Herberger Institute Day: Celebrating creativity, collaboration, community statepress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from statepress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
March 1, 2021 at 10:00 am
The upbeat song “Sweet Caroline” often prompts listeners to sing and dance. But when music therapist Alaine Reschke-Hernández played the song for an older person, the song evoked a sad memory and tears. That patient’s surprising reaction highlights how music, and the memories that come with it, can influence emotions, even years later.
Strategically using music can improve well-being, particularly for older people, says Reschke-Hernández, of the University of Kentucky in Lexington. “Music is so connected and integrated with so many different elements of our life,” she says. From joyful celebrations to solemn ceremonies, music is part of meaningful events throughout life and becomes strongly associated with memory.
A better time than any : Finding joy in music lessons, jams
By TRACEE M. HERBAUGH
These weren t the piano lessons of my youth. Quite the opposite.
Gone was the septuagenarian teacher crowding me on a piano bench at my grandmother s house, extolling the importance of Christian hymns. Old Rugged Cross, Jesus Loves Me, How Great Thou Art. Grandma finally accepted my resignation after a few solid years of protest.
Then last spring, as the pandemic droned on, I d lost my job, and our schools in the Boston area remained closed, I decided to start taking piano lessons again.
It had been 30 years. The grand staff was a foreign language and the only key I could recognize was middle C.