Latest News: Singing can decrease snoring

But it is not quite as simple as that.
Research in the UK has resulted in exercises that strengthen the throat and mouth muscles, so that they do not get slack, and then vibrate, causing snoring.

The singing comes in, as it is much easier to sing the exercises than just speak them, and therefore the repetition is easier and more interesting to do.

Here is the website that will tell you more about this new finding

http://www.singingforsnorers.com/

Here is a link to an interview with Alise Ojay

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23753524

Just returned from ICVT conference July 10 - 15 at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music

The ICVT conference in Brisbane, Australia was stimulating. Known as the International Conference of Voice Teachers, it was for singing teachers, not speech therapists.

There were over 500  people in attendance, but only two presentations about working with seniors and their voices.

At the same time, there were many interesting presentations given on voice, different styles of singing, the science of voice, in many different forms.

Professor Ingo Titze  is an expert in this field, and he produced one of the images that I found most useful in talking to my own students about where the vowels are placed in the mouth and throat, which I have reproduced below.  I have in the past drawn it in a circle, with  the 'i' vowel and the 'u' vowel close to each other. The formant frequency mentioned is the harmonic of the note that is being sung. Fascinating stuff!!

Diversional Therapist's Conference

I was pleased to be able to present the Singing for Seniors programme to the attendees at my workshop on Music Therapy at this conference, held in Hamilton, my home city. The biggest barrier that we have found, for people implementing the programme, is that people with no confidence in their own singing just can't get started. So the presentation took them through the steps, which are reproduced here.

There are 8 steps to implementing the programme

1.     Visit the www.singingforseniors.co.nz and read (especially) the frequently asked questions. You will find out all about me,  about the company, and the programme.

2.     Order the discs, after discussion with your manager. The Do-It-Yourself plan comes with no support. If you want phone support to get your programme off the ground, go for the $11 per week programme. (How much do you pay someone to come in and entertain, without any guarantee of audience involvement?)

3.     Duplicate the lyrics, either A4 or A3 depending on the sight capabilities of your residents.

4.     Talk to residents & find people who want to sing. Get them to talk it up among their fellow residents.

5.     Find a time and space where you can play CDs (or order the DVD programme, which is now available, where lyric are on the screen in large font).

6.     Publicise your first event, with posters at appropriate places in your facility.

7.     Listen to (or view the DVD) to familarise yourself with the products.

8.     Run your first session.

It was interesting to be able to help one participant find her upper voice, and she is going to be meeting me in Skype for some singing lessons, so that her residents do not criticise her singing any more.

At the dinner that evening, with a wine or two under their belts, the whole conference were happy to join in singing the chorus of the song that I always use in workshops: the Happy Wanderer. I use it because there is always laughter "Val de ri, Val de ra, Val de ri, Val de ra ha ha ha ha ha Val de ri Val de ra, my knapsack on my back"

Go to my Facebook site: Harmonic Health, to see the images from the conference.

Melody, Rhythm can Rewire a Damaged Brain

 This article appeared in the ABC news website:

It has been two months since the Tucson shooting spree that killed six people and injured 12, including Arizona Rep.Gabrielle Giffords. Now Giffords, who survived a gunshot wound to the left hemisphere of her brain, is finding her voice through song. 

"Gabby responds to music because she knows a lot of songs," said Maegan Morrow, Giffords' music therapist and a certified brain injury specialist at TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital in Houston.  Since Giffords was transferred to TIRR Jan. 21, reports of her singing "Happy Birthday" for husband Mark  Kelly and Don McLean's "American Pie" have signaled what some have called a miraculous recovery. 

"The brain can heal itself if you do the right protocol," Morrow said. "It just needs lots of repetition, lots of consistency."  Protocols like music speech stimulation and melodic intonation therapy can help patients with damage to the brain's communication center, like Giffords, learn to speak again.   "It's creating new pathways in the brain," Morrow said. "Language isn't going to work anymore, so we have to go to another area and start singing and create a new pathway for speech."

Music therapy was first recognized as a tool to aid soldiers returning from World War II with brain injuries.  "It was discovered that music was more that a diversion or recreational activity -- it could be incorporated into the overall treatment of an individual," said Al Bumanis, director of communications for the American Music Therapy Association. "It could address non-musical goals in a very unique way -- sometimes coming in through the backdoor where some therapies can't."   Indeed, a person who has suffered an injury due to stroke or trauma may have difficulty speaking but be able to sing. 
 

"Patients can be essentially mute, unable to utter a single word but put on the Beatles' "All You Need is Love" and suddenly patients can sing. Substitute some of the words and now patients are speaking again," said Dr. Michael De Georgia, director of the Centers for Neurocritical Care and Music and Medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. "Music is very powerful." 

Music Can Rewire the Brain 

Evidence supporting a healing role for music in the recovery from brain injury is mounting. But many people remain skeptical, and few insurers will cover it.
"I think the name, 'music therapy,' is a barrier. Most people are like 'what is that?' It sounds childish," Morrow said. "I know that it really works. They're already seeing that healing in Gabby."
Music is very closely linked with language. Some people believe that we may have started to sing before we started to speak, De Georgia said, citing "The Singing Neanderthal: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body," by British archaeologist Steven Mithen. 

"In fact, one of the reason we enjoy music (particularly tonal music like Bach, Beethoven) is that it follows clear structural, syntactical rules that we can follow, understand, and anticipate," said De Georgia. "We tend not to enjoy atonal music as much (like Schoenberg) because it is all over the place tonally and structurally. Our brains don't get it." 

Music is also linked to brains areas that control memory, emotions, and even movement.
"The thing about music is that it's something that's very automatic -- part of our old brain system," Morrow said. "If I play a rhythm, I can affect the rest of the body. The body naturally aligns with a rhythm in the environment."

www.singingforseniors.co.nz 

From one of my singing students

I have really grown with my singing with Julie as my teacher. She really helped me understand how to breathe and bring out my voice.  There was so much I learnt from Julie in my lessons, that each week I was amazed at what I achieved with my voice. She gave me the confidence to take each step.  Each lesson was added to, and easy to get to grips with. Julie is fun and has a unique way of teaching that I felt myself on a huge learning curve and felt that I achieved so much. I feel very grateful for the lessons.
Thank you Julie
Annie Jameson
higher-realms.co.nz

From Brian Age 82
Retirement Village Resident
Member of the Hamilton Chorale

"In retirement years I find there are two things that make a whole difference to life. These are a satisfying activity to give a measure of achievement and a comradeship with like-minded people. Singing with a performance choir gives both.

As with everything else, frequent use of the singing voice improves its performance. Practice under a helpful and knowledgeable conductor extends that, as well as giving physical and mental improvement. Put simply, physical and mental well-being is improved.

Belonging to a group that has an adequate and improving level of performance has many benefits, as teams on a sports field will agree. It promotes pleasure in belonging to the group, which satisfies a fundamental human need.

These benefits are those which retired people need to hang on to, in order to gain personal satisfaction from life, otherwise living becomes just a continuance of existence, and the thrill of it diminishes.

So join a choir and get cracking!"