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contributed by Flora
Newberry
Name that Singer or Name
that Band
*Using
tapes or CD's that feature collections of songs sung by one
singer, or played by a particular band -
the activity involves asking participants to listen to 1-3 songs
and
guess the singer/ or band.
*It's
important to choose entertainers you know your clientele will
recognize, but for groups that have more trouble guessing -
various adaptations can be used.
The facilitator can provide extra clues as needed....
for instance if Sinatra was the answer, you could say his nickname
was "old Blue Eyes", and he hung around with the "Rat Pack".
*For
a group that needs more help, the game can be put into a "fill
in the blanks" format, allowing participants to guess letters.
*For
participants with Dementia, the use of a multiple choice format
may contribute to success of the program. For instance, "was
that A) Frank Sinatra B) Dean Martin or C)Elvis Presley".
Providing possible answers will help them to
call on recognition memory rather than recall.
*In
using any of these ideas with mixed groups, the nice thing is
that even if you have some participants who are too impaired
to participate in the guessing, they can still enjoy listening
to the selections.
Musical Reminscing
*Many
people love to reminisce about their favorite singers,
bands and bandleaders. Scheduling activities like
" Remembering the Big Bands",
"Remembering Benny Goodman",
"Remembering Patsy Cline"
gives participants a chance to share these feelings
with a group of like- minded peers.
*There
are many "Greatest Hits of ..." collections that are perfect
for this type of activity, and props such as pictures, bios,
album covers, sheet music, and publicity posters can enrich
the experience greatly.
*Most
public libraries contain at least a few books featuring photos
of famous entertainers, and a few companies market similar materials.
Eldergames offers collections with black and white photos of
entertainers that include biographical information on the back
of the photo, in their "Flashbacks" series.
What to do with those old
chimes?
*Many
nursing homes and adult day cares have a set of old tone chimes
stuck away in a back closet somewhere. Most likely left over
from a past Music Therapy program.
They often sit around for years because no one is sure what
they are or what to do with them.
*It may be that they've never even looked in the box!
*Generally
the case is large (2 1/2 x 2 feet), flat and black.
The instrument inside looks much like a large xylophone, except
that each note is mounted on it's own separate block of wood.
The notes are usually painted black and white like the keys
of a piano, and are marked with letter names. Usually the set
comes with several mallets to strike the notes with.
*The
problem is that not even real tone chime players use this type
any more; most tone chime choirs have switched to a type that
can be held in the hand, where the note and striker are incorporated
into one piece, and the note is sounded with a quick downward
motion of the hand.
*Add
the fact of the big awkward case and many smaller pieces to
take out and put away after each use, and you can see why this
instrument is not popular in the activity department.
*As
a musician, it bothered me to have an instrument sitting around
unused. I had read about the success of pentatonic xylophones
in the book "The Lost Chord", and decided to see if I could
transform the chime set into several small pentatonic xylophones.
*The
pentatonic scale is a five-note scale in which all the notes
sound pleasant together; all the notes that cause tension or
dissonance (i.e., the ones that could sound "bad") are taken
out.
*On
the piano, the black keys naturally form a pentatonic scale,
but they can be formed with combinations of white notes also.
*For
this project I purchased four small cutting boards at the dollar
store. Two of them I used to make a black-key pentatonic scale,
using combinations of the black notes F#/Gb, G#/Ab, A#Bb, C#/Db,
and D#/Eb.
*I managed
to fit four or five notes on each cutting board. The other two
I used to make a white note pentatonic scale in "C", using combinations
of the notes C, D, E, G, and A.
*After
arranging them on the boards I recruited my husband to screw them securely in place; this would be an easy job for any maintenance
department. I think gluing the pieces in place would also have
been effective.
*The
xylophones have been well used by our clients; the black key
set went to the dementia unit, and the white key set went to
our Adult Day Care. I have found that in the Adult Day Care
several of our Developmentally Disabled clients enjoy using
them independently. The Dementia residents use them independently
or with some hand over hand cueing. It is not necessary to have
musical training to use them effectively .
*I find
that the insruments are used much more now that they are in
smaller, more manageable pieces, and now I don't have to trip
over that big black case any more!
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