Music & writing
Musical Reminiscence, as developed by Rowena, is an active, pleasurable and highly effective therapy for the elderly. It’s good for the lungs, good for the brain and good for the soul. It evolved out of her love of working with elderly and dementia patients over the last 30 years. She is currently writing a book about it and is available as a Consultant and Trainer for staff in elderly residential environments and related Companies wishing to learn about the benefits and methods employed in this form of therapy.
Please email to find out more about this service.
Musical Reminiscence is the perfect blending of several highly therapeutic methods and is primarily an enjoyable activity for the elderly, with music as the key stimulus. It also combines sight, touch, sound, reminiscence materials, (proper) musical instruments and lots of social interaction. This is a flexible and person-centred experience for group settings and one-to-ones.
Adapting to each area the people respond to, the specialist, in vivid costume to catch the eye and set the scene, helps help revive memories, stimulate participation and interaction with others, taking them through an absorbing reminiscence journey. Health is benefitted by singing and moving with instruments and actions. Related reminiscence objects are utilised throughout to further engage interest, memories and conversation. This also drives the direction of the music employed.
Reminiscence materials like record sleeves and photographs are used to start discussions and help participants recall what music they would prefer to hear and what they associate with a particular song. These can be historic items to pass round or photographs and pictures mounted in a relevant order.
Music was always live in the past. Having it played in front of you is much more real and memory stimulating than watching a singer using a backing track. In the past, church, dances and cinema were the big occasions of the week, and everyone attended dances even if they didn’t dance. Many people met their life partners at these events.
The benefits of self expression within musical performance are well documented (see Music Therapy in Dementia Care Edited by David Aldridge). By actually joining in with proper musical instruments, participants can thoroughly participate and be creative in the moment. Many people used to play instruments from childhood, so the opportunity to be musical or simply make a sound is another dimension for them to enjoy and benefit from.
Use Musical Reminiscence in your care setting:
MUSIC & MEMORIES CD and Activities booklet £11.99 inc. P&P
Ideal for use by Care staff and Activities coordinators stimulating a shared experience in your community setting, or on a one-to-one with a family member. Ideal for anyone over 85 – the older they are, more they’ll like it!
56 songs performed by Rowena with professional musician (and sister) Erica Wilson on Keyboards. These pieces are a mixture of of her own favourites and a choice from her repertoire of over 600 old-Time favourites ranging from 1884-1983 and include Music Hall, traditional songs, dance tunes, war songs, film and show music. Instrumentation is vocals, ukulele-banjo, accordion and keyboard.
You can use this CD, which comes with an instruction booklet inside, as a tool to help you combine music and reminiscence yourself. By following the ideas and suggestions inside, you won’t need to know about the music yourself. With it you will be able to help elderly listeners engage with you, the music and each other – it’s all there. Guidance on topics and relevant people to reminisce about, suggestions of pictures to find and show, lyrics you can enlarge to use yourself or with others, actions to participate with and generally a lot of key information about the songs themselves for you to drop into the conversation to see where it takes you.
This CD is the next best thing when you haven’t got a live performer to sing along with. It is designed with the tracks running in a particular order with the mood and pace in mind – should you sometimes want to keep it running for the hour without stopping.
The booklet is a unique addition; a valuable guide to this music to help other generations understand some of the possible connections made in the minds of elderly listeners. It is (necessarily) very small to keep together with the CD, but is easily enlarged on a photocopier/scanner if need be.
Biogs of artists:
Rowena Wilson lives in Cornwall. She has a keen interest in the history and detail of social/musical cultures relating to the 1920s, 30s and 40s and working with the elderly; which has lead to her development of Musical Reminiscence. She also teaches the violin and piano and composes.
Erica Wilson is a highly qualified musician, teacher and composer who lives in Sussex. She specialises in jazz on Double Bass and piano/keyboard had taught both instruments in schools for the Music Service. Both musicians are multi instrumentalists. This is their first recording together. Erica plays keyboard here, all other parts and vocals are Rowena.