The physical and mental benefits of singing are available to all, even those who haven't a note in their heads, writes Niamh Hooper
In the shower or in the car with the stereo at full volume, we closet singers happily sing along. Ask us to sing in public though and we bolt for the door. "I can't carry a note," we wail. "I must be tone deaf."
Chances are, though, we're not, as only one person in a million is truly tone deaf, according to New Zealand-based international voice and singing coach and author Mikal Nielsen.
"We are born natural singers. It's in our nature to sing. It is a core aspect of our existence to make sound - a baby does it from the start," he says.
"But we've moved into a technological time and the educational system is reflecting that. The emphasis is on the intellect whereas in the past it used to be in touch with the physical body.
"I feel we've moved from our hearts into our heads. In the western world, the neglect of our bodies is the worst it has ever been.
"Within the school system, something had to go and, here, it was music and art. But this is killing a part of the core of our nature, the creative side of our being."
Nielsen should know. Now 47, he didn't sing for 20 years. And he still remembers the moment he stopped singing.
Though there was no musical influence in Nielsen's early life in Denmark, as a teenager he fancied himself as a rock star. He bought a guitar and a book but was too shy to dare get tuition. He reckoned he sounded pretty good and one day sang proudly in front of his friends.
"They asked me to shut up because I sounded terrible. What little confidence I had went out of me and I didn't sing again in front of anybody for 20 years."
The voice, he says, is the most intimate and fragile of instruments. We need only be told to shut up once and it's enough to shut a person up for life. Hardly surprisingly, the biggest challenge he faces in teaching people to sing is tackling a lack of confidence.
"We tend to look at confidence as an emotion, which it is not. If you are lacking in confidence, the emotion you are running is fear - fear of what's going to happen, what will people think, will I fail. If we go in and deal with the fear, the confidence changes. Once confident with your voice, you will start to express yourself more, be true to who you are," he says.
Breathing is key. "I don't know if it's the same in Ireland, but in New Zealand 99 per cent of people don't know how to breathe properly or healthily anymore," he says. Nielsen was one of those statistics when he met Australian voice coach Chris James, who helped him find his singing voice.
He had woken up every day since he was 10 with a sore stomach. Several operations had found nothing. When he learned to breathe properly, his problems disappeared.
Leaving the worlds of banking and computers far behind, Nielsen trained with James and Michael Deason-Barrow in the UK, before travelling for five years working with over 10,000 children in pre-schools and schools as well as with special needs children.
Last February, the Maori singers he had coached won eight out of 12 first place prizes in the prestigious biennial National Kapa Haka competition.
"I'm different from most other music teachers who know everything about music," he says. "I still can't read music, I'm not a very good singer and I was singing out of tune most of my life. But I know how the voice, the body and the mind work and I put all of that together.
"I teach a person how to breathe properly and from there they come into that place that allows the emotions to sing."
Studies have shown that the positive effects of singing in both children and adults are three-pronged, according to Nielsen. It improves breathing; the vibration our voice creates within our being is naturally healing; and it aids better mental health through building confidence and self-esteem.
Music therapists agree that children, in particular, are like sponges. Criticise them and they won't sing again. Encourage them and they'll expand their true selves.
"Just look at people singing and you see the joy that's available. Just keep singing and having fun with it, regardless of what people say," Nielsen says. "I'm not in tune all the time but it doesn't concern me."
Mikal Nielsen will host a singing workshop in Sligo from August 26-28th. For information tel: 071 914 5523 or email: oonadohertysalon@eircom.net.