My community music project is a public choir, open to anyone but aimed at older people, singing traditional folk songs, as well as songs that are close to the hearts of the participants.

My project has three main aims:

• To facilitate and enable older people to reconnect with songs that perhaps they haven’t heard since they were children, and through this develop both their sense of self and individuality, and their feeling of belonging within a group and community.
• Reduce loneliness among older people by getting them involved in a choir of likeminded people who are all singing together.
• Perform a concert at the end of the set of sessions to friends and family, as well as the public, to give participants a tangible aim, and also to get more people to join and become interested in folk music by hearing songs that they might not have heard since childhood, or songs about where they live.

Why is this needed?

Singing is immensely beneficial for everyone. Professor Graham Welch (2019) writes that singing is an aerobic activity, which improves the cardiovascular system, and ‘is linked to longevity, stress reduction and general health maintenance across the lifespan’. This is helpful for older people as their health starts to decline as they get older. Staying active by singing, if they can’t do any more physical exercise, will keep them healthier for longer. Additionally. Welch goes on to describe some psychological benefits of singing. He agrees that it raises self esteem, and with this confidence, stating that singing is ‘a key component of who we are.’ This is particularly important for older people, who may feel like they have lost themselves, as many do.

The concert at the end will provide a sense of achievement to the participants, as many of them could feel like it’s ‘too late’ for them to get into singing or performing, or they may not have done it in a while, maybe even since school. They will be able to show their friends and family the concert, or get them to come, and this will provide the older people with even more of a self esteem and confidence boost.

The project will take place in my hometown of Farsley. Taking a look at the ONS Census data (2021), there is around 17.7% of people in the Farsley and surrounding area that are over the age of 65. The Leeds Observatory data from 2024 shows that there are 24604 people in the Farsley and Calverley area, so this means that there is somewhere in the region of 4355 people over the age of 65 living in or near to Farsley. This is a large amount of older people, many of who may live alone (NHS (2022) claims 2 million in the country do) and/or could benefit from the project. However considering how niche my project is, I expect around 30-40 attendees.

On the other hand, traditional folk singing and folk songs are becoming less and less popular, and I believe it is incredibly important to preserve these traditional songs and styles of singing, as they represent the history of society and the people, namely the society and people that will be in the choir.

Considerations of the group.

The choir (whilst it will be open to all) will be aimed primarily at older people, aged 65 and above who have an interest in singing, but feel that they don’t get the chance to, or don’t want to sing the songs that pop choirs sing. Because of this, some considerations need to be made to facilitate older people.

• The choir won’t run too late or too long, as it is common for older people to become tired and fatigued sooner than others (from Rush University (2026): both genes and environment lead to alterations in cells that cause aging muscles to lose mass and strength and to become less flexible).
• The songs will be chosen assuming that their will be none-singers joining, which is likely. Because of this, I will select songs with melodies that have small ranges with small jumps in intervals.
• The songs will also be simple and have repeating lines, which is typical for folk songs, as it allows people to join in quickly. This is also useful for people that might be struggling with memory loss, as repeating lines are more likely to stick in people’s mind.
• I have chosen to not do use any instruments, as this would require physical movement, which may be limited for some of the participants, especially as muscle mass and strength declines with age (known as sarcopenia – from Cleveland Clinic 2026). By being purely acapella, no one should feel excluded if perhaps they can’t hit a drum with much force, or don’t have the dexterity to play piano for example.

The Project

The project is a weekly choir singing traditional folk songs in 4 part harmony, a cappella. This will culminate in a concert after 10 sessions, with the concert on the 11th week. The sessions will take place on a Monday evening from 6:30pm until 8pm. This is so that sessions don’t run on too late, but they are late enough so that they don’t come in the middle of tea time (for any participants who may set meal times, perhaps in a care home). The concert will be open to the public, and will feature the 5 songs the choir has rehearsed, solo performances from some of the members, and talks about what the songs mean to the performers.

Attached as appendix 1 is the plan for learning repertoire in each session. Note in all appendices that SATB stands for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass parts in relation to the different lines of harmony. ATB is Alto, Tenor and Bass.

Appendix 1

I have assigned 3 weeks per song, totalling roughly an hour and a half of learning each song, then an additional 30 minutes at the start of the 4th session with the new song to solidify it in the participants’ brains. With the breaks in between the sessions for participants to practise, and by refreshing the song at the end of following weeks, I believe this will be enough time for the singers to get their parts to a performance ready standard. I think it is important to accept that the performances won’t be perfectly in key or time, but this isn’t the point of the project. As outlined in my aims above, the point of the project is more the experience for the participants – especially older ones – of singing with a group of people who are all invested and interested in the music.

Below is appendix 2, 3 and 4 showing session plans for the first 2 sessions and session 9. For session 9, I have used random songs in place of ‘song 2, song 3’ etc. These songs may not be what is chosen, but are just examples.

Appendix 2

In this first session, I have started with an introduction, so all the participants can learn each other’s names, a bit about their background and musical journey (if any). I have used this ‘icebreaker’ type activity in an effort to increase the participants psychological safety. In a study for Google’s Project Aristotle (N. Pretty 2024) they found that teams with higher psychological safety (based on performance and collaboration and engagement) were 19% more productive and 3.6x more engaged than those with low safety. Whilst this is in a corporate setting, arguably the same principles apply: if a group of people are close and feel safe around each other, they will be more likely to perform better. The way I have chosen to do this is by getting the participants to talk about themselves, which reduces uncertainty and therefore cognitive stress. This is an assumption that Uncertainty Reduction Theory makes, posited by Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese (R. West and L. H. Turner 2018).

