Project Description
Follow this YouTube link to see the effects of participation during just one song in a choir for the elderly:
Dad’s ability to improvise and compose beautiful melodies on the fly has always amazed me.
Tonight, I gave him four random notes as a starting point.
Although his dementia is getting worse, moments like this bring him back to me. pic.twitter.com/dBInVCTmfF
— Nick Harvey (@mrnickharvey) September 17, 2020
Music has so much potential to bring people back in touch with forgotten parts of their lives and self. Parts of the brain that respond to music do keep alive despite Dementia. Do look to Music Musings for inspiring quotes on what music does for us all!
Look at this link to a dementia friendly radio with simple controls and ability to play playlists you create for them under titles that you add and that will make sense to your friend/relative.
Relish Radio for Dementia, Alzheimer’s & The Elderly (relish-life.com)
If music is important to your loved one then do check out a charity called playlist for life. It is specifically concerned with embedding personalised music into the lives of those with dementia and the website is full of exciting ideas: www.playlistforlife.com
Have you thought of recording Inheritance Tracks with your relative of friend or a desert island disc style recording where they go through their life chronologically saying how music has spoken to them at different points? See Dan Johnson’s experience of this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60084596
Watch a man come back to emotional life whist singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI0WBSCbfTM
If you are interested in connecting to choirs for the elderly throughout the UK for yourself or someone connected follow this link
This video shows a dementia friendly café and the music that occurs there. It is never too late to learn a musical instrument!
Playing a musical instrument good for brain health in later life – study – BBC News
A husband wife team make music through Covid keeping spirits alive:
A ballerina with Alzheimers whose memory of dancing Swan Lake is bought back through music:
The moment a ballerina with Alzheimer’s returned to Swan Lake – BBC News
Do see Reminiscence Group Guidance section of website for more useful links and ideas on how to incorporate music and singing into Reminiscence Activities. You will find songs from music halls, films and folk culture to sing with your later in life person on pages 50-53. Google the lyrics though you will probably find they will remember them!