So today I visited St Valery’s care home for the second time to repeat my set I created and performed for the first time about one month ago. For those that read ‘Believe in Music’ part 1; you will know that I am passionate about the use of music to communicate, to build self esteem, creativity, resilience, patience, coordination, memory (and so much more!) and more recently I am curious about the strength of music in connecting to and developing the memory of dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. After my first session I felt appreciative of feeling a renewed vibrancy with my own musical journey. I have been teaching many years; it is not news to report that the education system is incredibly challenging for the arts here in England and music is definitely suffering under cuts and foci on EBAC subjects. I have remained passionate about my subject and about the power of music with people but I have become increasingly challenged by lack of funding, lacking of music teaching hours within the school week and also youngsters addiction to technology seemingly contributory to a lack of resilience and patience for learning a musical instrument, which requires hours and hours of study. Whilst I consider again to renew my schemes of work to try different ways of connecting with our young people, I also feel the need to explore something that will ‘give back’ more immediately in terms of musical satisfaction or output versus input if you like. Today, I write about my second visit – merely observations at this stage and my feelings.

I started the session with the same songs as last time in an attempt to reinforce recognition of the melodies and engage more residents in singing and/or active listening. As I set up I overheard two elderly ladies chatting about how I had been before and done some singing; she said to her friend that we are going to sing this afternoon with a smile on her face. This was a great start and I appreciated the fact that my first visit had been memorable! I don’t want to use names for this blog but I am getting to know the residents by name and I am enjoying getting to know them all in good time. Today, there was more involvement in singing by more residents presumably they are more confident with the songs. Unfortunately, one of the residents was not feeling well today but one of the carers confirmed to me when I was leaving that she was listening to my violin playing and saying how lovely it was and that she wanted to play. She was enjoying my playing from her bed. One lady was not overly engaged on my last visit and indeed today, she was seemingly asleep as I started the vocal set but I noticed that when I started playing Bach on the violin she was really engaged listening intently; there was a notable different in her interaction.

When I finished my set I asked the ladies if there were any songs they would like me to bring next time and they suggested Elton John, ‘My Old Man’s A Dustman’, ‘Show Me The Way To Go Home’ and ‘Yellow Submarine’. I was really chuffed they were getting involved to this level and hopefully we can develop this angle more as the sessions continue. I am still learning as I explore this opportunity and at this stage I am only making observations without making any conclusions as such. I am content to be bringing joy through music and see where the sessions lead! Perhaps there is scope for smaller group sessions or 1:1 or exploring involving communal instruments to engage more alongside singing….watch this space. For now, I need to learn some Elton John but I will  be taking it down a key or two!!!