Appendix 3

Choosing the songs that they sing in the choir is a very important part of the project for me. A study by Thomas Balmer and Brigitte Gantschnig (2023) found that the main goal of the older people surveyed about living with chronic conditions was maintaining autonomy, agency, and a positive identity. My hope is that choosing the songs they sing, as well as the parts they sing will provide the participants with some autonomy and a sense of identity/self (which I will mention later), even though it will result in more work in between sessions for the staff. This however will be factored into the budget.

Appendix 4

Below as appendix 5 is the kind of arrangement (not finalised) I would give to the participants, if they read music or wanted to follow along with the shape of the melody. Everything would be taught by ear, in keeping with the folk tradition. I would also give the participants the words, and folders to put all of their sheets in. This is again factored into the budget.

Appendix 5

The concept of starting a choir that sings traditional music is not a new. In fact, by nature of the songs being traditional, they have been sung by groups of people, in a choir or in the field or a pub, for many years. Molly Malone for example, was first published in 1884 by James Yorkston (Irish History 2025), so has been sung by people for at least 142 years, but arguably more, as folk songs can exist for many years before people write them down. An example of someone running a folk choir currently is Bryony Griffiths. She is running a choir singing songs collected by Frank Kidson (Leeds Conservatoire 2026). I have based my idea loosely on this idea of singing traditional songs in four part harmony, but have personalised it to involve songs that the participants have a connection to, rather than songs collected in Leeds.

How will the project meet my aims?

I believe that the activities in my project will allow me to meet the aims set out at the beginning of this plan. Firstly, by encouraging the older people to choose the songs they sing in the choir, they will feel a sense of connection with the songs they sing, and by sharing them with the group develop their confidence, as well as individuality and identity. Furthermore, by spending 10 weeks in a group of likeminded people that they may not have met before, they will hopefully make new friends and develop of community in their local area. The NHS (2022) claims that ‘more than a million older people say they go over a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour or family member.’ The choir and the people that the participants meet and befriend will combat this. Additionally, the solo spots for members of the choir will do even more to boost the participants sense of individuality and self-esteem.

Funding

I am asking for £3387.50. This will cover all my costs and staff payment, and shouldn’t leave any profit.

The funding I will seek is from the National Lottery Project Grants scheme by The Arts Council (2026). I believe this will be the best option for my project, as they have different categories for different amounts of funding. I would only be competing with others looking for under £30,000, whereas a different fund, such as the Lottery’s Reaching Communities England fund, has only one application for anything from £20,001 to £20,000,000 (The National Lottery Community Fund 2026). Another reason why the NLPG scheme is a good choice is that they give you a decision on whether you have received funding in 12 weeks. This will allow me to secure funding in time to start the project when I want to – at the start of August – rather than having to wait the 40 weeks for the Reaching Communities grant.

Budget

I checked the rates on Musicians’ Union (2026) for how much to pay myself and the other facilitator. They suggest £295 a day (up to 5 hours) for workshops. Because my sessions are 1.5 hours, I decided to half this rate to £147.50 per session for myself, as I would be leading the sessions, as well as creating all the parts. For the supporting staff member, I set their rate as £100 per session, as they aren’t running any of the session, rather supporting me running it.

The average price for hiring a church room appears to be around £20 an hour – Trinity Church (n.d) in Liverpool is £25, but Goodmayes Methodist Church (2025) in Ilford has smaller rooms at £14.40. I’ve budgeted for 2 hours, which gives the staff time to set up/clean up before and after the session. For the concert, I have budgeted for 4 hours, which would include an hour rehearsal before, the concert itself which would go on for 1 hour, featuring solo slots from members of the choir as well as talks about what the songs mean to the performers.

Budget is attached below: Appendix 6

Marketing – Choir and Concert

Due to the target audience for my project being older people, from the age of 65 upwards, I will have to market the choir by more traditional means. In a 2025 study by Ofcom, almost half of people over the age of 75 read newspapers, so this seems like a good place to start. I could place adverts for the choir in local newspapers such as the Yorkshire Post and The Squeaker. However, I could still use social media, mainly Facebook, to advertise to potential participants, or most likely their relatives/friends who would be more likely to be active on social media, see the advert and pass it on to people who they think would be interested. Additionally, in Farsley there are physical noticeboards that are often used to advertise community events, such as kids activities in the library or church. I could contact the council and request to put some posters on these boards, as well as putting them in shops, such as the Co-op on Town Street. See images below (from Google Street View (2026)) for examples. The concert will need to be promoted as well. I can do this via the same methods mentioned above, but additionally I can post about it on websites such as Leeds Gig Guide (2026) so more people will see it.

Appendix 7

Appendix 8

The appendix below is a rough early draft of a poster that I might put online, or on noticeboards.

Appendix 9

Overall, I believe that this project will have a positive impact on the community, and by achieving the aims that I have outlined in this proposal, benefit the participants that take part in it whilst also bringing more eyes and ears to the folk tradition. Whilst this is a one time project, I would use it as a test project to see if something like this would be suitable on a larger scale.

Bibliography

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