‘This circle of joy’: meaningful musicians’ work and the benefits of facilitating singing groups

ABSTRACT

The complex realities of musicians’ portfolio careers highlight the need for research on musicians’ wellbeing. Musicians may include community work within their portfolio such as the facilitation of singing groups for health and wellbeing. Until recently, research on these groups has focused primarily on health and wellbeing outcomes for group participants with little discussion of these factors for the facilitators as professional musicians. We recruited eleven facilitators for semi-structured interviews to investigate their work experiences. Informed by positive psychology and the PERMA model for wellbeing, reflexive thematic analysis of interview data produced themes indicating positive wellbeing outcomes for facilitators. Facilitation was experienced as a unique relationship and mode of performance, and as work ideally suited to facilitators’ skills and interests. Facilitators’ experiences exhibited all five PERMA elements constitutive of wellbeing: positive emotions (P), engagement (E), relationships (R), meaning (M), and accomplishment (A). These findings align with other research on the positive experiences of professional musicians, music educators and singing group participants, while contributing new understanding that facilitation of these groups can offer wellbeing benefits that compliment musicians’ livelihoods. This is important knowledge for the facilitators themselves and for university educators who seek to inform the career choices of their students.

KEYWORDS:

• Portfolio careers
• community music
• singing groups
• facilitators
• health and wellbeing
• PERMA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Melissa Forbes is a Senior Lecturer in music at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, Australia. Her research explores our experiences of the singing voice across the spectrum of singers, from professional vocalists through to community singers. She is an experienced singing voice pedagogue, jazz singer, and in a former life, a corporate lawyer of little renown.

Irene Bartlett is Coordinator of Jazz/Contemporary Vocal Studies and Voice Pedagogy at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, Australia. Her teaching and research centres on the development of technique, vocal health and performance longevity for singers of all music styles. As a past Master Teacher for the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing, Irene is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the field of vocal performance, style and pedagogy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Southern Queensland; Griffith University.