The end of my time at Waikato University is coming on fast

With just 8 weeks to go until I finish at the University of Waikato Faculty of Education, the end is in sight. My last day is October 15th and I leave New Zealand on October 16th, returning January 11th. Paperwork is out to two CEOs of retirement village providers, and phone calls and face-to-face meetings are anticipated in the next four weeks. I have a delightful young family who will be house sitting for me (and my cat), which is answered prayer as much for them as it is for me.

It is almost like attending one's own funeral at the University at present, with peers and students telling me what they think and what they will miss. I set up this time away from the Hamilton Chorale at the beginning of last year. They have told me not to find a nice man o'seas and not return. My response has been that the four grandchildren in this part of the world is a stronger pull than them.

I have nine singing students for next year, aiming for a total of twenty for February. I have twenty students from the current first-year teaching training group who want lessons now, so they will happen before the end of the semester, in groups. I enjoy teaching in groups, as it is not possible to hear changes in one's own voice, but hearing the effect of technique in other people's voices helps to affirm the change in one's own sound.

So: what does 2011 look like for me?

1. Working with a retirement provider rolling out the Glee Club model into all of their villages, over a two-year period, leading to guaranteed high-quality outcomes for the participants, in addition to links with a local primary school choir, and publicity in the local press. This will involve recruiting skilled people to lead and accompany the Glee Clubs.
   
2. Singing students, individually, and in groups. Face-to-face, and via the internet,with skype &/or video conferencing
3. Working with school choirs and choir directors, face-to-face and at a distance, as with the singing students
4. Working with other people in musical settings, e.g church singing, instrumental groups, beginning conductors.

Categories two to four is what I have been doing this year already in small ways, and I do not want to lose sight of this work, as it makes a difference.

But I am passionate about taking my model into more villages, because of the multitudinous benefits to the participants, and to the other residents of the villages in which the Glee Clubs now run.

From Bertram, aged 83

Bertram appears in the photo with Jessie. They are two of the three octegenarians in the Hamilton Chorale.

I am glad to report that you took special effort to convince me that I could sing in tune, and have taken discrete steps to ensure that I had a strong singer next to me. I have the highest regard for your musical and educational abilities, and knowledgeable friends confirm that under your leadership, Hamilton Chorale has improved its tone and musicality.


I have also been approached by the Eastside Singers, (where Bertram is also a member) who are a choir of retirees. They have been, up until now, conducted by one of their own. They want me to consider conducting and training them in 2011. Given the lead-up to that time, I am hoping that they will be able to apply for some funding to pay me a reasonable allowance for this weekly responsibility.

It also raises the prospect of growing the choir considerably, with getting some of the people from the over 60s group (see my post on April 1st 2010) who want to sing, to join. So many possibilities, it is continuing to be exciting!

St Andrews Senior Singers

I was delighted to get an email from the manager of the St Andrews complex in Cambridge. I went to visit them on May 13th, and they have formed a group that is open to all retired people in Cambridge. With a population of around 15,000, and other choral groups in the town, it will be interesting to see how the group grows. I have been invited to use them for research which is excellent! They are being taken alternate weeks by two different people. It will be interesting to find out what effect this has. I surmise that the group dynamic will be stronger as the group will be the constant. I will plan to visit with them after they have been functioning for at least 10 weeks, which is about 8 weeks from now.

The wonderful Hilda Ross Glee Club

The members of the Glee Club are taking more and more ownership of the group. Once again, while I was away they all attended rehearsal. The commitment to the group is something that is now valued by the members, and they encourage each other in that as well as valuing it when they are together. Furthermore they are formally taking on roles within that. Harry has been already arranging indexes for the music so that those who have trouble finding their music, now have it numbered. He has reformatted pages which I have prepared that are also not user friendly, and when I sent the programme order through for the next concert, then activities person Marie took it to Harry and he typed it out, including the number of each song in the folder as well. Harry is now our administrator. Tui, one of my two blind singers is the contacts person. If I need to get a message out then Tui will do it for me. Elizabeth is the one who takes rehearsals when I am not there, and has introduced a new song to the Glee Club, which I will try to have little to do with. Elizabeth is the only one who uses her cellphone regularly so she will be the one I message, and she will pass things on to the right person to action.

