Abstract

There is a body of research, still incipient but promising, in the field of vocal group activities, and their impact on the health and well-being of people, that is synthesized in this work. Here I provide the most relevant evidence and focuson amateur choirs of adult people. Special emphasis is placed on the generative mechanisms that relate choral singing to health and well-being in adults from four perspectives: emotional, mental, social and physiological. It is argued that a choral group functions as a team, that there are differences between men and women in the emotional responses to choral activities, and amateur choral singing is approached as a formative leisure activity for which it is necessary to apply adequate didactic strategies to a group of adults from an andragogic approach. Finally, a critical reflection is presented on the strengths and weaknesses of the research carried out so far, such as the lack of synergies between the studies carried out, a certain positivist bias that avoids visualizing and also analyzing the cons of choral practice, and the lack of musical, leadership and relational indicators that could explain part of the results obtained and even limit them.

Keywords vocal music; social welfare; adult's education; mental health; cultural sociology