You Tube

[RosEpping]

I'm sure I am not the first person to have realised this, but I have been plugging my laptop into the television and searching for songs and music which mum remembers from the past on You Tube. She loves this and we are able to spend hours with her calmly watching.
Of course it does mean someone has to be with her to change the songs, but we can't leave her on her own anyway.
I so much wanted to find a "singing for the brain" group for mum but wasn't able to find one within travelling distance for us, but any advice on this would be so good.

 

[Izzy]

What a good idea. I wanted to find a Singing for the Brain group too but there are none in our area.

 

[scarletpauline]

Same here.

 

[RosEpping]

Singing for the Brain

I did contact Singing for the Brain to ask about the possibility of starting a group in our area - I would be more than happy to help run it (as would my sisters). However none of us can sing a note and without someone who is musically talented, they said it just can't happen.
I am always hopeful of finding someone who can sing and would be prepared to get involved, but sadly have had no luck so far.

 

[Winnie Kjaer]

Vintage music

I'm sure I am not the first person to have realised this, but I have been plugging my laptop into the television and searching for songs and music which mum remembers from the past on You Tube. She loves this and we are able to spend hours with her calmly watching.
Of course it does mean someone has to be with her to change the songs, but we can't leave her on her own anyway.
I so much wanted to find a "singing for the brain" group for mum but wasn't able to find one within travelling distance for us, but any advice on this would be so good.

Have you ever looked at channel 369 on Sky lots of old music and other things. Good fun

 

[Izzy]

Our carer's often put the Gold Radio channel on through Sky for Bill. It's 60s, 70s and 80s music - he loves it!

 

[Redwitch]

Fortunate

Mum attends a Music for the Memory Club on a Friday, not exactly cheap (£250 a month), but it's her money and she enjoys it

Jan

 

[nmintueo]

I have been plugging my laptop into the television and searching for songs and music which mum remembers from the past on You Tube. She loves this and we are able to spend hours with her calmly watching.
Of course it does mean someone has to be with her to change the songs, but we can't leave her on her own anyway.

You don't have to change songs by hand after every single song.

Try this:
YouTube Music Discovery
Make playlists and discover new artists and music videos.

Or you can set up playlists, and then leave it to play all the songs in the list in sequence:

Playlist
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=95527

How do I create a Playlist?
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=57792

or find existing playlists:
Finding cool Playlists
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=57802

 

[LadyA]

We don't have a television, but I use dvds a lot with my husband. I did get some songs of John McCormack (ye olde Irish/American tenor, from the early/mid 1900s!) on YouTube for him one evening - and it sparked off some memories! He told me all about going to his grandparents apartment in Chicago every Sunday afternoon (this would have been in the early 1930s), and about their Victrola, a wind-up gramaphone, he described the cabinet where it was kept, and how his grandfather taught him how to wind it, and said that these very songs were on the albums they had! He enjoyed it so much! We also have a 3 hour set (three long hours!) of Frank Patterson, another tenor that was very popular in the US who sings a lot of Irish songs, and he loves that too. Things like this can bring back so many memories for elderly people. Music is wonderful - but I used to hate one particular nursing home I used to visit regularly and all they ever had on blaring for the residents was a local pop music station! It drove me nuts, I'm sure the elderly people there found it very irritating! It was just loud noise all the time - nothing they could relate to.