12 Reasons to join more harmony in 2025!

Happy New Year!  We hope you had a wonderful festive season, filled with fun, laughter and lots of tasty treats!

For many people, January is a time to reset.  The start of a new year is the perfect time to think about what you'd like to achieve over the next twelve months and what you want to leave behind.  With that in mind, we thought it would be the ideal time to bring you twelve reasons - one for each month of the year - why you should consider singing with us in 2025...

1. Challenge Yourself!

This time of year is great for setting goals.  It might be to lose weight, find the job of your dreams or give up a bad habit.  Whatever you choose, the purpose is to provide yourself with a challenge.  Well, that's where we come in!

Singing in harmony is an incredibly rewarding, joyous experience, but it doesn't happen by magic.  Learning the words, practising between rehearsals and working up the nerve to perform in front of an audience are all personal challenges and we support one another to reach them.  Whether you're a total novice or a singer who needs to get back into the swing of things, taking up a hobby like singing a cappella could be just the challenge you need to kick your 2025 into action!

2. Get Healthy!

A lot of the goals people set at the start of a new year involve improving their overall health.  Well, you may not realise it, but singing can do wonders for that!

From improving your posture to increasing your lung capacity, singing has a whole range of both physical and mental health benefits.  The actual act of singing works out a variety of muscles and promotes better breathing, so if you're looking to get healthy in 2025, joining a choir might be the ideal first step!
 

3. Get Rid Of Your Post-Christmas Blues!

Singing has been scientifically proven to reduce stress and the actual act of belting out a song releases endorphins and gives you a big hit of dopamine - all of which basically means that singing makes you happy!  Research has shown that people in choirs view singing as a wonderful way to take their minds off their troubles.  So, if you're feeling a bit down now that the festivities are over, come and immerse yourself in the music and sing your blues away!
 

4. Give Your Memory A Boost!

One of the many benefits of singing is that it can improve your memory.  When you sing, you engage several areas of the brain at once.  The act of singing involves focusing on multiple things (posture, breathing, remembering the words etc) and so has been proven to improve mental alertness, memory and concentration.  Of course, hearing songs can also trigger memories and remind you of happy times - what's not to love?!
 

5. Make New Friends!

Singing in a choir is a team sport!  You'll get to know lots of like-minded people, all supporting one another to be the best they can be.  The feeling of camaraderie that comes from performing together is second to none and friendships inevitably form, with regular social nights being held and members finding additional common interests.  Plus, since we're a small, welcoming group, you won't ever have that "outsider" feeling - from the moment you walk through our doors, we'll make you feel like one of the gang!

 

6. No Financial Risk!

Lots of choirs offer a free session to new singers, so they can "try before they buy," to see if singing is for them.  Here at More Harmony, whilst we believe one session is all it takes for people to fall in love with a cappella, we offer three free sessions to newcomers, so they can really find their feet before they start paying to attend.  From the fourth visit, a weekly sub of £6.50 is payable until a singer decides to become a full member.  They then pay a one-off £20 joining fee and switch to a monthly Direct Debit payment of £25.  We never want there to be a financial barrier to entry, so we try to keep our fees as low as we can.  We're also not run for profit, so all of the money we receive from monthly subscriptions goes towards renting our rehearsal venue, paying for music & costume and providing educational opportunities and coaching for our members.  Unlike some organisations, we also never chase members who leave, demanding that they pay to the end of a term, or worse, to the end of the year (trust us, we've read some horror stories!).  Subs are paid on the 3rd of each month, so if someone chooses to move on from More Harmony, they simply cancel their Direct Debit and don't pay anymore.  

 

7. Develop Your Skills!

Joining a choir will obviously teach you how to sing correctly, with the right posture and breathing in place, ehancing your vocal skills in the process.  But it doesn't stop there!  You'll learn valuable life skills, such as teamwork, active listening and self-confidence.  More Harmony are also member-led, with a committee of volunteers keeping everything ticking over.  You'll have the opportunity to take on a role if you'd like to, which could lead to you organising fundraising events, writing press articles or even liaising with venues to arrange our performances - all of which looks great on a CV and will be a huge boost to your skill-set!

8. Give Something Back To Your Community!

As a not-for-profit organisation, More Harmony's primary focus is giving back to our members and beyond.  Each year, we choose a charity to support and we raise money at a variety of events, from quizzes to concerts and everything in between!  We also love being a part of our local community and show our support for various causes, whether by having a stall at a town fair or performing in care homes and hospices.  If your goal for 2025 is to do a bit of good for your community, why not come along with us and have some fun at the same time?!
 

9.  Unleash Your Inner Diva!

It might seem a little mad to have not mentioned this one yet, but we wanted to make it crystal clear how much you can get out of singing with us beyond performance opportunities!  Of course, getting up in front of an audience and showing off what we can do is a big part of being a member of More Harmony.  Over the years, we've sung at all kinds of events, both big and small.  From brightening up an afternoon at the local care home, to competing at Wadebridge Festival of Speech & Music - and even travelling to Germany to sing in front of hundreds of people - our members have all kinds of opportunities to strut their stuff!

 

10. Give Yourself Something Just For YOU!

Our choir is full of women with busy lives.  Day jobs, children, grandchildren, other responsibilities... We've all got plenty on our plates!  Thursday nights are a chance for us to let our hair down and do something just for ourselves.  We have a laugh, work hard on polishing the songs we sing and feel like we've achieved something we can be really proud of.  As one of our members once put it: "For a couple of hours a week, I'm not 'Mum' or 'Wife.'  I'm a singer in an amazing group - and that feels so special!"
 

11. Broaden Your Musical Tastes!

As a group of all ages and experiences, we try to ensure our repertoire has something for everyone.  This year, we've got everything from 1950s rock and roll, to modern-day floor-fillers!  To put that into context, our song list for 2025 features artists such as Buddy Holly, Billy Joel, Queen, ABBA, Whitney Houston and Jessie J, to name but a few!  It's not unheard of for our members to fall in love with a song (or even an artist!) they'd never heard of before.  It's equally common for us to bond over a new song that everyone knows - sung in a way that's totally fresh and exciting!

 

12. It's FUN!

We could go on all day about the many ways that singing is good for you, but if we had to boil it down to just ONE reason to join More Harmony, it would be this one!  Yes, it can be tricky to to learn a brand new song and yes, getting up on stage in front of an audience can be rather nerve-wracking, but there is a reason that we all keep doing it and that's because it's positively joyous.  The thrill we get when a song comes together, the laughter we share when we're doing funny warm-ups, the friendships we've made and the support we give to each other make rehearsals something we look forward to every week.  In the seven years I've been at More Harmony, I've never attended a rehearsal that hasn't featured a lot of giggling and fun in amongst the singing!  

We do it because we love it.  Why not come along and see if you do, too?!


More Harmony rehearse on Thursday nights, 7:15-9:30pm at Wadebridge Ambulance Hall.  There is no need to book in advance, just come along and give it a go!  If you've got any questions you'd like to ask, please feel free to get in touch by emailing contact@moreharmony.co.uk and we'll be happy to help!