“Singing with Thankfulness”: Music and Bonding

In Colossians, singing is how the word of Christ “dwells richly” in a church. It is teaching and admonishing, done together and with gratitude. Ephesians 5:19 describes it as “speaking to one another.” Biblical singing is directed to God and to each other at the same time. The Psalms were Israel’s songbook, and Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples on the night he was betrayed (Matt. 26:30).

Music and the reward system. Salimpoor, Benovoy, Larcher, Dagher, and Zatorre (2011) used PET scanning, which can measure the chemical dopamine directly, while people listened to music that gave them chills. At peak emotional moments, dopamine was released in the striatum, the brain’s reward center. In fMRI, the caudate was more active in anticipation of the peak, and the nucleus accumbens was more active during the peak itself. Music, an abstract pleasure, engaged the same reward chemistry as tangible rewards like food.

Singing bonds strangers quickly. Pearce, Launay, and Dunbar (2015) followed new adult education classes in singing, crafts, and creative writing over seven months. Singers felt closer to their classmates much faster. By the first month, they showed a significantly larger jump in closeness than the other groups. By the third month, the other groups had caught up. The authors call this an “ice-breaker effect” and suggest that singing may help groups of strangers bond quickly.

What the studies cannot tell us. The PET study used each participant’s own favorite music, mostly instrumental, and measured pleasure, not worship. The singing study measured bonding indirectly and did not study churches. The convergence is with Paul’s picture of singing as something done together. Shared song seems to reward the singer and draw people together, and that is part of how a congregation becomes one body.

Practice

Living it out

Five practices drawn from this passage. Each says how strong the research behind it is. What the labels mean.

1. 1

   Sing out on Sunday

   Sing in corporate worship even if you don’t think you sing well.

   ModerateModerate that group singing speeds social bonding (Pearce et al., 2015). Worship singing itself was not studied.
2. 2

   Learn the words of one hymn a month

   Let a hymn carry Scripture into your memory.

   ObedienceObedience. Commended by Scripture (Col. 3:16). The paper’s memory research (Section 2) is related.
3. 3

   Sing at home

   Sing with your family before a meal or at bedtime.

   ObedienceObedience. Commended by Scripture. Untested in the sources here.
4. 4

   Sing with your group

   Open or close your men’s study with a song.

   ModerateModerate that singing bonds new groups quickly (Pearce et al., 2015).
5. 5

   Use music to lift a low hour

   Play music that moves you toward God when you are discouraged.

   ModerateModerate that peak musical moments release dopamine in reward regions (Salimpoor et al., 2011). The effect on mood over time was not studied.

Studies cited on this page2

1. ↗ Pearce, E., Launay, J., & Dunbar, R. I. (2015). The ice-breaker effect: Singing mediates fast social bonding. Royal Society Open Science, 2(10), 150221. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150221
2. ↗ Salimpoor, V. N., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R. J. (2011). Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nature Neuroscience, 14(2), 257–262. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2726