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Music in Healthcare Training – 14-18 May 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLEASE NOTE – This course is now full. If you wish to be added to our waiting list, please do send in an application form for our consideration. You can also contact us at training@opusmusic.org to be added to our mailing list for future training opportunities.

Applications are now open for our 5-day Music in Healthcare Settings Training course based in Derby and Sutton in Ashfield, UK.

This course will take place on 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 May 2018 at Kedleston Road Training and Development Centre, Derby, All Saints Centre, Huthwaite and and Kings Mill Hospital, Sutton in Ashfield. (Shared travel will be arranged between Derby and other sites for those needing it)

More details are available here:

Music in Healthcare Training opportunity Musicians Brief May 2018 (pdf)
Application Form (pdf)
Application Form (word document)

We will be offering places on the training programme as we receive suitable applications. We will close the application process once all eight places have been filled.

You are encouraged to apply as soon as possible and before the deadline of Friday 9th March 2018 as places could fill up quickly.

Here’s what previous trainees have said about this training course:

If you are at all interested in how music can be used as a vehicle for better health, happiness and well-being…DO THIS COURSE. It was one of the most moving, enlightening and humbling weeks of my life and has confirmed 100% for me that I’m on the right path musically, professionally and personally.

This training was all about fabulous human encounters in music: with the patients, their relatives, the hospital staff, my fellow trainees, and of course with Nick, Sarah and Richard.

I would recommend doing this training if you feel excited about the possibility of using music to enrich and even transform lives in a setting that is a long way from the stage.

This course has the potential to redefine your ideas of musical performance and what it means to connect with others when making music, in healthcare settings and beyond. My notions of musicality were challenged and broken open to reveal once more the true beauty of creativity. Something I am thankful for. The course is an absolute must for musicians, healthcare staff and humanity as a whole.

Training with Opus has been an incredibly creative, exciting, moving, challenging and fun five days, that have inspired me musically and personally. I feel privileged to have met such creative and talented musicians, and feel compelled to tell everyone about the immense power of music in the hospital setting!

Every moment of the course is crucial to exploring the role of the musician in a healthcare setting. The team of professional and well-experienced facilitators firmly ground the profession within its social and cultural context and offer a structured introduction to cutting edge techniques and exploratory, collaborative experience within the hospital setting itself. I would whole-heartedly recommend attending a course with OPUS to any musician looking to have an impact in this growing area of expertise.

This is one of the best training courses I have ever attended because in such a short time it has given me musical skills and confidence I did not have, as well as opening up a new career path in a fascinating discipline

The course is incredibly fulfilling and so valuable. It was unique in how engaging, rewarding and informative it was, as well as fun! I felt at ease quickly and thoroughly enjoyed how much I learnt, both in the experiences it gave but also the practical tools I have acquired to develop my own practice and passion for music in healthcare settings.

Inspiration

When we work in hospital we never know who we are likely to meet and what reaction we will get to our music. Mostly people react positively to us when we arrive with our instruments, sometimes people join in with us but it is rare to find someone with instrument at the ready and desperate to do some playing!

The other day we were invited into a room where two nurses were just finishing a treatment on a little girl. Her mum and another visitor were with her. We played a piece and her face lit up. Then I noticed that she had a ukulele on her bed, so I switched from playing bodhran to ukulele. She was really pleased about that so I tuned up her uke for her and she showed us the song she knew and we all joined in and played together. She played really well and put so much energy into her song that it was a real joy to watch and play along with her. We had a little chat about music and then did some more playing. We played another song and as Sarah and Sarah played and sang the words I sang the chords and the girl started to join in on the Uke. After about 4 times round the song she had it and again she played along with real vigor even saying that she was enjoying herself so much she didn’t want to go home which she was scheduled to do later that day.

Sarah had a copy of the words and the chords with her so she let the girl have them. We left the room to the sound of the girl playing away on her ukuele with all the adults in the room singing along and saying that if she has to come back to hospital she will make sure it is on a Tuesday when we are in.

I play music everyday and although it is always a pleasure it was a real gift to be confronted with the unadulterated joy that this little girl had in playing her music. She devoured the chance of learning something new and delighted in everyone playing together. Seeing her play reminded me why I started playing in the first place.