Commitment to, and enjoyment of, Glee Club is sometimes shown in dramatic ways. When we sang at the Gerontology Conference in 2007, Glen discharged himself from hospital to come and sing with us. He was not well but he loved singing. He died partway through 2008. At our practise last Thursday Cecelia collapsed. We sit for our rehearsals, in chairs which wrap around the body. Initially I thought she was sleeping, and I roused her and found the place in her folder, but she then became unresponsive. We are fortunate to have Dr Alex in the Glee Club who told me what to do, we rang the bell and got her lying down on the floor, her blood pressure was well down. Her husband arrived, and said he knew that she shouldn't have come, she couldn't even talk to him when she left the apartment. Medics arrived, and we sort-of went on with our rehearsal. Cecelia regained consciousness, and I told her before she was taken off in a wheelchair that she had to look after herself so that she could sing, she smiled. Now that is some determination to sing!!

Conferences

I thoroughly enjoyed the two conferences that I attended in Canterbury. July 3rd - 10th

The first was a Music Research Conference: The 31st Australia New Zealand Association for Research in Music Education (ANZARME) Conference held in Akaroa July 3rd - 6th. The format of the conference was excellent, we all listened to each other, but never for long enough, we had 15 minutes each and so many said 'have I run out already?' I presented a paper about the profile of Ageing New Zealanders, the government's Positive Ageing Strategy and its bias towards physical health and fitness outcomes, with less regard to other ways of both keeping fit and enhancing quality of life (singing), and current research on benefits of singing. I showed them a chart which showed the pre and post blood pressure of my Glee Club, taken before and after rehearsal the day before I left. I will try to put a pdf of this up for you to see, but in summary, the blood pressure in 11 out of 15 people mover closer to normal (being 120 over 80). People whose pressure was low came up and people whose pressure was up came down. It is far too small a sample to mean anything, but given that I had no idea what would happen, I find it significant and something to definitely continue to investigate. During my presentation I did a non-scientific study on the group of 40 people listening. At the beginning of my presentation I asked them to make a mark on the bottom of a page at the back of their pad (provided for us in the conference pack) indicating on a likert scale (left being low, right being high) their current sense of wellbeing. Towards the end of my presentation I put up the words of the first verse of Waltzing Matilda (in deference to the Australians) and they stood and sang with me, then sat and marked a page in front of the first, with their then current sense of wellbeing. Over 65% recorded improved sense, some recorded no change, and one recorded a lower sense (she was the next presenter)(N=40) . This paper will be written up to be published, and if there is a link I will post it here.

The second conference was the MENZA National Music Education Conference held in Christchurch. The keynote speakers were all very good value, with Dr Richard Letts for the Australian Music Council giving excellent advice about how we can better advocate for music at all levels in New Zealand. Professor Sam Leong for Hong Kong gave a provocative presentation on assessment, saying that teaching and learning and assessing should be three side of the same triangle.

My presentation to this conference was more ethnographic. I gave the attendants the results of three open-ended questions that I gave the Glee Club, asking them how Glee Club affected their health, feeling of well-being, and quality of life. I also played two video interviews that I conducted with participants, asking them why they sing in Glee Club, and what they think about our performing on and off site. There were not many who came to my presentation, I went and picked up my Dad, age 87 and he came to see me do my 'thing'. However, those who were there were all very interested and helpful in their comments and supportive of my ongoing work so I have people to bounce ideas off, and one person who is going to send me books that she no longer uses!!!

A busy Wednesday

Wednesday May 13th was a very busy day. The Hilda Ross Glee Club performed at the University of Waikato in the 12@12 programme. This is a 12-plus minutes' performing Arts event in the School of Education. We performed 7 songs, including three from the new repertoire. The audience were most appreciative, and asked for an encore, even though one of the Glee Club members had given this away already. As I announced the last song, one of them said 'no, two more' the second being the one we had prepared for the encore. With much hilarity we were asked quite clearly to give an encore. A large portion of the audience were a group of early childhood educators, and some of them fell in love with Wally, age 91 and wanted to take him home. I told him this the next day at Glee Club rehearsal, and he was ready to go!!

From here the Glee Club move over to The Station which is a restaurant across the road from the part of the University where we performed. They had tables set for us, with tablecloths, cutlery, glasses, carafes of water and some printed version of their blackboard menu. This enabled those more ambulant to get food for the less ambulant.

I had to leave them promptly as I was heading to Cambridge to present to a residents' meeting about the Glee Club's programme at the Selwyn St Andrews complex . I was not clear exactly what was expected of me, so I took with me the printout of the latest survey that I had carried out with Glee Club. It turned out that I was speaking to residents to try and inspire them to start their own group. Their manager had heard me speak earlier in the year at the Bay of Plenty managers meeting. I have promised to help them get started, this is another 'watch this space'

The afternoon concluded with shared coffee with the visiting mental health doctor, who showed interest in the effects of singing from the aspect of those with mental health issues. I will await action in that area as well, as I understand an invitation to present to that group is coming up.

