As the country settles in to the third week of lockdown, many across the UK will be feeling a sense of loneliness or ‘isolation blues’ as they come to terms with fewer social interactions than they would usually enjoy. In a bid to combat this, singing community interest company Shared Harmonies has launched ‘Our Song’, an initiative to connect people across the UK.
‘Our Song’ allows those taking part will help build and compose a song about the meaning of connection. During this week and next week the team at Shared Harmonies is setting a series of daily challenges inviting members of the public to share what connection means to them via email or social media in the form of words or images.
These words or images will help frame the song and lyrics and later this month the public will get the opportunity to vote for the draft lyrics the Shared Harmonies team have composed. Once the final song has been created, members of the public will be invited to take part in recording of ‘Our Song’ in a big community sing-along.
Emma Baylin, director of Shared Harmonies, comments: “We are experiencing challenging times at the moment and we wanted to do something to allow people to feel a connection to others while they are at home.
“We know from the workshops we run with vulnerable members of the community that singing can help improve your mood, evokes feelings of happiness and help you connect with others, so we decided to create ‘Our Song’ to get the community involved and lift spirits.
“The response from the public has been fantastic so far and we encourage people of any age or musical ability to get involved. We are very much looking forward to seeing how the project progresses.”
The opportunity to become involved in the project is still open, email: oursong@sharedharmonies.co.uk
Shared Harmonies was established in October 2013 as a Community Interest Company (CIC), a social enterprise where the profits are reinvested back into the local community. The company aims to improve confidence, communication and wellbeing through inspirational singing, offering a range of services from community singing groups and workshops to organisation team building sessions and workplace choirs.
