“To Hear Real Freedom”: Overcoming Barriers to Promoting Everyday Singing as a Form of Accessible, Universal Musical Care

This position paper proposes a concept of Everyday Singing as a form of regular, free, embedded, and self-instigated caring activity for all. Framed as a form of Musical Care as developed and discussed by, this conception of Everyday Singing emerges from the longitudinal practice and research of the Music Engagement Program (MEP) based in Canberra, Australia. The MEP singing approach is a social-altruistic form of music making that encourages everyone to participate in musical activity, particularly singing, while supporting the musical activity of others. The approach has shown significant impacts in overcoming the documented singing anxiety of adults in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand as a means of enabling access to regular singing for those with less autonomy, such as children and the elderly. Everyday Singing is interrogated by an interdisciplinary group of practitioners and researchers who also act as co-authors for this position paper. The aim was to help identify the barriers and facilitators to engagement, providing a starting definition for Everyday Singing that highlights its potential to support well-being both in and beyond Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Experienced discussants specifically discuss the MEP singing approach as a vehicle for encouraging Everyday Singing in a range of contexts viewing the concept through the lens of Musical Care as a form of social musical encouragement and sharing. Everyday Singing is conceptualized as an umbrella term, including both formal and informal singing, and is designed to support higher levels of active engagement for the general community whilst at the same time providing a different way of approaching skill development and performance. Everyday Singing is thus positioned to provide a pathway for the anxious or reluctant singer to overcome personal barriers to engagement, to instead focus on supporting and encouraging those with less autonomy, towards a form of accessible, universal, free, and embedded Musical Care for all.