Music and Health Archives - Page 11 of 15

Favourite song – 22/1/2013

I had a great experience at the very start of the day; we had entered the ward space already playing. As the ward was very quite I was playing at a very low volume, we had gathered round the bed of a young boy who was very much interested in the music and he knew Sarah and Richard well. I had also met this young boy two weeks before and he remembered my face. When we started playing the song I was the furthest away from the young boy. I think this made it difficult for him to hear what I was playing and so he requested for me to come and stand by his bedside. I experienced this invite as enthusiasm for the music and this enthusiasm became even more evident when we played the song Zamina. He was eager to have this song replayed; as there were other patients on the ward it was important to play other songs in between Zamina. Initially, Sarah, Richard and I sang Zamina at a well projected volume, eventually the young boy began to join in. However, by the fourth time of playing the song the young boy’s singing was a lot louder, I had lowered the volume of my singing voice and eventually the young boy was singing on his own. I found it moving to see him passionate about singing this song. He also wanted to invite the nursing staff and other people who were on the ward at the time to join in and sing along. However, some were too self conscious to join in and the nursing staffs were very busy. However this did not stop him enjoying the moment, building a musical relationship with myself and the other musicians, as well as increasing his confidence in his own vocal expression.

“Can we sing another song?”

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Working in Derby Children’s Hospital with Nick Cutts and Rich Kensington today we played our way along the upper wards in the morning. We met a young patient who was so relaxed and open about her music and singing, she just couldn’t get enough of making music with us.

We started with “Yellow Bird” as an instrumental piece and then a sung song. The patient and another friend in hosptial were both offered a shaker instrument to join in with – which they both did with great joy in their faces – sometimes fast, and then slow, and then stopping to listen to the music on its own.

I smiled at the patient and asked if there was anything that she liked to sing – to which the answer was certainly “yes”. She said her favourite was “The Wheels on the Bus”. Oh great we know that one – and we sorted out which verses we could cover. This young patient, lying on her back for medical reasons, unable to sit up, joined in and led the song, thinking of new different verses with Mum’s help. Her voice was quite confident and happy and clear, such that a group of doctors standing nearby on their rounds, stopped and looked up from their work.

“Can we sing another song?” came her voice, at the end of that one…..we decided on Five Little Speckled Frogs, and encouraged her to help with the counting. She was not quite so confident with the words on this one, but none-the-less made every effort to join in with us.

She then became interested in my violin and I moved around the other side of her bed and showed her the instrument. She plucked the strings with such care and sensitivity. Then I explained how to touch the bow, and with Mum’s hand on one end of the bow, hers in the middle and mine at one end, we drew the bow back a forth across the D string.

“Can we sing another song?” she asked, whilst still bowing the D string on the violin…..Twinkle Twinkle in D major of course, worked really nicely. She played so gently and sang the words at the same time.

So lovely to meet this young patient – to listen to her voice and share those musical moments. The fact that we were in hospital did not really matter – the fact that she was lying down didn’t seem to hinder her participation and indeed, leadership in the music.

We did indeed sing another song.

Elevator Music….

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I was working in Nottingham QMC Children’s Hospital on Tuesday this week with Rich Kensington and Sarah Steenson. We found ourselves en route from level B back to the top floor to pack our things away at the end of the day.

However, our playing was not over for the day yet!

We waited for the lift…..but the first one to arrive was rather full with surprised but welcoming faces who wanted us to ride in the lift with them, but there was not enough room…..we waited for another.

The next lift arrived with room for all three of us, even though there were about 6 members of a nursing team who obviously knew each other and worked together. One said, “Oh Elevator Music” as we got in – and that was it – I had to play something.

We only had time for one A part of the Valse for Polle before it was their stop, but in that short time, the group were smiling and laughing together and got out of the lift singing the beginning of the second A part of the tune.

A lovely example of how having real instruments with responsive musicians in hospital can provide many places with different sorts of interactions, and sometimes in the most surprising of locations.

musical interaction- by Sarah S

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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.

