ABSTRACT
Although most children sing, many adults do not. Without adult singers, children lack role models at home or in the classroom. The present chapter discusses singing as a natural behavior that can be both taught and used to teach. Singing is presented as a more accessible, democratic path to music engagement than is playing a musical instrument. After a brief historical account and acknowledgement of the complex sensorimotor system underlying singing, the development and significance of singing across the life course (infancy; early childhood; adolescence; early, middle, and older adulthood) is presented, noting that large individual differences result from many factors and that highly variable trajectories are not inevitable. Theoretical perspectives that have focused on interactions within systems (Gaunt & Hallam, 2016) and on possible selves (Freer, 2010) are presented as consistent with a further theoretical step that accommodates dramatic shifts in singing behaviours; for example, the switch from singer to non-singer status and the rapid bonding among strangers associated with singing together. Given the benefits of singing in choirs for persons in good health as well for those who experience certain mental or physical health challenges, and given the value of vocal training for experiencing and learning about music, the need for greater prioritisation of singing over musical instrument training in schools is proposed. The Sing Up and the Out of the Ark music programmes in the United Kingdom offer useful prototypes toward achieving a singing society that can offer children vocal training and its path to music and associated joy, understanding and ways of meeting psychosocial challenges across the life course.
