It’s been a month since our last message to you, and we hope you’re getting on ok. We’ve heard from some of our Partners who are locked down at home, unable to work, and some who are working harder than ever; some familiar care settings feel very different right now.

Wherever you find yourself, we hope that music can help you in some way: Whether it’s offering musical activities in your setting, guiding others to use musical activities at home, or using music for your own well-being. Scroll down for this month’s ideas or resources. But everyone’s experience of the COVID-19 outbreak will be different, so rather than try to guess what you need we wanted to ask you again: Is there anything we can do to help you?

Musical Activity Resource Book: Interactive Music-Making for People Living with Dementia

Heartened by our Partners who are finding music valuable within the care they are providing for older people and those living with dementia, we have developed a downloadable Musical Activity Resource Book.The booklet includes both activities you could use in a planned music session and which might also be useful if an opportunity spontaneously arises when you are caring for your service users.

  • Some of our partners have told us how vital singing with their residents has been in recent weeks, so the booklet includes some techniques (p.10-11) and activities (p. 15, p.21, p.25) which might add to what you are doing (or reassure you that what you’re doing already is brilliant!).
  • Thinking about infection control, there are also clapping activities (p.16), and activities which could be done whilst socially distant and which involve musical instruments, but avoid any sharing of instruments: Pass the sound (p.17-18), Leadership activities (p.18-19) and improvising stories (p.19).
  • Need more instruments? See below…
  • There is also information on some brilliant resources for finding good songs to explore with your service users (p.22) and some guidance on developing playlists, with thanks to our brilliant Playlist for Life colleagues (p.23).

Musical Instrument Fund

Music is an important tool for human connection, but right now you may be wanting to limit the extent to which you are sharing musical instruments and other resources in your setting. Our Musical Instrument Fund has been launched to help our partners who do want to continue to use musical instruments but who need additional resources to make this easier and reduce risk. If you’d like to request some more musical instruments for your setting please get in touch and we’ll tell you how to apply.