Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Eddie, 75 year old retired dentist, started piano lessons with no prior music training. He narrates an interesting past, while his present is a dementia journey. Eddie often can’t respond to simple tasks or discriminate visually between two and three black notes, but he can visually discriminate colours and has good visual eye-tracking. He is keen to attend lessons and has bought a keyboard to practice on. None of my usual teaching pathways has worked for him. Although I have found a way forward, in this workshop I would like to further explore different ways of making piano playing accessible to people with dementia. We will explore songs, use colour coding, alphabet letters and numbers and whatever else is needed to tap past memory. With rhythm, we will rely on everyone’s inner rhythm from memory, except if there are other ideas. We will also explore ways of transferring what has been learnt. Using drums and other instruments, we will craft and construct a sound story together as a group. Like the lessons with Eddie, I would like to find the joy and memory making elements for each of us in the communal music making and relate that to how we can improve and expand the lives of people with dementia.