Tuesday 15th Jan – Winding the Bobbin Up

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A very busy day in hospital and so many potential reports to write…….so I shall choose one scenario from our afternoon visit to intensive care.

I was working with Richard today and our short-term placement student, Sarah Steenson. We were invited in to meet a very enthusiastic and welcoming staff and a very full room – I think every bed was taken.

We began with ‘Off to California’ and played to a familiar family in a private room. Then ‘Out on the Streets there is Sunshine’ as we moved down the room. We came to a young girl, slightly sitting up in her bed, looking fairly subdued and quiet. We were still playing the same song at this time, and had begun leaving a 3 beat space. Our young observer decided it was time to join in and waved her left hand in time with the missing 3 notes. This developed into 3 claps the next time round. After a little consideration I invited her to use both arms for ‘Wind the Bobbin Up’.

We played and sang through the song a few times and towards the end she was wriggling in bed, leaning away from her pillow, doing all the actions, smiling, and making those around her smile and laugh.

Richard said later that day, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to tears with Wind the Bobbin up before’!

Friday 11th Jan

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Friday’s visit to hospital allowed us to visit a young man in his teens with special needs.

We began with ‘Zamina’ and played to him a few times through. The Play Specialist stayed with us the whole time and produced from the music box, a few different hand held instruments for the patient to try…a few different shakers and the bell stick. He spent some minutes investigating these sounds and playing with the music and testing out some different tempos and volumes.

The xylophone was then offered to try. His Dad told us that his son used to play the drums a lot at home. The patient soon showed us that he already had his own technique for holding 1 or 2 beaters. He demonstrated choice of note pitches, speed of playing, styles of playing and at times there was interaction between him and us and he engaged with our music as part of what he was doing. Mostly though, he seemed to be envigorated by the whole activity.

His father and the Play Specialist commented that he had not been very active or energetic since arriving in hospital that week and that this was the most energised and happy he had been. During the course of the session he had gone from a stretched out lying down position (watching the TV upside down from bed), to more upright, to leaning on one arm, and then finally sat right up vertically (sorting his legs so they were crossed in front of him and he could fully see what he was doing, see us and use both hands with the beaters for the instrument). He appeared to have completely changed his mood.

We left him playing the Xylophone with his father and the Play Specialist said she would call in and collect the instrument later when he had finished.

As we moved down the corridor playing and singing with other patients, we could still hear this young man making music.

Music in Healthcare Training Opportunity – 11th-17th April 2013

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We are pleased to announce that our next Music in Healthcare Settings training programme for musicians will take place on 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th and 17th April. This will take place in Derby, UK, with part of the time spent at the Royal Derby Hospital/Derbyshire Children’s Hospital.
A full brief and application form are attached below. You are advised to send your application asap as places may fill up quickly.
Please get in touch with any questions you may have.

Music in Healthcare Training opportunity Artists Brief April 2013
Application Form (pdf)
Application Form (.doc)

Some of the feedback from our last course:

‘Thank you so much for this opportunity. It was such a pleasure to explore such an exciting aspect of music making with such lovely like minded musicians, with such a high level of professional standard from the trainers delivering this course. I can’t believe we made such fantastic progress in only five days, and I am thoroughly invigorated by what I have seen can be achieved with music in a hospital setting.’

Preconceptions are often misconceptions!

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We were asked to visit the room of a teen aged boy who we were told was under constant supervision and was really into music – especially heavy rock and rap. We were told that he was a DJ and played the drums.

Before starting to work in hospitals my response to this request would have included a certain amount of uncertainty as to how to connect with this boy. With the limited information that we’d been given it would be easy to develop the preconception that we were going to work with some one who had very defined musical tastes and that the success of the interaction would be dependent on these some how being reflected in the music we played. I remember how closely I identified with certain bands and musical styles when I was a teenager and how easily I would write off the most adept musical performances if they failed to make the grade in terms of some (often imagined) stylistic nuance.

