# The Effects of Music



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

We saw this on FB and were touched - especially as Ingélou's mother has dementia.






This is a thread for sharing other such stories about the ability of music to change peoples' lives.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

^^^^ Music therapy, sadly, doesn't work with my mother - I tried playing her music that she used to like, but she can't seem to concentrate and just asked me to switch the cd player off. However, she does enjoy singing hymns and songs together with me, so that's something.

This is another inspiring story:


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Yesterday my brother-in-law played the piano in the living room of the small-scale nursing-home where my father (almost 90 years old) is staying. Then there came a woman, who happens to play the German flute. They both started to exercise Christmas hymns for the upcoming december holidays, while the nurses brought in all the people from the neighbouring nursing-home. So in a full house everyone joined in "Silent night, holy night" and all the other goodies: a true Christmas spirit filled the hearts & minds! Of course all this lasts just as long as it lasts (all are having dementia)... Tomorrow my brother-in-law might repeat the whole action with more or less the same enthusiastic result. But what is truly nice: the *spontaneity* of the nurses to bring all these people together for this musical exercise session! Next month there will be a festive Christmas dinner in the nursing- home restaurant and my brother-in-law was implored to play also there. So you see: offer one finger, and the whole hand is taken :angel:.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

The last things my father held onto were the songs that he loved from an earlier time - Porter, Gershwin, Berlin etc. When he was at the point where he knew I was his son, but unsure as to which one, I could still get him to join in with me singing "I Got Rhythm." During his last two weeks, when he was in comfort care (i.e. hospice) I set up a boombox and left a disc of Sinatra and Fitzgerald on repeat. I'll never know, but I hope it added to the comfort.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Wonderful video! I’ve played solo flute in a senior home myself and I believe they respond best to live rather than recorded music. Even seniors who may no longer speak will very often respond to it visibly and smile. It’s a minor miracle, especially when some of these resthomes have a blaring TV on throughout most of the a day or some god-awful music station. It’s just not the same as live, and it’s amazing to see the spark of life flare up again within them when something familiar or beautiful is being played. I wish I’d done more of it because it was so rewarding.


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