Maybe it's not just music

Ed1937

Maybe things related to music are also held onto. Today I was singing "You belong to me", and told my wife I thought it might have been Peggy Lee who had the hit. She said it wasn't. Trying to think of someone else who might have had it, I said maybe it was Jo Stafford. She said "That's it". I asked "So you think Jo Stafford had it?". She said "I KNOW Jo Stafford had it". She was right! But she couldn't tell you her address, and maybe not even her birthday.

Joydean

Ed, that’s a very interesting idea. Sometimes I believe a small window in their mind does open. It may only be for a brief period. With my husband he he doesn’t know our address or even the location, he certainly does not know our phone number. But he can tell you about the rivers he was on in Vietnam. I wish that part of his life he would forget. He doesn’t remember when our kids were little. It’s truly amazing about your wife! That’s a win!

abc123

Ed, I believe music is magical in a way and it's different for each one of us on an emotional level. I'm happy she was right! That's a big win. 

I hope ya'll have a good weekend. 

M1

If you saw The Kings Speech you'll recall that stutterers don't stutter when they sing. Definitely accesses different parts of the brain.... I firmly believe this is part of the power of music.

Stuck in the middle

Absolutely.  One of my mother's friends lost the ability to speak after a stroke but could sing.  Different part of the brain.

My wife doesn't know what day it is or what she ate for breakfast, but she can remember names better than I.  Sometimes I think we have about one brain between us, on good days.

Ed1937

M1 wrote:

If you saw The Kings Speech you'll recall that stutterers don't stutter when they sing. 

I saw the movie. Mel Tillis comes to mind.

jfkoc

Some more;

https://playback.fm/artist/jo-stafford-top-songs

1934

My wife is obsessed with music. She remembers the words of all songs and loves to sing and dance to them. We are in assisted living and fought the girls coming up to give her a shower and dress her until they started playing peppy music. Now she goes easily and sings and dances all the way even while brushing her teeth. We have happy hour here and country western performers come and play. She will get up and dance in front of everyone. The performer says she knows the words to all the songs. The next day she doesn't even know what happy hour is. I love seeing her happy but I have noticed she has also lost some of her inhibitions and I need to control her.

ImMaggieMae

My DH doesn’t always remember my name or what year it is, but I discovered several weeks ago that he remembers many or most of the words to lots of songs. I’ve made playlists on Alexa for night and day. Every night before we go to sleep we lie in bed in the dark and sing along with the Alexa device in our bedroom, sometimes for 10 minutes or so and sometimes for over an hour. I’m amazed at how many songs he remembers the lyrics to. And he always at least hums along if he likes the song. The first song on the list is always, May This Day, that Andy Williams used to sing at the end of his show every week. “May each day in the week be a good day, May the Lord always watch over you…” Sometimes we go through songs on the playlist or sometimes we’ll just request songs. It ends the day on a good note. (Along with the Respiradone.)

During the day yesterday, when I was at my wits end with hundreds of repetitive questions, I asked Alexa to play some songs. He and I sang along and the repetition was ended. More effective than the other diversions I tried.

Ed1937

Every so often we'll listen to music that we liked years ago. Every single time it is a positive experience.