I have also been asked to review a book for the INsite journal, entitled 'connecting through music with people with Dementia'. The book arrived today, and I am enjoying reading it.

young@heart the New Zealand Story

I am probably using this title a bit out of time now, as it is a quite some time since the movie came out. However the Glee Club's journey has not be unlike that choir. I am collecting data all the time on them, having now obtained two video interviews, and planning to video interview all of the participants. I presented this project to colleagues last Friday here, at the University of Waikato, and my presentation engendered a good discussion about the sociological aspects of the research.

A strong message that came through the discussion was that I should be looking at presenting via an ethnological model, rather than a statistical model. I was asked what the prime aim of my research is, and the answer to that question is that I want to see valid, interactive, mutually respectful singing, that has an anticipation that the singing will improve, in as many settings as possible, given the growing evidence that it has such multiple effects for the people involved.

When the Glee Club were recently asked how being involved Glee Club influences their health, they replied:

77F Improved memory, breathing, clarity of diction
82M Improving it with breath control and lung ventilation
84F Helps me get out of the house, talk to other people and not think about myself. It has been a lifesaver for me.
78M An active mind and body does have health benefits
76F Good – helps with breathing, come away feeling great
75F Gives me a new lease of life
87F Its good for me; confidence is returning albeit slowly
69F It has certainly helped my asthma
85F To me it is as good as a tonic
77F The singing helps and improves my speech and my voice
69F Very beneficial – my breathing has improved and deepened since starting singing. I never imagined singing in a choir because of a chronic cough caused by Bronchiestasis which I have suffered from for 64 years.
78F Mentally and good for lungs for breathing
90M Very good.

that is just the tip of the iceberg. This gets more and more exiting the further I go!!!

Ageing and Society HDCO501-09A(HAM)

This is the masters paper that I am now enrolled in, with four other classmates. We have had two 3-hr classes so far and handed in one assignment. I don't think my mark will be very good, as I was completely partisan about singing, but I will be very interested in the feedback that I get from the lecturer; Professor Bevan Grant who has been working in the area of Gerontology and physical activity for many years, with much involvement in the masters games. My fellow students are delightfully contrasting, with 25-yr-old Steffi from Taiwan, Doreen who has a lot of knowledge about policy and is around my own age, and Leslie who is a little younger, and is doing a counselling degree. Having typed those ageist comments, I will have to add this post to my third assignment which is about 'Images of Ageing'. I know Steffi is 25 because she told us, I have guestimated the other two women's ages by their appearance. It is amazing how much our personal stories inform our classes, and I see that continuing in such a way that we will be very familiar with each other, and already the friendship between us is growing. We have since been joined by Gabby also around age 25, who works for Sport Waikato, and runs fitness, and wellness sessions for goups and inviduals who are aged. She made a delightfully ageist remark in our last class, when she noted that the Anlene milk advert on tv had used an old woman, which she justified because she had wrinkles. The woman in Question was Alison Roe, marathon runner who is 50 yrs of age, but looks a lot younger, as you may be able to see yourself at this link. Allison Roe

Retirement VIllages Association Waikato/Bay of Plenty Managers Forum

Harry, his wife Kerry and Elizabeth and I set out for Bayswater Metlifecare last Thursday morning leading to a most interesting and enjoyable day. Because I currently spend little social time with the Glee Club, I know "scraps" about them. This trip with around 1 1/2 hrs driving each way was so informative and so enjoyable. Hearing about Harry's driving escapades, and how he had to get in good with Kerry's Mum so they could get married, such that towards the end of her life, Harry was the one she always remembered, not her own children. Harry and Kerry have their 55th wedding anniversary this week.

There were approximately 30 managers at the meeting, and I presented my findings to them, including many quotes from participants. Technology difficulties meant that I could not play two interviews that I had videoed with two other participants, but the conversation with Harry, Kerry and Elizabeth more than made up for that. I was fascinated to hear their responses to questions. The depth of their enjoyment of the singing programme in some ways surprised me. These are busy people, with many activities in their days, Harry has recently self-published a book about his experiences as a child prisoner of war in Indonesia. Yet both of them and Kerry as a non-participant all said that they start looking forward to the next rehearsal as soon as it is finished. Harry said that if he has to miss rehearsal, something is missing from his week. I is time for me to put together a new survey for the Glee Club and ask some of these questions in a setting where I get full responses. This work gets more and more exciting from every event!

