Music in the community task two

Our objective  for the project is to previde stimulating performances for dementia patients in a residential care home promoting positive feelings.  The residents at the care home will benefit, and so will we as we will learn a new skill.

These sessions are funded by the care home who receive a budget from the NHS for activities and therapy. Other potential sources of funding are given by the care home, but alternative sources are a social care fund, the arts council, and local authorities.

We will deliver the workshops aongside Kevin, the community music facilitator.  Myself and Callum are current performing arts students at RNC.  We will need musiaal instruments, that are suitable.  We will also need a van to move the equipment.  Kevin will bring this.

We would gage a way of evaluating each day.  However, as this is a single session, we will ask for verbal feedback from the care staff, Kevin, and anything we can get from any lucid residents.

While planning our workshop, the initial ideas were:

Ice breaking, Danielle to introduce.  This should take about two minutes as I will ask how they are and then explain who I am and that I am helping Kev run the session. I will then introduce.

I will then lead a  call and responce,using body percussion as it is a bit quietere, this should take about 7 to 10 minutes as I will ask  what's your name, and the response should be My name is. This will help the residents with dementia to make a small connection with their peers so that they could limit peer isolation. I’ll thenproceed with a call and response about  the month day anddate   using forms of body precussion. This is included in the 10 minutes, ans should hopefully stimulate their mind, and potentially memories as they’ll learn the day and date, potentially for the first time in a long time.

Callum will take over and he will hand over the instruments.

Callum will get everyone to make a sound on their instrument.  They can make sounds louder when he raises his hand, and when he lowers  his hand they can make the noise quiet.  He will demonstrate some beats for people to copy on the Djembe. This will take about 10 minutes and will help the residents to work in a group and challenge themselves by following instructions. Meanwhile, I will join in with te residents in order to support Callum.

After this happens, Kevin will then take over and lead the rest of the sessions with his group.

These activitiesare suitable for the learning styles of the  participants.  As they suffer  with dementia  they can respond more easily to call and response, as it is repetition, whereas they could not create their own song due to barriers of memory loss. For example learning song words or chord sequences would not be possible for them to manage.