Jo Edworthy is leading the singing session as part of the Fighting Fit weekend taking place on March 22-24.
In the following article Jo talks about her experience having attended her third ‘Sing to Beat Parkinson’s Course’ in late January, at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
Snape is famous in the world of music, because it’s the home of the Aldeburgh Festival founded by the composer Benjamin Britten who lived there and wrote many of his operas at Snape, being greatly inspired by the local landscape.
As a practitioner for voice and in my role of working with people with Parkinson’s, the course been invaluable to me as I try to find new ways to help people maintain their vocal health and strength. It was great to talk with, and learn from, others who are working in the same environment.
Singing for Parkinson’s is fantastic for people who are experiencing loss or weakness of voice. People think that they have to be able to sing well before coming our sessions but that is emphatically not the case. In our sessions we include movement, breathing and vocalisation in order to keep our muscles responding and it can be a great way of maintaining techniques learnt in speech therapy. We like to call it ‘singing by stealth’, because by the time you have finished singing an exercise or song, you have actually engaged your breathing and facial muscles, your vocal chords have responded and then, if we introduce gentle movement, we are also stimulating the brain and other muscles too. Singing is also expressive and great fun, we do tend to laugh quite a lot!
As I already work in this sector, during the course I was placed in a focus group which shared exercises, songs and ideas and also helped with future research to enable good practice for leaders. There were around 40 to 50 delegates on the course from a range of backgrounds including speech therapists, singing teachers, choir leaders, musicians already running groups for Parkinson’s, dementia, lung health and mental health. We had a great session with a local Parkinson’s group joining in and watching the course leaders working with them. A dance teacher who had trained with English National Ballet and now takes dance & movement sessions for Parkinson’s came and took us through our paces for an hour.
The course leaders included Nicola Wydenbach, a Parkinson’s and singing practitioner, Dr Trish Vella Burrows and Grenville Hancox MBE, a professor in music, health and well-being from the university of Kent, who delivers and researches group singing activities for people with Parkinson’s and is aiming to establish singing on prescription nationally. In fact, on the drive up to Suffolk I heard on the news that the government is planning to encourage alternative activities through GP’s in order to maintain patient’s well-being – we will have to watch this space!
I will be delivering a seminar this summer at the National Conference of Singing Teachers UK on singing and how it helps people with Parkinson’s.
Fighting Fit is an innovative residential weekend programme for younger and working-age people with Parkinson’s that encourages self-awareness and helps each participant to take greater control of their life. The aim is to provide information and sign-posting, to share experiences and discuss the practical and emotional impact of living and working with Parkinson’s.
If you want to find out more, you can either contact us, or sign up to our newsletter which will provide you with updates and news about this exciting opportunity.