The Zimmers

The Zimmers are another example of this growing phenomenon of singing with the aged. It's take a bit of sleuthing but I have discovered how this group came about. Many of you would have seen Geriatric1927 in some Telecom adverts. If you haven't look for him in Youtube. His real name is Peter and he has been posting there now for around two years, giving commentary on his view of life and getting a large following. This is a delightful story as well as a great video clip!

The BBC got hold of geriatric1927 and were working with him about getting involved with programmes not for self-glorification or fame and not for money, but to get blogging (weblog similar to what you are now reading) ‘out there’. The next step seems to be a bit of a leap, but the plan was made to gather a group together to record a cover version of the song 'Talking'bout my generation". The original group numbered between twenty and twenty-five (according to Peter) . I am not sure how they were selected, apparently some of them attended the two-day recording session with medics on hand. They recorded in the Abbey Road Recording studio, with the best recording people available, including help from the Fame Academy Voice Coaches.

The resultant release went way up in the charts in Britain and Europe, and all proceeds from the sales goes to Age Concern in Great Britian.

Since then they have appeared on television, toured in Germany and now number around fourty singers with an average age of 78.

Here is their website:

The Zimmers

Here is the video of the first song

Talkin' 'bout my generation

Silver Belles

Five African-American women who danced in the clubs in Harlem during the second world war formed themselves into a group in 1985 and have been dancing their way into the limelight. Now aged 84 - 96 they are the feature of a movie entitled Been rich all my life which seems a bit of a parallel with young@heart, but with dancers rather than singers. The addition of racial tension makes their story that much more interesting.

The website for the Silver Belles

American Thanksgiving Concert: Hamilton Chorale

Another concert series has come and gone for the (this concert) 25-voice Hamilton Chorale. It was a demanding programme, but we wowed two audiences with songs from George and Ira Gershwin, and Irving Berlin, culminating in God Bless America. Our soloist, June Dams, who also sang with us last year said that she noticed how much better the choir was , which was a fillip for us all.

The choir had gone through a torrid month leading up to this weekend's concerts, in which a husband of one member, a daughter of another member and a son of husband-and-wife members all passed away. All four choir members did sing in both concerts, and I will be seeking the whole choir's feedback on what singing in the choir has been for them this year, with particular interest in these four responses.

The choir really does act as a family, and everyone plays a part in rehearsals, with setting up the church's seats for the sections, providing me with water to drink, moving the piano and putting it away. Then for concerts, it is seating for the choir on the stage, moving the church's furniture off and on the stage area, and for our Sunday afternoon concert providing and setting up for afternoon tea for choir and audience. I have posted a delightful photograph of two of the choir's senior members, who set up and put away the tables for the afternoon tea, following our Sunday Concert.

Hilda Ross Glee Club Spring Concert

This post comes with the ongoing euphoric feeling all performers experience, that comes with a performance. I have no doubt that the singers from today will be feeling it for the rest of the day. Today The Glee Club performed in front of their peers, and invited guests, an audience of 79, where extra chairs had to be put out three times!!

The seventeen women and men of the Glee Club sang well, their words were clear, their voices were strong, and the part singing was secure and most enjoyable in four of the songs that we performed.

A year ago there were twelve singers, and part work was not part of public performance. The repertoire of songs has also changed. Last year they were the songs that I considered might be old favourites, such as 'My grandfather's clock' 'Edelweiss' 'By the light of the silvery moon'. Today's concert included two ABBA songs, Mozart's Horn concerto with words by Flanders and Swann, and a song prepared for one singer's 90th birthday earlier this year: 'It is no secret', sung in three parts. I mentioned in another post that I have an expectation of improved singing technique and growing complexity of music in those groups with whom I work, and this group has shown the evidence of this expectation emphatically today.

The Glee Club is going to make a recording in early December, and today I was asked by members of the audience if the disc would be for sale... is this the beginning of a new journey for the Hilda Ross Glee Club? Rest assured I will keep you informed!

Hamilton Chorale data

Having now taken identification from the members of the Chorale, I am excited about this new direction, but also aware that I do not want to view them differently, unless it is helpful to the Chorale to do otherwise.

The median age of the women is 66 and the median age of the men is 69. There are three people over 80, with eight people over 70. Three people have left the choir in the last year, I want to talk to them about what caused them to give up the choir, with my new lens of gerontology, rather than aggrieved conductor.

