Leicester Royal Infirmary (Children’s)

One visit to a Children’s Hospital in November 2013 we were passing through one ward on our way to work in another, or so we thought……we were spotted and invited into one young patient’s room by his Mum.

She already knew us and knew of our work, as we had met before when her older daughter had been in the same hospital previously. Recently, her young baby had been having difficulty in passing faecal matter over the last four days and as a result was constipated and unable to take in much milk when hungry. He was crying in Mum’s arms as she struggled to get him to drink 30 ml of milk, and then appeared in pain.

We entered the room and played a variety of suitable pieces from our repertoire. The doctors came by the room and went away again, encouraging us to stay as if to see what result might occur from our music…..we stayed about 15-20 mins. The baby calmed and Mum was able to lay him down for a rest. We left and went off to another ward where we worked for the rest of the morning.

On our way back through to break for lunch, we put our heads around the door of the room with Mum and baby. She reported that the little one had had a massive bowel movement, had taken some more milk, and had slept for the rest of the morning uninterrupted.

Tuesday 29th Jan at Leicester Children’s Hospital, working with Sarah Steenson and Nick Cutts. We began work playing on Ward 12, progressed through to Ward 28 and finished the morning in Ward 14. A busy morning that finished quite late. The afternoon was productively spent only on Ward 10 for the whole time. I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of movement to music on this particular day, all day long…..

 

A father joined us in our music, singing to his daughter in her wheelchair initially. She was smiling so much that her gas breathing mask kept slipping off. We played Twinkle Twinkle, and a few other songs, and then progressed to a gentle waltz with the suggestion that they might share some rocking movements together. Dad needed no encouragement from us really and for several minutes the two of them engaged in lovely eye contact and moved back and forth with the wheelchair rolling to and fro on the floor fullly engaged in a beatiful dance.

 

Over to another ward, and we met up with an enthusiastic mother and her autistic son. She spent quite a while talking to me about how she had worked with her son in his early youth to develop his tolerance to touch, and this was evident as they danced together to our music while we played a mixture of Polkas, Hornpipes and Schottisches in the waiting area and outside their private room.

 

Another ward led us to meet a family with a toddler sitting in a toy car. She listened to our playing and started to wiggle from side to side. Her dancing developed and became more exaggerated. Nick started to sing “I’m in a Dancing Mood” which enabled us to progress through the song, changing the lyrics to suite the occasion – “I’m in a Singing Mood” ….”Wiggling Mood” etc etc.

 

Just around the corner, we found a mother and little baby, seemingly with some learning difficulties, and across the other side of the room a young girl in a wheelchair with the most amazing stripey tights on! We played Twinkle Twinkle and the mother sang to her baby and held her in the closest hug in her arms, and began to dance. Those stripey tights also started moving in time to the music. We played the Mazurka de St Pierre and Off to California, and there was much movement to be seen and pleasure exchanged just by the sharing of those musical moments.

 

In the afternoon we met up with a male patient we had seen before the previous visit and shared some music on the guitar. We all had a similar experience today with the young man playing on Sarah’s guitar with her as we sang. Nick then approached with an improvised song and music in Em. The chord progression was predictable enough for me to join in with an improvised melody. The lyrics Nick created were all about the patient’s name and how the song was made specially for him. The patient beamed with joy and his upper body became energised enough to lean away from the pillow and move about in the bed to the music.

 

In all the days that I have worked in hospital so far, I don’t think I have ever noticed quite as much of a physical response by so many people on the same day. Just coincidence? Maybe it was the way we were playing this day – I cannot say. But I did go away thinking of the uplifting feeling that I know I get when I have been dancing – the positive hormones that are released when you share music and movement with another human being – and I felt very strongly that we had brought a pretty special cultural dimension to these people’s day in hospital.

 

 

 

 

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Leicester- 15/1/2013
Today was my first day working with Richard Kensington and Sarah Matthews at Leicester children’s Hospital. It was interesting to work in this new environment; the staff at Leicester’s Children’s Hospital were very welcoming and enthusiastic towards the musicians and it was inspirational to see photographs of some of the work Opus had already done in this children’s hospital.
We entered the space with Sarah and Richard playing ‘The Maid and The Palmer’. It is an upbeat and lively piece of music. I was able to observe how the music added a positive energy to the space. This was then physically reflected by the carer of a young boy who performed a little dance to the music. During this time I began to engage with the musicians and played a gentle musical drone. I was standing close to the young boy whose carer had been dancing; he was lying in bed and reaching out his hand. I felt that he was communicating with me and so I wandered in his direction, still playing the guitar. Once close to his bed side it became clear that this young boy was unable to verbally communicate. However, his eye contact indicated that he was excited by the guitar. His carer then informed me that at home this young boy had three guitars of his own and that he was passionate about music. He was then focusing his gaze up on the guitar and reaching out to play it. As the musicians continued playing I held down the G Major chord and the young boy strummed the guitar. It was a very intimate situation and I was moved to witness the expression of joy the young boy was experiencing during this musical interaction.
We then began to play ‘Zamina’; this was also performed in an upbeat expression. The young boy was more intermittent with his strumming on this song and I read this to be because he was listening to the three of us singing the song and then he would reach out for the guitar and I would step up to his bed side for him to strum the guitar. Sarah then indicated to us all to bring the song to a close, the timing was perfect as I also felt that it was time to leave this young boy’s space and move to another area of the children’s ward.
As a result of this experience I have been able to reflect on literature I have read about children and musical interaction. Especially were the non –verbal child is concerned, the main thing I experienced was the importance of eye contact. Bunt (2007) suggests that this kind of non –verbal communication is vital when tuning into the child. Especially, when engaging in musical play in order to witness the emotion, to understand how intensely the child is interacting and in order to know when to deliver more musical interaction or to end it (90). It was a rewarding experience and I had the opportunity to see theory in action.