How music can rescue and restore our humanity

[Music] foreign [Music] this is called thinking for two maybe i'm wrong to behave like cat too [Music] i guess i'm not used to thinking for two but i never lie [Music] though i bet the truth too many times and there's no excuse so i pick a fight and i stamp my feet [Music] it must be hard [Music] let's not compete [Music] and take this little truce and i tried to think for you but maybe i'll learn to get there with time see what it's worth to keep you on site the sound and the fury of too many fights fades in the light of you by my side so we will keep walking and we will play on gave you my word i try to stay strong cause i'm not the best [Music] one of us will [Music] and i try to think for [Music] one of us will only [Music] and i try to think for [Music] thank you i'm bt wolfe and i've always loved the stories of albums the tangibility of records and the ceremony of listening from the time i started writing songs age 8 and discovered my parents record collection i saw albums like musical books with the artwork providing the perfect backdrop for the story and i loved opening them up and entering into the world of the album there was also a ceremony to that experience from that time i was imagining what my album would look like what it would feel like and what worlds i could create by the time my first record was going to be released it was a very different era with the digital replacing the physical so i thought about how to reconnect the two and that's what my work became centered around reimagining the vinyl experience but for today why was this so important to me because music is core to our humanity music imprints on the brain deeper than any other human experience and we're a musical species more than anything else i believe that there are three things that allow something to go deep to stay with us and forever change us and these three things are storytelling tangibility and ceremony tangibility as in a physical art form or it can be a physical space anything that helps to ground us in our present reality via a touch point storytelling in the broadest sense of the word the ability for an artist or creator to tell a story through their work that can transport us capture our imaginations and lastly but perhaps most importantly ceremony the space around and within an experience that allows us to be fully present and immersed i believe that these three things help to set the stage for music and allow it to go in so that it imprints imprints so that every one of those experiences becomes a part of who we are and what we carry with us and this doesn't just apply to music but to anything and everything that helps us reconnect with ourselves with one another and helps to keep us alive inside storytelling tangibility and ceremony had always been part of the physical listening music experience and these were just some of the things that we lost when we moved to digital the digital era created access it presented solutions but it also created an idea that we could fast track a lot of what defines us as human beings to begin with and without the true cost or value reflected in the process today music floats around in this intangible sphere along with everything else that sits there news notifications calendar alerts social media everything coming in at this same superficial stream of information bombarding our sensory systems until we're numb overloaded and fatigued music and art have become part of this constant background chatter and we've forgotten why they're so much more there's always been a fine balance between what needs to be preserved and what needs to be innovated so how do we reconcile the value of music today with an industry that has decided that albums are obsolete singles need not be more than jingles forgotten as easily as they're created the opposite of imprinting i found part of my answer in neurology the great late oliver sacks studied extensively the power of music and grounded what a lot of us feel intuitively about music's power in science in his book music ophelia a book about music in the brain sax documents the impact of music across every neurological condition from autism to schizophrenia parkinson's to dementia showing how music is a tonic a remedy an orange juice for the ear and i realized that there was no greater application of music than this using music to reconnect us with ourselves and with one another when nothing else could a seed was planted in the back of my mind and when i heard that my grandma had been diagnosed with dementia i decided well whenever i next visit her i'll take my guitar play her some songs because why not watching my grandma transform from agitated and confused to joyful and at ease with just a song moved me so deeply then i decided to play to my father-in-law in his care home in the north of portugal when the director of the home heard what i was planning on doing and asked if i wouldn't mind playing to everyone in the ward with alzheimer's and dementia of course i agreed but realizing that my songs would be unfamiliar to the residents and that no one in the care home except for this relative spoke any english i was expecting a nice ambience at best but watching people clapping singing along dancing in their chairs becoming visibly reanimated with the music just as sax had described i realized that something much more important was happening what what i thought in that moment was what if music's power is so strong so interlinked with our own sense of self and well-being and identity that even with the memory component removed it could still be a tonic a remedy a way in what if it was music and not memory making the magic in music ophelia sax had theorized that music does not have to be familiar to exert its emotional pull but he himself hadn't tested this i'd seen the tip of precisely this and wanted to know how much deeper it went inspired by this insight back in the uk i began power of music and dementia the research project with the utley foundation in 2014 with the intention of recreating what had happened naturally in portugal but this time with the right controls in place and with the doctors and carers monitoring the residents i went into care homes all across the uk and performed a set of original music while the residents were monitored both during the live performance and in the weeks following as they listened to the same songs on headsets the results were amazing both memory and communication were improved during the duration of this project and i was lucky enough to witness some of the most profound reactions to music i've ever seen reactions that imprinted on me forever i watched david transform from a catatonic-like state to dancing an anne who'd not spoken a word in seven months halfway through the performance broke out into song and there were so many more what began as a small research project in the uk was suddenly getting global attention and i found myself sitting with the world's top neurologists and researchers as they picked my brain on the subject and all because i'd asked a question not as a doctor but as a musician today music for dementia is a global movement and the charity music for dementia 2020 which was formed out of my project is now actively getting music in all care homes in the uk by the end of this year and i still work with them as an ambassador so what did this teach me it taught me to celebrate those experiences that help to keep us alive inside at a time of more access than ever how do we retain a sense of value how do we choose to carve out deeper more ceremonial moments in amongst the noise how do we protect those endangered experiences that become our touch points shape our emotional sensibility our identity our well-being and create vast canyons and reserves in our very being we realize the importance of these choices when we realize the intrinsic value of music and art to us all as human beings when you've seen the power of music as medicine in this pure unconcentrated way which cannot be staged or fabricated it either works or it doesn't when you watch as music transforms the individual and see how those first few notes evokes a hand twitch a smile and this builds and grows and it's just them and the music no tangible memories no time in place just them and the music and slowly the brain starts to open up like a flower gently unfurling presenting new pathways you never believed were there until you realize that music is a necessity for those living with dementia because music is a necessity for every one of us thank you

Channel: TEDMED

Views: 15,052

Rating: 4.9831367 out of 5

Keywords: Music, Music and Memory, Music and Dementia, Beatie Wolfe, Beatie, TEDMED, TEDMED 2020

Id: ARP_yr-aoMU

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020