The temptation given the circumstance outlined above is to reach out to the person by offering them something you think they may know and be able to identify with. The danger in doing this is that you may fall so far short of the mark in comparison to what’s on their iPod that you’ll come across as a fake, or worse an embarrassment. It is important to be yourself, have confidence in what you do and to act with integrity and then this won’t happen. If you don’t feel comfortable playing a particular song or if the piece of music isn’t you then you most likely won’t be successful in offering it to someone else.

We played a song for the boy that we were comfortable with and he listened, not giving much away. Then we got chatting about instruments and music. He wasted no time in telling us what a good DJ and drummer he was and how much he could do on his instrument. He talked with a lot of bravado and his barriers were up. The stories got taller as he went on. We listened and accepted what he said and when he realized that we weren’t going to challenge any of his claims the subject of the conversation changed to “What’s in the box?”. Together, we had a look through the instruments that we had with us; a small glockenspiel, some shakers and a little xylophone and he tried some of them out. He settled on the xylophone. He had one beater and I had the other. Gradually we went from random tapping of notes to taking turns making up four beat phrases. The phrases increased in length and complexity but maintained a steady tempo. There was a lot of eye contact and after a time quite a bit of humour. This went on for about ten minutes with Nick providing backing on guitar until we came to a very musical conclusion and he said he had had enough.

It is very easy to develop pre conceptions about people. Teenagers especially are often seen as always needing to be given something ‘cool’ in order for them to engage. Actually, what they and most people seem to respond to best is something genuine. In this instance it would have been easy to assume that this boy would have had little interest in playing completely freely on a small xylophone for 10 minutes but once he had seen that we were offering him something of ourselves in a non-judgmental way he was able to drop his barriers and just play with us.

Once again I was reminded of the importance of ‘expect nothing’. As musicians in hospital it so important that we accept people as we find them, don’t judge them and expect nothing from them. That way we give them space to be themselves and leave a space for the magic to happen!

Taking time to be with people

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A big part of our work as musicians in hospitals is to be there as a musician and a human being spending time with other human beings, to make music for and with them and to create a cultural venue within a clinical environment.

We often get asked if it is emotionally difficult to spend so much time in hospitals, especially with children. There are, of course, always emotional moments in our practice, and we allow ourselves to be emotional as part of our professional practice, indeed it is important that this emotion becomes part of our music-making to allow us to be ‘in-tune’ with the patients, visitors and staff with whom we work. We must always be careful, however, that we do not project our own emotions onto others – this is also part of our professional undertaking.

It is, however, more normal for us to work with the well-part of the person, to enhance and support the cultural, vibrant, and well part of the person. Medical staff work hard to take a holistic approach to their work, however, they are principally there to treat the illness. We are hugely privileged to be able to take the time for this approach, one which seems to complement and support the work of the hospital staff so well.

Over recent weeks, we have seen this human-to-human approach work so well. In Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, working with elderly patients and those with spinal and neurological injuries, we have recently been able to take more time to explore musical interests with individual patients, to support them in singing and playing musical instruments with us, and to rediscover their creative and cultural selves. Medical staff have observed and taken part in some of these sessions, making new, human-to-human contact with patients and seeing new potential despite their illness or injury. It is fantastic to be able to support these new patient-staff partnerships.

In children’s hospitals, the time spent with individual patients and their families becomes special time, time for a parent and new baby to bond in a neonatal intensive care unit, time for ‘normal life’ to resume if only for a moment, time for music 🙂 When doctors, nurses and other hospital staff become part of these interactions, the space and relationships within the hospital change completely, and we are all human beings together.

Leo Tolstoy wrote (What is Art, 1897):
‘… In order correctly to define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life… Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.’

It’s wonderful to be able to share music-making, a ‘condition of human life’, with all those we encounter in hospitals.

Music and Health

Favourite song – 22/1/2013

“Can we sing another song?”

Elevator Music….

musical interaction- by Sarah S

Tuesday 15th Jan – Winding the Bobbin Up

Friday 11th Jan

Music in Healthcare Training Opportunity – 11th-17th April 2013

Preconceptions are often misconceptions!

Taking time to be with people

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