Positive Effect of Songs from Musicals

sadie06

I thought about where the appropriate forum for this thread may be, and went with here as it may be of most interest. This is a great article about a study which found that regular singing of songs from major musicals improves the mental performance of those in the moderate to severe stage of alzheimer's disease.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/11/alzheimers-patients-brains-boosted-sound-music-singing

I myself am doing some work with recovering stroke patients at the moment, though far less intensive; one 90 min session a week. It has turned into back to back classics from musicals, and they just love them so much. I am also so enjoying playing and singing these songs, the structures and harmonic content of which are unrivalled today in my opinion.

Greenmachine

sadie06 wrote: »

I thought about where the appropriate forum for this thread may be, and went with here as it may be of most interest. This is a great article about a study which found that regular singing of songs from major musicals improves the mental performance of those in the moderate to severe stage of alzheimer's disease.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/11/alzheimers-patients-brains-boosted-sound-music-singing

I myself am doing some work with recovering stroke patients at the moment, though far less intensive; one 90 min session a week. It has turned into back to back classics from musicals, and they just love them so much. I am also so enjoying playing and singing these songs, the structures and harmonic content of which are unrivalled today in my opinion.

Surely any kind of singing would do the job.

Posy

I imagine the association with a much loved musical would make a difference though. Songs from the Sound of Music and other musicals I really enjoy have a positive association that perhaps non musical numbers may not have.

sadie06

Greenmachine wrote: »

Surely any kind of singing would do the job.

I'm sure it would, but musicals seem particularly suited to facilitating group singing for that age group, and they conjure up all sorts of memories and associations. It ties in to reminiscence therapy.