The Restorative Power of Music

Subject: The Restorative Power of Music
From: bobad
Date: 10 Apr 12 - 06:33 PM

"An old man in a nursing home is described as being depressed, unresponsive and 'un-alive' until he hears music from his era. When his caretaker puts the headphones on him and flips on the iPod, you can see the pure joy on his face. So awesome"

Watch

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Apr 12 - 10:56 AM

Wonderful! Thanks, bobad.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: glueman
Date: 11 Apr 12 - 11:42 AM

Excellent film!

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Bert
Date: 11 Apr 12 - 12:46 PM

He has been in the nursing home for ten years. I hope that wasn't the first time he'd been provided with music!

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 11 Apr 12 - 12:50 PM

Powerful stuff this Music...deeply moving clip. Many thanks bobad.
                                                                                                      Nigel.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: banjoman
Date: 12 Apr 12 - 05:56 AM

Some years ago we used to do a music session at a home for elderly people with learning difficulties - Most had simply been institutionalised for most of their lives - and it was there we met Rose, an eighty year old lady who the staff told us never spoke to anyone but just sat in her room smoking. She was brought into the session and showed no interest until we sang You are my Sunshine at which she seemed to take a bit notice. The next week she met us at the door, carried my guitar in and then asked if we could sing "That sunshine song". Her whole demeanour had changed and the staff said she was a different person. She died a couple of years ago but we hope we did bring a bit of sunshine into her life.
Loved the video and agree with all the sentiments expressed.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: stallion
Date: 12 Apr 12 - 10:20 AM

I have a tale, as many of you know I have a heart condition (what only one I hear you say!) no not one, but one that is a tad troublesome. Every now and then my heart goes into A-Fib, an a-rhythmic heart beat akin to a fluttering butterfly in my chest. It kicked in last week and laid me pretty low, last night me and the boys had a get together to sort out some songs for the Malton F.F., bearing in mind my heart had been out of rhythm for a week and I was feeling like rubbish when I arrived at Ron's, towards the end of a session of half a dozen songs my heart went into sinus rhythm and today it is still there. I am sure it was the singing that did it.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 12 Apr 12 - 10:59 AM

Music is a much deeper and more significant part of physiology than is generally believed. It is not a minor offshoot of language.

More details when I have finished The Singing Neanderthals by Steven Mithen

L in C#

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: GUEST,999
Date: 12 Apr 12 - 11:14 AM

Interesting article from 2009 about links between music and speech and why certain musics 'communicate' with people.


Biological link between music and speech.


Quality posts have always been a hallmark of Bobad's, something he's certainly continued doing with this thread.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Amos
Date: 12 Apr 12 - 11:17 AM

Hear, hear, Les; it runs deep into the tribal roots and the construction of identity. It is language, sound, harmony, mathematics and emotion sweetly bound up in the psyche in one stream. I am frequently amazed at the accuracy of childhood memories of songs that people have not heard in decades, and whose workiung memory is not that good in general. Of course, there's something very safe about being in a place where songs are sung, and where one can absorb all the cultural nuances of the song without any stress. I wish we could sing math lessons! :D "Gimme pi, lots of pi, valued at 3.145, it helps me get a round!"

A

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 12 Apr 12 - 11:44 AM

That darling old man, what a poignant film! (But have to say, his 'nursing home' doesn't look too fantastic. It looks a bit bleak and bare to me. Why are the residents sitting in wheelchairs? Those should only be used to move a person from A to B. They're very uncomfortable and unsupportive for any length of time.) My dear old Dad used to listen to old music from his youth, and although it sometimes made him cry, they were happy tears I think, connected to memories of times past.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 02:38 AM

The Singing Neanderthals by Steven Mithen
Publication Date: March 31, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0674021924 | ISBN-13: 978-0674021921

The propensity to make music is the most mysterious, wonderful, and neglected feature of humankind: this is where Steven Mithen began, drawing together strands from archaeology, anthropology, psychology, neuroscience--and, of course, musicology--to explain why we are so compelled to make and hear music. But music could not be explained without addressing language, and could not be accounted for without understanding the evolution of the human body and mind. Thus Mithen arrived at the wildly ambitious project that unfolds in this book: an exploration of music as a fundamental aspect of the human condition, encoded into the human genome during the evolutionary history of our species.