Now I have a delightful three-group setup

The Hamilton Chorale of fully independent participants
The Hilda Ross Glee Club with residential independent participants
The Hilda Ross Rest Home Singers with dependent singers.

Watch this space!!

I have now seen the movie young@heart

I attended a showing of this movie last evening, and firstly let me say that I really enjoyed the movie. The absolute ebullience of the participant singers cannot be understated. Their enjoyment of the camaraderie, the performances, and the learning new things was refreshing and a joy to see, but not surprising for me, having seen such enthusiasm among the Glee Club, the Rest Home Singers and the Hamilton Chorale, with whom I work.

The videos that were designed for certain songs, using the participant singers, were very clever and entertaining: from the bowling alley to the fairground. Their team of instrumentalists is also fantastic, and give great support to the singers and the shows. Instrumentalists are part of the choir community rather than session musician brought in, the movie had an elderly violinist. The movie music track was, for me at times, too intrusive in the setting of mood for what purported to be a documentary.

What is also apparent from their website is that they have been producing shows since their second year of the formation of the group from members of an elderly housing project called the Walter Salvo house in Northampton, Massachusetts. New members have been attracted to the group as they have presented sell-out performances, initially in their own town and then in other towns and countries. They were linked early on to the No Theater and their expertise to put on that first show, and from there it grew 'like topsy' The story is delightful.

The young@heart story

A very moving event was the choir's performance at the local jail, where approx 40 men were being held in a minimum security setting. There were very real bonding moments between the two groups, instant grandparents for many of the men.

I note also that there is a big time commitment to this group, with 2-3 hr rehearsal once a week and three rehearsals a week when a show date is close, along with rehearsing at home with discs to learn the music off by heart. The final product is very entertaining, and very American.

NZ Association of Gerontology, Auckland AGM

I was pleased to present at the annual meeting of the NZAG Auckland branch on Monday October 20th. What is a strong aspect of my research is the use of participant voice, and I was able to present them with the findings from five groups, with a total of 96 participants and over 50 respondents. As well as the findings they were able to view video footage of the Hilda Ross Glee Club, taken when they performed at the School of Education, University of Waikato September 2007. My own observation of that footage was how much their singing had improved in the subsequent year, and that is another strong aspect of my work; that there is an expectation in every group that their singing will improve, in such ways as breathing and tone.

Lively discussion followed the presentation, and the attendees willingly participated in an impromptu singing lesson, as the discussion moved to their own singing. I look forward to interacting more with the NZGA Auckland branch.

young@heart

The content of the movie young@heart is matching experiences happening here in Hamilton, New Zealand. The Hilda Ross Glee Club has been active now for two years, not the 15 years that the Young@heart group had been functioning. But in that time the Glee Club has performed for their peers, and for outside audiences on average of 4 times a year. In 2007 they were guest performers at the Gerontology Conference in Hamilton, and were featured on National Radio. This group is formed from the people who occupy the villas at this Ryman Healthcare facility.

I also work with the Resthome Singers at the same facility, and the joy that they show in their singing is heartwarming.

Tomorrow I go to speak at the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Association of Gerontology's annual meeting, and my topic is my Hilda Ross groups. To flesh out this presentation, I asked my Glee Club members last week to tell me the benefits they found in singing in the Glee Club, and in the process found out so much more of their back-stories:

* Harry sang as a child, then spent 3 years in a prisoner of war camp and didn't sing afterwards. He moved, with his wife, to New Zealand, and never sang in church. Now he can sing higher than before, and his wife reports that he sings in church now!
* Wally stopped singing 20 years ago when his wife of 48 yrs died. he has just turned 90 and he thinks that he sings better than ever now
* Keith has always been interested in music and being involved in the Glee Club has broadened his knowledge about music and has improved his singing.
* Cecilia has Parkinson's disease which has affected her voice, and the singing has helped her control those effects.
* Pauline has found that her lung capacity has improved greatly after losing part of a lung, and she has a wonderful uplifted joyful feeling at the end of our practices.
* Ngaire takes Glee Club as her time out. She has a husband with multiple sclerosis, and she enjoys this time and thoroughly enjoys singing.
* Betty finds the rehearsals are wonderful therapy, 'fantastic, it just does something for you, you feel a bit blue and you start singing and it's wonderful'.
* Elizabeth has a chronic lung complaint, and it is really a joy to sing and it improves her breathing.
* Tui has had her enjoyment of singing renewed, and she leaves the rehearsal feeling like she has had a tonic.

For my first post I will leave you with their voices.