Sheffield Teaching Hospitals

Another lovely session at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals today, playing music in two wards with patients, visitors and staff. This is a relatively new space for us to work in, with mostly small bays of 6 beds in each along a very long corridor. We play before and during visiting time, and get the sense that the visitors as well as patients are gaining a great deal of enjoyment and wellbeing from the music-making. Staff commented today that the atmosphere is much calmer and that everyone seems to be smiling when we’re around. Staff were waltzing in the corridors, dancing as they got on with their duties. The ward sister commented that they would have us there every day if they could. Patients were singing along with our music, with some teaching us some new songs including ‘Delaney’s Donkey’ and ‘Don’t Laugh at Me’. Some were ‘dancing’ in their chairs and beds much to the enjoyment of other patients and staff. All in all, much laughter, culture and humanity was present throughout the session – and I think we left a taste of it behind.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. A session in the neuro and spinal rehabiliation wards today which saw a mix of playing for and with patients at the bedside and in a day room setting, along with an impromtu performance for staff. It’s always interesting when staff make requests for a particular style, mood or tempo of music, and reminds us that we are there for the benefit of staff as well as patients. Sometimes it’s nice to make music just with the staff but we have to be careful to make sure we aren’t adversely impacting upon the patient’s space and time for music. Today we had time, and space, and it was lovely to give something to the staff for a short time. The session in the day room included a younger patient who we have now seen many times. He has limited movement and vocal control, but often moves his legs and feet along to the music. Staff have informed us that before his trauma and resulting disability he was an active musician. Today, with the support of therapists at the hospital, he was able to play various percussion instruments along with us using his knees. His musical abilities were instantly recognisable, and led us into a performance which he ‘conducted’, sensitively and musically indicating tempo and dynamics through his own movements and sounds. The enjoyment of collaborative, high quality music-making was great to see in everyone involved.

Lovely session today at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield where Oli Matthews and myself (Nick Cutts) were playing music on two wards, for and with patients, visitors and staff. OPUS has been visiting the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals now most weeks since the beginning of 2011, but every visit brings new surprises, new opportunities and new challenges. Today’s highlights include staff dancing up and down the corridors and bays, engaging with patients and visitors on a cultural, human level. One of the nurses turned to us and said she was singing along even though she didn’t know the words…… it was an instrumental piece, but the enjoyment and opportunity for cultural engagement it offered enticed her to sing along using her own words. Fabulous. We were directed towards an elderly lady in a single room who had ‘been crying all morning’ who clapped and gave us a toothless grin as we entered the room playing a gentle melody. She insisted (without words) on a more upbeat melody, and we duly obliged. She also sang along with great glee to an Elvis song for which none of us knew ALL the words, but that didn’t matter at all, and gave us a sparkling rendition of ‘Summertime’ for which we provided accompaniment with soprano sax and guitar. Another elderly patient became conductor, waving his arms in the air, and taking great delight when ‘his band’ followed his lead. At the end of the session, staff were heard discussing their musical lives and musical ambitions (some newly formed) with each other and with patients. A real sense of culture brought into the space, and left with all the people with whom we came into contact. For us, an enjoyable, uplifting and stimulating session to remember.