music in hospitals
By Jess Morgan
The ability of music to heal, enliven and bring a sense of identity back to its listeners is immensely powerful, and goes somewhat unnoticed in a world where songs can be bought for pence online. While we listen to the latest top 40 or lose ourselves in Spotify’s endless library, it is easy to forget that for many people, music is a light in the darkness of a lost memory. It can be a rare means of connection with other people, something to break up monotony wherever you live, and provides a soundtrack to our daily lives that will forever provide an association with that time, place, person or journey. There is something in music which reconnects us with a part of ourselves we had forgotten, or didn’t know was there. The documentary ‘Alive Inside’, shown at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, charts the development of social worker Dan Cohen’s thesis that music, listened to through headphones connected to an iPod, can revive deep memories not affected by dementia. Music has the ability to reconnect patients to their family and friends, sparking interaction from people who have been utterly uncommunicative for years and unearthing fragments of personality from those crippled by incurable diseases.
Similar to Music and Memory, the non-profit organisation that Cohen founded, Music in Hospitals works to provide entertainment, care and enhance the quality of life for the elderly, young, sick, disabled and cognitively and physically impaired. The charity conducts concerts in hospitals, day care centres, hospices and care homes all over Great Britain with musicians and bands specially chosen by the charity. Eighties anthems, an effervescent nineties beat or slices of sparkly noughties pop are often like therapeutic time travel, even more remedial if we listened to those musicians live. Live music is at the core of Music in Hospitals: it is immediate and vital, and enables interactions between the musicians and the patients that strengthens the consuming forces of melody, lyrics and rhythm. This article comprises of four interviews: three musicians who auditioned for MiH and play a combined assortment of guitar, bouzouki, ukulele, mandolin and whistle, and fundraising manager for MiH Laura Dancer. Laura’s energy and enthusiasm, and the musicians’ passion for suggests that the power to brighten a day, a mood, or someone’s life is a force with limitless potential and immense potency.
Interviews
Bruce Davies: Acoustic guitar / singer:
Hearing Aid: What instrument do you play and how long have you been playing for? What is your musical background?
Bruce Davies: Although I play a wide variety of instruments, I am only seen and heard working for MIH with voice and acoustic guitar. I first performed as a solo singer aged seven and as a guitarist at thirteen or fourteen. After studying music at school and briefly at RSAMD and doing a few ‘real jobs’, I became a full time professional musician in 1984. During my teenage years I started performing in Musicals and variety shows and have occasionally been able to be involved in some during my adult years, too. As a professional performer, I have sung in theatres, hotels, Churches, clubs, festivals and, of course, hospitals, nursing homes and day centres etc.
HA: Where do you play, and who do you play for? Do you have a favourite place / audience?
BD: Outside of MIH, I am currently the Host/Male singer in the Spirit of Scotland Show in Edinburgh and will spend my winter season performing in a he variety of venues. For MIH, I will perform in whatever venue I’m sent to. I seem to have an affinity with the elderly and don’t really have a preference although it’s easier to perform for audiences that can respond. However, it’s immensely rewarding to hear of reactions from seemingly unresponsive patients/residents whose demeanour, behaviour or facial expression has improved thanks to the music.
HA: Did you believe in the healing and therapeutic benefits of music before you joined the charity?
BD: I believe I’ve known of the healing, uplifting, mood changing power of music since I first became aware of music as a child. I could always be affected by music and, I guess, always expected that others could be, too. That assumption has only been confirmed and reinforced during my time with MIH.
HA: Has playing for the charity changed your relationship with music?
BD: I don’t believe it’s changed anything, only reinforced my relationship with music.
HA: How do you find your music affects the people listening; is there a moment that struck you particularly?
BD: Something I learned long ago was not to think that anyone would be impressed with my ability. Audiences, especially those we get as MIH musicians, are interested in how the music connects with them. If I sung the most difficult aria I could, it would not mean as much as finding a song that engendered an emotional response from that audience member – a song that has some memory attached to it, a song that is so easily picked up that even someone in the depths of Dementia can sing along to. I have had many occasions when responses to music have been evident in the most unlikely of circumstances.
John Davidson: Guitar / bouzouki / singer / six-piece blues band
Hearing Aid: Where do you play, and who do you play for? Do you have a favourite place / audience?
John Davidson: For MiH I perform at care homes and hospitals across Scotland, mainly in care homes and secure psychiatric wards. Outside MiH, I perform solo and in a folk group in village halls, church halls, hotels and pubs. Favourite place is impossible to select. There are so many factors at play.
HA: Has playing for the charity changed your relationship with music?
JD: Yes. I have a greater understanding and experience of the effects of music on others. I play a wider range of material than I used to. I make music more often. My stagecraft has improved greatly.
H.A: How do you find your music affects the people listening; is there a moment that struck you particularly?
JD: Wow. Many moments. I often see people who are disturbed and walking constantly, stop, sit and listen for an hour. I have often heard people who have lost the ability to communicate verbally sing along with a song (sometimes to the delight of visiting relatives). I have heard countless stories of the memories that particular songs evoke. I see people cry at a song then thank me later for singing something that touched them.
HA: Is music commonly felt as an internal, personal experience rather than something that can collectively heal, soothe and invigorate the sick?
J.D: It can be a personal experience and felt internally. At the same time, it should always be a shared experience between the performer and at least one person up to an entire audience. I often experience a sense of calm in a hospital day room after a performance. I hear patients talking about the music to staff and each other.
Derek Richardson: ‘On the Wagon’. Guitar / Mandolin / Bouzouki / Ukulele / Whistle / Pipes
Hearing Aid: How did you become involved with Music in Hospitals?
Derek Richardson: Another member of the band called for audition with Music in Hospitals, so the whole band went to support her and auditioned also.
HA: Where do you play, and who do you play for? Do you have a favourite place / audience?
DR: Have played worldwide, but these days mainly in UK and occasional European trips. We play as On the Wagon Band. My favourite country to perform in is perhaps Germany.
HA: Did you believe in the healing and therapeutic benefits of music before you joined the charity?
DR: Yes. When learning instruments/singing at school, we were constantly required to perform to people who required this service. For this reason, I was aware of the benefits of the provision of music/song from an early age
H.A: Has playing for the charity changed your relationship with music?
DR: Although we try to perform a wide variety of music ourselves, performing for Music in Hospitals has lead us down musical paths we would normally not have explored
HA: How do you find your music affects the people listening; is there a moment that struck you particularly?
DR: It really cheers folk up. Takes the audience down previously familiar roads, and rekindles former reactions and behaviour. My long standing moments are: a) Severe Dementia patients singing along to every word alongside their family members, but not recognizing their family. b) Lady in care home in a crowd of roughly 30 who asked for silence at the end of the show, then thanked us as the band. This apparently was the first time she had uttered a word since arriving at the care home four months previously.