Music Therapy and Stroke Recovery Part 2

Steve Makofka

Quick notes on the session this morning. I took Charlie through the Heart Song Workshop in order to help with memory recovery and heart song identification. The best moment of the workshop was when he said, "Oh yeah, I did take piano lessons as a child. I'd forgotten about that." He was then able to remember the name of his piano teacher and describe, in detail, the piano he practiced on. He also remembered using the JW Thompson piano course.

As we went through the Life Soundtrack Worksheet we identified three areas of musical interest. The first was that the music of his youth was the folk music of Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, and Bob Dylan. An interesting side note. He would rather listen to the original recordings or videos of a song than watch the PBS specials with people in their 70s singing the same songs they were singing in their 20s. We decided this was because Charlie is very much of a life-long learner. He still enjoys the music, but his life has moved on. The "rockasaurus" singers give the impression that they haven't. For test purposes, we played the orginal radio version of "Puff, the Magic Dragon."

The second area of musical interest is Boogie Woogie music. The exposure to this music goes back to his youth and listening to Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and some Pat Boone. The song he chose to listen to for the test was the Glenn Miller version of Chattanooga Choo-Choo. In this song, like the last, he sang along.

The third area of interest is in Classical music, which Charlie identified as music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th century. It should be noted that Charlie has a college degree in Psychology and went back to school in the 70s and got an MBA. Classical music is the music he listens to while driving. Charlie couldn't really identify a particular song that he was attached to, so for test purposes we played first Brandenburg Concerto no. 3. That didn't elicit much of a response, so I went for the reliable Beethoven's 5th Symphony. first movement. This was more exciting for Charlie. I played the Beethoven's 5th Symphony graphical score. (click on link to view)

Summary: I believe that Charlie's experience reflects all 6 of the music preference principles. His favorite music is music that he was exposed to in childhood and youth. The seeds for his current love of classical music were planted by his parents, who loved opera and classical music, and by his early exposure to piano studies. Charlie participates in the music he likes. (boogie-woogie more than classical and folk) And the classical music is music that resonates with him. He said he likes the order and the structure of it. He likes listening to the interaction between the parts.

Perhaps the most significant observation is that he is a life-long learner and actively seeks out opportunities to learn new skills and areas of knowledge. The accordion playing, for which he is famous, started as almost a fluke. He saw an accordion at the music store while he was taking his daughter for her flute lesson. He bought it and started taking lessons on it, first from Darlene Terry and then from Ricky Nye.

http://www.makofka.blogspot.com/2012/06/music-therapy-and-stroke-recovery-part_14.html