Singing in Balance: A WRoCAH PhD Network on Group Singing, Wellbeing, and Health

Hello! Today I would like to share a bit more about a project that I am conducting.  Just to remind you, the big name for my PhD project is "Exploring the balance of socio-musical factors that shape the experiences of members of choirs for people affected by homelessness" (yes, I finally memorized it!). To start understanding this topic I decided to conduct a scoping review.  My objective, first, was to map the literature about any collective music activities and their impacts on people affected by homelessness. I wanted to understand not only which impacts were found, but which methods were used to find them, which approaches were adopted, and where these studies took place.  I conducted a search through a few databases but only found 9 papers, which was not ideal for a scoping review. After talking to my supervisors we agreed that I could expand my search to any arts-related collective activity. This strategy, hopefully, would give me more results and would be an opport...

 I hope everyone is having a great Friday and is excited for the weekend! It's Dana here to provide an update on my current research. From previous posts, or if you have met me in person, you may already know that my research is on the perceived psychological effects from virtual group singing (VGS) participation. My main motivation in conducting research on this topic is because newer technologies can allow for new ways to observe the functions of singing and community building in group singing. I am quite interested in using VR specifically to isolate these functions to gain further insights into these relationships. As I research and better understand the field, I have had these questions pop up repeatedly: What are the functions of singing and community building in VGS? How can we use VR to separate these functions? How important is making VGS as close to reality as possible? And these questions have led me to my research question: To what extent do the social elements of (virt...

Dear reader, Emily here! I am excited to tell you about a one day conference I am organising called MusiConnect .  It is a place for PhD students, Masters students, staff and early career researchers to come together and present research in the field of music and network with each other! It is a one day event happening at the University of Sheffield on Thursday 13th June 2024 - not long to go! Our call for papers is still open for another 4 days if you would like to present either a presentation, a poster or take part in our 3 minute thesis challenge! The link to submit a paper is here:  Call for Papers   The link to register is here:  Registration Please note this is a free event and you can attend online or in person! Can't wait to see you there!

  NEMuR10 Presentation Hello everyone! Emily here! This week we are coming to you with an update from a recent conference we attended as a group.  Last week Bruna, Dana and I presented at the Northern Network for Empirical Music Research Conference at the University of Hull. This was their 10th anniversary meeting!  We were excited to tell everyone about our Singing in Balance PhD Network and showcase our different projects and areas of research, including a shameless plug for this blog! Just in case you are new to this blog - the Network, funded by the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities, is a collection of researchers and organisations based across Yorkshire, UK, collectively looking at the effects of choir participation on wellbeing and health.  I am working with an organisation called Arts in Health at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, a charity which provides musical and craft activities for patients and staff with the aim of improving wellbeing ( https://art...