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

 Hi everyone, it is Bruna here! I am excited to share that last week we presented our first poster together at SysMus24!  The 17th edition of the International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology happened at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Our poster showed the current state of our literature review on the benefits of singing and also presented our collective and individual research aims.  The great thing about SysMus is that it is led by students and for students, which makes everything a bit more relaxed than "big" conferences. However, this more relaxed approach does not mean that the level of quality of presentations is affected. I had the opportunity to meet so many brilliant PhD students from all over the world who are doing a great job in their areas. We also had the chance to hear from three keynote speakers, who introduced us to very interesting topics:  Professor Minna Huotilainen, from the University of Helsinki, took us on a "mental trav...

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...

 Hi everyone! Our friends who are hosting ESCOM12 at the University of York on July 3rd-6th, 2024 are looking for welcome volunteers. Anyone who volunteers will be able to attend the conference for free so this is a great opportunity for those interested in attending (plus it looks great on a CV!). More information about the conference and volunteering are below: ESCOM 12 Conference | ESCOM Society Signup Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9OrMwbaq0k_F4j1VjMHL27PUDvNS4P1feAa7VhJsfMOcDPA/viewform Contact  Rebecca Jackson ( rj936@york.ac.uk)  or Caroline Owen ( cao521@york.ac.uk)  for more information!

Hi everyone! It's Bruna here :) I'm glad to present this brand-new page in our blog:  Myth Busters!   Here we are going to discuss some ideas that might be popular but not so true. As the famous Brazilian alien, "ET Bilu " (which was also a myth, by the way) said: seek knowledge!    Now, to today's topic:     Is a PhD a very lonely journey?   Before starting my PhD journey, I heard that it was going to be a very lonely experience. This was the only thing that really worried me before arriving in the UK. I come from a very sociable country, and I was teaching music to hundreds of kids before starting this journey, so the idea of being isolated for more than 3 years made me question if that was the right decision.   The PhD is indeed very different from any other educational or professional experiences that you might have had during your life. You do spend a lot of time reading, reflecting, writing, rewriting, rewriting, rewriting... You are n...