Music lifts you higher and higher
Music is a social activity that can help older people to maintain their physical and mental well-being. Whether you sing in a choir or in the shower, play an instrument or an upturned bucket or write lyrics, making music can lift your spirits. Music helps you to be part of a community, to make new friends and reduces social isolation. If you like to dance, music offers you movement. That physical activity is important for preserving mobility as you age.
Music helps people with dementia to reminisce. They can retrieve memories more specifically, accurately and in more detail when they tell musical life stories. They share stories from their life and also try to recall a musical piece from their past. Their recall is better when they choose the music themselves.
If you are over 50, song writing may become a pastime that offers freedom and enriches your soul. There is no age limit on song writing and most people have bottomless, perhaps untapped talent. Song writers seem to bloom with age. Life has handed you a vast collection of life memories and experiences that you can craft into any genre of song. You can compose lyrics and music solo, with a carer or in the company of strangers. There are no rules.
“Add some music to your day,” Beach Boys.
References
Gilboa A, Levy N. Creating musical life reviews with older people: a community case study. Front Public Health. 2024 Jan 24;12:1249124. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1249124. PMID: 38327570; PMCID: PMC10847350.
Clark I, Christopher N, Stretton-Smith P, Lawson K. The experiences of people living with dementia and their care partners participating in an online therapeutic songwriting program. Dementia (London). 2024 Feb;23(2):251-271. doi: 10.1177/14713012231224069. Epub 2023 Dec 22. PMID: 38131325; PMCID: PMC10807188.
Try this (Secure My Treasures has no affiliation with the groups or companies listed below)
Iheart Song Writing Club, a global community of songwriters inspiring each other to become their greatest songwriter (charges course fees) https://www.iheartsongwritingclub.com/
An example of a songwriting group is this Facebook group, Melbourne Song Writers Guild https://www.facebook.com/groups/melbournesongwritersguild/.