As sun filters through arched, leaded-glass windows in Christ’s Church’s choir room, men and women in their 70s and 80s take their seats. They form a semicircle around musician Danielle Lussier, who cradles a guitar.
Lussier strums a few chords and then cheerfully breaks into Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” People join in. Some sing audibly, others more quietly, and a few just nod their heads and tap their feet to the beat.
At the tune’s iconic whistled finale, Lussier asks if anyone wants to give it a go. Port Chester resident Kevin Rothman, 77, volunteers. He purses his lips, and a thin sound fills the air, gaining volume as he finds the melody. Smiles break out across the group, and when he finishes, they clap enthusiastically.
“Musical Segue,” which meets every Wednesday for an hour, may seem like a casual sing-along for music aficionados.
But the eight to 10 participants who attend each week have various stages of dementia.
This music therapy program, designed for those with dementia, aims to benefit cognition, activate physical and sensory experiences, and foster socialization and self-expression.
It’s that self-expression that Lussier, a music therapist, focuses on after the applause for Rothman’s whistle solo settles.
“How did that song make you feel?” she asks.
“Not a care in the world,” one person answers.
“Wishing I was out there on that dock,” offers another.
Lussier gently probes some more, inviting participants to share how the words make them feel. She repeats the line, “I’ve had nothing to live for, look like nothin’s gonna come my way.” She notes the juxtaposition of those heavy words with the breezy melody.
The group pauses, but from the focused looks on their faces, it seems like something is clicking into place.
Linnie Larson Pickering, a 76-year-old from Greenwich, speaks up, saying that the combination of words and music evokes “all the things that make you crazy, and putting them all away.”
Cognitive connections like those are what the program aims to spark, harnessing music’s power to forge a route around plaques and tangles in the brain, which are considered some of the main features of Alzheimer’s. These new neural pathways pave the way for the formation of new associations and lower barriers to communication.
“If we think about it as roads, and there’s a roadblock to get from point A to point B, music can be that detour to get to that point that we’re trying to access,” said Olivia Cohen, director of Early Stage and Engagement Services at CaringKind, a nonprofit that provides free support for people and families affected by dementia.
Musical Segue is a partnership between CaringKind and Christ’s Church. Parishioner Gurney Williams, 84, was instrumental in working with CaringKind to develop the program and bring it to the community.
For Williams, it’s personal. On a visit to an old college friend with advanced Alzheimer’s disease, Williams was saddened that his friend failed to recognize him. The two sang a cappella together as members of the Whiffenpoofs at Yale. Williams decided to sing his name, and at that moment, he could see that his friend recognized him.
“I understood the power of the music immediately,” said Williams, who added that his friend had been receiving music therapy.
Music is processed and remembered in many areas of the brain, according to the American Music Therapy Association. For those with dementia — an umbrella term for the range of neurological conditions affecting thinking and language — music therapy stimulates portions of the brain that may be storing those musical memories. Accessing them can increase cognition and calm, improve verbal fluency and mood, reduce anxiety, and encourage social interaction.
“Sometimes when words are lost,” Cohen said, “singing can help spark that activation in the brain to bring back the language.”
Toward the hour’s halfway mark, Lussier asks if there are any requests, and someone suggests Johnny Mathis’s “Wonderful! Wonderful!”
A recording of Mathis’s crooning fills the room.
As the final chorus swells, a participant, wiping tears from his eyes, looks over at his wife, smiles wistfully, and puts his hand on her knee.
When the song finishes, the group sits quietly as if soaking up the feelings it evoked. Then, they begin to talk about how the song transported them back to particular times in their lives: a vivid memory of a first kiss, a childhood moment.
Songs of people’s youth are powerful that way, Cohen said, because they unlock memories and help people regain a part of themselves.
“It helps to support a person’s identity, and connects them to themselves,” she said.
When Lussier plays a recording of “Splish Splash” by Bobby Darin, group members shake tambourines, bells, and shakers in accompaniment. Linnie does a solo with hers. Tom, wearing a baseball cap with an embroidered image of the Beatles walking across Abbey Road, keeps perfect beat with his maraca.
After, Lussier asks, “Did you notice that we did something together without even talking about it?” There were nods and happy faces all around. Tom, who has been sitting silently for most of the hour, said with a smile, “Feels good. I like it.”
Rhythm instruments play an important role in music therapy. Holding a shaker or tambourine and moving it to the beat is a portal into a primal sensory experience.
“One of the first sounds we hear as infants in the womb is our mother’s heartbeat,” Cohen said. “We are just entrained to rhythm in music from birth, so it’s very natural for us to connect to that.”
Lussier ends the session by inviting the group to come up with a song of their own. She wonders, in light of the negativity going on in the world, if it might be an expression of hope.
“What makes you feel hopeful?” she asks.
“Songs from the past bring up our spirits,” Kevin says.
Linnie adds, “It helps to have something to look forward to.”
Everyone agrees that hope also comes from being supported by others who are going through the same thing.
With Lussier’s help, they string the ideas together and sing their own words:
“Looking to the past,
And planning for the future,
Being together as a group,
And helping each other.”
As the session ends and participants trickle out, one leans into Lussier, hugging and kissing her goodbye. Another leaves holding the hand of his caretaker.
They take something invaluable with them — a harmonious experience that touched their hearts and minds, and connected them with each other.
Musical Segue meets from 10-11 a.m. Wednesdays at Christ’s Church until June 24. For information and to register, call 646-744-2900 or email helpline@cknyc.org.
