellow group members during the first month — an effect the researchers called the “ice-breaker effect.” By month seven, the other groups had caught up. Read the study via PubMed.

A separate controlled study of international students who joined a university choir found that average belonging scores increased significantly over six to eight weeks, from 3.35 to 3.74 out of 5 (p = 0.031). The non-choir comparison group did not show a significant change. Read the UQ Voices study.

A further study compared 194 people across six leisure activities: choirs, bands, solo singing, solo instruments, team sports and individual sports. Overall wellbeing was broadly similar, but autonomy and relatedness differed significantly between groups (p < .001). Group-based activities, including choirs, tended to offer stronger relatedness than solo pursuits; choirs were not the only group activity to do so. Read the study in Psychology of Music.

Our member data points in the same direction. Connection to others is the largest improvement members report (+64%); only 15% cite worrying they would not fit in after they have attended; and roughly a third of new members join because someone they know — a friend, family member, colleague or fellow choir member — brought them along.

Belonging is not simply a possible benefit of joining The People’s Show Choirs. It is increasingly how new members find us in the first place.

The Bottom Line

Taken together, the evidence suggests that community singing can help reduce loneliness and foster belonging — particularly where people begin with low social connection — while also offering a supportive setting in which confidence may grow.

If not knowing anyone, going alone or worrying that you are not good enough sounds familiar, those are precisely the barriers The People’s Show Choirs’ no-auditions approach is designed to remove, across 24 choirs from Cardiff to York.

Questions answered in this post

What are the main benefits of joining a community choir?

Research and member survey data point to three potential benefits: reduced loneliness through sustained weekly social contact, greater confidence and self-esteem supported by group participation, and a faster-building sense of connection. The People’s Show Choirs’ members report improvements of +64% in connection to others and +63% in confidence since joining.

Can joining a choir actually help with loneliness?

It can. In the Community of Voices randomised trial, 390 older adults offered weekly choir participation showed greater improvements in loneliness after six months than a delayed-start control group. The strongest benefits may be for people who are isolated or have low social connection when they start. Read the UCSF overview of the Community of Voices trial.

Do you need singing experience or an audition to join a community choir?

No. The People’s Show Choirs operates on a “no auditions, no pressure” basis across all 24 locations. In our member survey, 20% of respondents said that worrying they were not good enough had been a barrier before their first rehearsal.