Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #496 - Music as Memory Therapy, Musical Monday for 1611.07
Hi Mom, Still in catch up mode. Another re-post but a musical one.
https://www.kefdirect.com/music-as-memory-therapy
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++By Jack Sharkey, April 27, 2016.
Got an old iPod laying around you don't use anymore because all of that 2007 technology is just so archaic? There are people who might benefit greatly by you removing it from that junk drawer in the kitchen and sending it their way.
Music is emotion. It’s almost a meaningless cliché at this point, and that’s not a good thing. Music is the very translation of feelings into something shareable. Music makers are translators of feeling, and everyone involved in the creation or sharing of music is involved in the sharing and translation of emotion. Since the essence of being human is our ability to feel and intellectualize emotion, it stands to reason that music is a basic human necessity.
Current estimates place the number of Americans with some form of Alzheimer's or dementia at 5.1 million, so it’s safe to say we’re all in this together. Like most other Americans, I have a relative with Alzheimer’s. I don’t have a lot to talk with her about – baseball and whether or not I had a good day at work are pretty much about it. And there is still music. Frank Sinatra and the Big Bands bring about a peace and a calm and that ever diminishing smile but so do the Beach Boys and Curtis Mayfield. No singer am I, but every once in a while I’ll belt out a tune for her (a capella of course) and the connection is as strong as ever.
For more information, click here to listen to our podcast with the Music & Memory Project founder and Executive Diect Dan Cohen.
The music of our youth was no better than the music being made today, but the difference is the music of our youth ties us to our emotional pasts – our first loves, our first losses, the freedom of youth, the anxiety of being young. Emotion and memory are very closely tied together. Think about the first time you fell in love and now go find that song you remember about him or her. Play the song. See what I mean? “Music imprints itself on the brain deeper than any other human experience,” says noted neurologist Oliver Sacks. “Music evokes emotion, and emotion can bring with it memory…it brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can.”
Musical experience (and aptitude) are often the last mental skills to disappear so caregivers are increasingly depending on music to keep contact with persons suffering from advanced stages of dementia. Lyrics, when set to music, are retained more often than lyrics recited to patients and group singing brings about a reawakening of personality otherwise obscured by the disease. Dancing has also been shown to open up ambulatory patients to their caregivers – the dancing leads to very basic displays of affection like hand-holding, hugging and kissing, and those displays in turn open up some memories. None of this is a cure, but it is a way to stay in touch with patients as long as possible through the progression of the disease.
So hold on to your music because it’s the key to your life in more ways than we can imagine, and share the joy of music with those you are afraid of losing touch with – regardless of the reason, but most especially those whose memories are fading away.
For more information and to donate please hit this link to visit Music And Memory . org.
For more information on the Alive Inside documentary please hit this link.
For more information on the information in this post please visit these links:
- 5 Reasons Why Music Boosts Brain Activity – Alzheimer’s.net
- How Music Improves the Memory of Dementia Patients – The Week
- Singing Boosts Brain Activity in Alzheimer’s Patients – The Independent
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and not necessarily those of KEF or its employees.
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Reflect and connect.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
I miss you so very much, Mom.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = ## days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - date - time
NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.
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