Brain Health Checklist – Music

We get a liberal dose of music each day in this household. One of the venues is my guitar playing as I continue to work on the American Discovery project, intended to raise funds for brain health research. Though I am playing my own new compositions, they essentially have become old chestnuts for Cindy. She rocks back and forth clutching her stuffed animal, while I rehearse the movements “Landscapes,” “Joy of Living,” “American Culture” and “Kindness.” (A fifth movement, “Pilgrimage,” is still in its conceptual infancy).

The other venue for music is meal time, when I bring my iPad down to the kitchen table and use Pandora. We transition from more stimulating to more soothing genres throughout the day. At breakfast is my choice, the genre represent by the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young station. At lunch time we listen to the Carole King station, with the genre of Cindy’s favorite artist. For supper we put on the Classical station to soothe us for the evening.

Research confirms the importance of music in a variety of ways. My brain health alerts produce more articles about how music develops the young brain … those who want to slash school budgets take notice. Yet there also are plenty of articles about how music continues to benefit the elderly mind. Music is a wondrous “treatment” that can either stimulate neurons or protect the mind through its soothing qualities. I don’t believe it accomplishes the same depths of rejuvenation as exercise or meditation, but for the breadth of what it accomplishes, particularly for a musician, music has no equal.

Cindy is not a musician, but I know she benefits from the music we play each day when she either taps her foot and rocks to CCR, smiles to Carole King or mellows out to Beethoven. The music helps me as well, particularly since I’m a guitarist, but I must confess there are drawbacks as well.

When I listen to a song like “Get Together” on the CSNY station I lament at how times have changed. No, I’m not one of those who think good music only happened in the gold ol’ days. There’s always been great music produced by great musicians. There’s always been lyrics with a social conscious as well, but such lyrics are much more likely to be found with indie artists instead of pop. That has changed since the decades of the Beatles … and CSNY.

The other drawback is the nostalgia. While the memories induced by music is a benefit for the Alzheimer’s patient, those same memories are bittersweet for the caregiver, reminiscent of happier times. Then again, of late I’m finding nostalgic music to be less sad than some other things going on. More on that later.