Music Therapy

As I mentioned in Music Is Magic a few days ago, my husband has always loved music. While he was still at home, we played music all the time. There's generally music playing at his place, but it's geared more towards folks who are a bit older than he is. He still responds to it, of course, but it isn't the music of his youth, his heart, his falling-in-love times. It isn't the soundtrack of his life. We enjoy the music our parents played, and it might even remind us of happy childhood times. But it isn't our music, it's theirs.

I've struggled with ways to play his music for him without disturbing the other residents. His sister suggested that I take his iPod to him and leave it with him. While that's a wonderful thought and would be terrific under different circumstances, he no longer knows how to operate it. To ask the already taxed staff to keep track of the thing, turn it on and off for him, keep him from breaking his teeth while attempting to eat the earbuds, keep it charged, and prevent it from being broken or lost would just be too much to ask. His glasses have been missing for over a month and are nowhere to be found, so I'm thinking the same thing would happen to the iPod.

At any rate, as I previously mentioned, his iPod is still loaded up with the eclectic musical choices he selected years ago. I landed on a brilliant plan for his music therapy:  I would see if I could purchase a splitter so that two sets of earbuds could be used at the same time, enabling both of us to share the music experience together without bothering everyone else and allowing me to hear what he hears so I can respond engagingly with clapping, dance steps, or just nodding my head or tapping my foot to the beat. Then I thought about the earbuds and how appetizing he seemed to think they were, so I decided to see if I could also find some regular, lightweight headphones for him to use instead. He has a lot more experience with headphones than earbuds, and so I thought he might not be tempted to see how they taste. I was thrilled to find just what I needed at the first place I stopped.

Responding to Led Zeppelin

Today was our first attempt at this method of sharing music, and it went very well indeed. The new headphones fit his head comfortably, and the earbuds didn't fall out of my ears too often. I was glad to learn which songs elicited the most response from him and was able to skip the songs that weren't appealing. I encouraged him to "dance" with me to some of our favorite tunes. He tapped his foot at times, or whistled, or hummed. And then the most fantastic thing happened. The first few notes of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" instantly brightened his face with a beautiful smile as he looked at me and said, "Yeah!" Clearly, this was not "rest home" music. But he responded to it, and that's what matters to me.

I want him to be able to get some enjoyment out of life if at all possible, and I'm thrilled that this experiment seems successful so far. Like so many of the things I've tried in the past, it might only work for a couple of weeks. But that's okay. It'll be a couple of weeks during which I can drive home from his place with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.