Music is the language of emotion, common wisdom tells us. In The Singing Neanderthals, Mithen introduces us to the science that might support such popular notions. With equal parts scientific rigor and charm, he marshals current evidence about social organization, tool and weapon technologies, hunting and scavenging strategies, habits and brain capacity of all our hominid ancestors, from australopithecines to Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals to Homo sapiens--and comes up with a scenario for a shared musical and linguistic heritage. Along the way he weaves a tapestry of cognitive and expressive worlds--alive with vocalized sound, communal mimicry, sexual display, and rhythmic movement--of various species.

The result is a fascinating work--and a succinct riposte to those, like Steven Pinker, who have dismissed music as a functionless evolutionary byproduct.
(20060227)

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Bert
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 03:18 AM

I was singing at the Doylestown Arts Festival some years ago. You know my usual silly stuff, Size doesn't Matter, Silicone Cindy and I think Thrashing Machine when this lady comes up to me and says. "You know my arthritis was really hurting. Then I laughed so much that the pain has all gone away"

So THAT is why I continue singing silly songs.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 03:23 AM

Good point Bert, silly and daft are two of my favourite genres

Les

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Bert
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 03:27 AM

Thanks Les, I also include Bawdy as well.

Trouble is, that once you sing ONE silly song, your audience will never let you sing a serious song again;-)

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Micca
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 05:23 AM

Every day in my head
I hear Music,
Folk and Blues
Classical,
Like a sub-text,
The Soundtrack
Of my life,
So that I put
On the radio
To streamline it
into one tone
or style, otherwise
it is a mix of Gaughan,
Mozart, Judy Collins
Azanavour, Haydn
Django and Handel
Walton, Trenet, Ives,
Ketty and Copland
But sometimes
When the dark
Creeps up to the window
And the Peace descends
I'd settle for endless repeats
Of Four thirty three of
John Cage
©Micca Patterson

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 06:12 AM

Can I recommend two related books?

One is by Oliver Sacks, who appears in the video clip of the elderly man in the care home.

It's called "Musicophilia"

http://musicophilia.com/

"In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people--from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty-two, to an entire group of children with Williams syndrome who are hypermusical from birth; from people with "amusia," to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans, to a man whose memory spans only seven seconds--for everything but music"

The other is by Daniel Levitin, and its name is "This Is Your Brain On Music"

This is Your Brain On Music

"Think of a song that resonates deep down in your being. Now imagine sitting down with someone who was there when the song was recorded and can tell you how that series of sounds was committed to tape, and who can also explain why that particular combination of rhythms, timbres and pitches has lodged in your memory, making your pulse race and your heart swell every time you hear it. Remarkably, Levitin does all this and more, interrogating the basic nature of hearing and of music making (this is likely the only book whose jacket sports blurbs from both Oliver Sacks and Stevie Wonder)...."

Both the books are thought-provoking, intriguing, at times moving, and often inspirational, and very readable.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 06:18 AM

Can I recommend two related books?

One is by Oliver Sacks, who appears in the video clip of the elderly man in the care home.

It's called "Musicophilia"

http://musicophilia.com/

Me too, me too. I bit hard going but excellent & fascinating read

Les

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Peter C
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 10:34 AM

University of the West of England did a lot of research a year or two back on the use of music in a health care setting. I don't have the references to hand, it was all very positive

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: GUEST,999
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 11:18 AM

Good article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_therapy

which hot links to aspects of music and our human responses: clinical therapy, biomusicology, musical acoustics, music theory, psychoacoustics, embodied music cognition, aesthetics of music, and comparative musicology.

I'd also point out that I've had birds come around to either tell me shush or to find out what was going on with the guitar. So I think music affects the animal kingdom too. Cows and milk and classical music for example. I'm of the opinion that wars should be fought by musicians, because it's real hard to kill someone who shares your groove. It would involve but one death: that of the first person to suggest that only his/her music should be played. That oughta settle down the rest.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 01:13 PM

Wars are fought by musicians..bagpipes at least.

I just wrote a song about the death of a fishing crew here and have been in touch with the parents of the young man from our community and it is humbling to say the least...mg

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 14 Apr 12 - 01:23 PM

A similar story, of the effect of music on a young man with amnesia caused by a brain tumor, was described by his neurologist in an essay called The Last Hippie. It was used as the basis for a feature film made last year, The Music Never Stopped.

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 06:33 AM

For dementia sufferers, music unlocks door for real personality to shine

The power of song is triggering the memories of many people with dementia and giving them a new lease of life

UK Observer today

L in C#

Subject: RE: The Restorative Power of Music
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 06:34 AM

Try again:


UK Observer today

L in C#