Listening to music may help prevent or reduce dementia - what are the implications?

[richardfinegold]

In the care home which I frequent, residents can participate in chair-based exercises (with and without boxing gloves), play skittles, dominoes, bingo or carpet bowls, go on a monthly bus trip, visit a local cafe or eatery, join the knitting circle, and be taken for walks. There are 2 (paid) Activity Coordinators.

That’s all wonderful, but my question was: Are the music loving seniors in this study also engaging, or not engaging, in activities different from the musically indifferent?
I would like to think that my piano lessons are helping stave off dementia. I think that making music is probably good for the brain. However I don’t know that. Perhaps people that make music are also more likely to solve puzzles, read novels, play board games, and to repeat myself, be less likely to be planted in front of the Idiot Box

[gradus]

Walking and keeping fit seem important although beyond the possible for those with disability that immobilises. Instrument playing is in part physical exercise so perhaps has minor benefits for the body as well as the mind, certainly I enjoy trying to get round the notes of a piano and my fingers hands and arms get some exercise.

[teamsaint]

Indeed it is. People who can memorise masses of poems, music etc seem to make it sound so normal. I've tried to commit poetry and scripture to memory and it's very, very difficult.

Mrs TS is good at remembering/ reciting poetry without much apparent effort. She puts this down to training. At junior school the had to learn a poem and recite it each week.

[Roslynmuse]

There are many people like this. My daughter in law is incapable of listening for more than 10 seconds before she needs to scroll on her phone, either when her children or I am playing, or during a concert. She frequently forgets herself and starts talking as well. Drives me insane

Some years ago I was visiting some relations and on arrival there was a warm welcome and then "come in and sit down, I'll put the ...... on..."

No - not the kettle; the television...

Some people are simply incapable of living their lives without distractions, from scrolling phones to needing some sort of background noise.

[Serial_Apologist]

Some years ago I was visiting some relations and on arrival there was a warm welcome and then "come in and sit down, I'll put the ...... on..."

No - not the kettle; the television...

Some people are simply incapable of living their lives without distractions, from scrolling phones to needing some sort of background noise.

Erik Satie had a name for it, and actually composed some (with Milhaud): Musique d'ameublement, or Furnishing Music. The general idea was innocuous non-attention-grabbing music to fill those awkward silences when conversation stalls. However in this case conversation seems hardly to have been allowed to even get off the ground!

[vinteuil]

Erik Satie had a name for it, and actually composed some (with Milhaud): Musique d'ameublement, or Furnishing Music. The general idea was innocuous non-attention-grabbing music to fill those awkward silences when conversation stalls.

... a tradition continued by Brian Eno with his Music for Airports

.

[LMcD]

Some years ago I was visiting some relations and on arrival there was a warm welcome and then "come in and sit down, I'll put the ...... on..."

No - not the kettle; the television...

Some people are simply incapable of living their lives without distractions, from scrolling phones to needing some sort of background noise.

I seem to recall a slightly less friendly version, namely 'Come In, Sit Down, Shut Up, It's On', sometimes supplemented by a request to switch the light off before you sat down.

[Serial_Apologist]

... a tradition continued by Brian Eno with his Music for Airports

.

Yes indeed. And also the so-called "chill out" music, a subset of Ambient for "ravers" who had over-indulged their dose of sensory overload and needed their equivalent of "downers", back at that time when BPM were a contentious issue, and flashing lights began to be forewarned on TV!

[Roslynmuse]

Erik Satie had a name for it, and actually composed some (with Milhaud): Musique d'ameublement, or Furnishing Music. The general idea was innocuous non-attention-grabbing music to fill those awkward silences when conversation stalls. However in this case conversation seems hardly to have been allowed to even get off the ground!

But didn't Satie have to encourage his first 'audience' to stop listening and talk?! No such encouragement needed these days...

[Serial_Apologist]

But didn't Satie have to encourage his first 'audience' to stop listening and talk?! No such encouragement needed these days...

If so, this was also an unresolved problematic within John Cage's ideas (as expressed in his compendiumized 1961 book "Silence") about the artificiality of separating music making (and listening) from everyday living as (tacitly) a whole. This contradicted Cage's own view that modern life had become over purposive, denying the possibility of living in the "now".

[Dave2002]

Walking and keeping fit seem important although beyond the possible for those with disability that immobilises. Instrument playing is in part physical exercise so perhaps has minor benefits for the body as well as the mind, certainly I enjoy trying to get round the notes of a piano and my fingers hands and arms get some exercise.

Piano playing can be great - and I heard of one piano player who managed to score very highly in terms of steps on a fitness counter!
Nothing to do with steps of course ....but exercise nevertheless.

Sadly whatever merits piano playing has for brain function are countered for anyone who has arthritis in his or her hands.

Maybe wind instruments - even simple ones - are good for some people - with perhaps easier fingering - or at least maybe not requiring so much force, plus breath control.

Then there is singing - which some enjoy a lot and that's likely to be good for breathing.

[smittims]

The trombone is Ok for people with arthritis, as Holst discovered. Not so good for the neighbours, though.

[oddoneout]

Piano playing can be great - and I heard of one piano player who managed to score very highly in terms of steps on a fitness counter!
Nothing to do with steps of course ....but exercise nevertheless.

Sadly whatever merits piano playing has for brain function are countered for anyone who has arthritis in his or her hands.

Maybe wind instruments - even simple ones - are good for some people - with perhaps easier fingering - or at least maybe not requiring so much force, plus breath control.

Then there is singing - which some enjoy a lot and that's likely to be good for breathing.

I had assumed that I would be able to continue with my recorder group playing as the arthritis started to take hold in my hands, as I was getting used to ignoring the pain that in any case wasn't constant. However, eventually the decreased dexterity, coupled with the affected joints pushing fingers out of alignment, meant that holes were not covered properly when they needed to be, and passages that involved any speed(however moderate) became increasingly inaccurate.
Just as well I still have singing to fall back on.