Music knows no age
Older people want to remain culturally active. They want to use their free time and continue to cultivate cultural techniques or even learn new ones. One of the things that can bring them fulfillment is music.
For those who are new or returning to music at an advanced age, the aim is to (re)discover music for themselves, sing, play or learn an instrument. They have the opportunity to join instrumental ensembles or a choir and deepen their knowledge of music theory or music history.
However, old age often no longer knows music because conditions change and make it more difficult to make music. However, making music should be possible at every stage of life in old age. This applies to mobile older people who can still easily attend music school or join a choir or ensemble. But it also applies to people with impaired health and possibly dementia, to whom music schools or freelance music teachers offer their services and also enter into cooperation with institutions for the elderly. Intergenerational musical activities are also often considered to be particularly successful, especially popular between grandchildren and grandparents.
Music schools should therefore give even more thought to how singing, making music and learning music can be successful in old age. The goal: a comprehensive and barrier-free offer in easily accessible and well-designed rooms for older people in a wide variety of life situations. It must be geared towards individual needs and possibilities - also financially and in terms of time - and create high-quality music.
Making music in old age can then mean filling free time in a meaningful way, experiencing self-efficacy, (continuing to) participate in public cultural life, maintaining social contacts and experiencing sociability. This also helps to prevent health problems and prepares people for everyday life in old age on various levels - cognitive, motor, emotional and social. Music in old age can also develop spiritual dimensions. Even in such a delicate area as end-of-life care, music can gently reach in and offer a protective cloak (pallium).
Music can also support caregiving. Many things are easier to handle when people sing or hum, simply mention songs and pieces of music or talk about music or past experiences in which music played a role.
Time and again, it has been observed that music has a calming effect on restlessness or challenging behavior. It is also extremely pleasant for the carers and the care institutions when the atmosphere within the care situation is significantly improved by the involvement of music. In this context, appropriate music can mean affection or, in the case of dementia, also have an identity-enhancing effect.
Music programs for older people should by no means be seen as an imposition of later musical education, but solely as an enabling didactic approach. It is about initiating aesthetic fields of experience in which older people can engage in self-determined musical activities, but also learn and educate themselves. Music education understood in this way will have to be oriented towards the needs, life stories and lifeworlds of those involved in dialogical processes and appreciative communication - including validation, for example in the case of dementia. The biographical dimension in particular plays a special role for older people due to their long life experience.
Music geragogy should not be confused with music therapy: There are certainly overlaps between the two, for example in terms of target groups, instruments and methods. But the objective is clearly different: Music education creates the conditions for musical learning, education and practice. But music education does not aim to provide therapy, which requires targeted anamnesis, diagnoses and standardized procedures. Of course, this does not exclude the possibility that many extra-musical and health-promoting transfers arise through musical activity and experience. In fact, such transfers are very welcome.
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