Don’t Stop the Music

By Bud Focht

Hi, my name is Bud and like Kiki Dee, I’ve got the music in me.

Like most kids growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s, I have always been heavily into music.  Listening to it, not playing it.  Hearing the Sgt. Pepper album on head phones for the first time was a profound moment in my life.

I grew up on the three B’s; the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Bee Gees (BEFORE they went disco, songs like Massachusetts, To Love Somebody). And I am a big enough man to admit that yes, when I was 10 years old I was into the made-for-television band, the Monkees. But in my defense, that group of actors pretending to be a band had two excellent song writers (Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart) who came up with some very good tunes.

But the closest I ever got to listening to Country Western music when I was younger was listening to John Denver. But I considered that closer to folk music.

Country Western, to me, was Roy Rogers singing “Happy Trails” or Dolly Parton, although I did like the Man in Black, Johnny Cash.

But Country Western had too much Twang to it. To me it was Hee Haw.

My son had the most diverse iPod in the world, with songs from the 60’s and 70’s, along with current songs from country, rap, pop, rock and reggae. A few years ago he turned my wife Terry on to country music, taking her to a George Strait concert.

Ever since then we’ve listened to a lot of country music in our house and I have to admit it has grown on me. The last concert I went to was the Zac Brown band.

But the biggest impact music eventually has had on me is the fact that it became a common denominator for me and Terry.

One of us will yell out “Kenny Chesney” every time one of his songs comes on the radio and it has become a running joke.

Seeing Terry respond like she is on a game show, trying to shout out the answer as quickly as possible, is funny to both of us.

Henry David Thoreau once said “Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit.”

In my modest studies of the human brain and memory, ever since Terry was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, I have read about people who can no longer speak in full sentences but can sing an entire song. People with advanced memory loss who don’t know what town they are in but can sit down and play a song on the piano.

It turns out that music stimulates the mind, and that the brain processes music in multiple areas, some areas that are not damaged by Alzheimer’s.

Music can be a great medium for reminiscing with people with memory loss. Many memories can come from melodies. Many times Terry cannot recall details from certain events in the past but certain songs and types of music can stimulate her brain to recall some of the emotions and memories of days past.

So now Terry’s day always has a soundtrack to it when she is home. The radio or CD player is always on when she is home alone, and often when I am there as well. It can bring her moments of enjoyment, familiarity and well-being.  It can affect her mood, although she is almost always upbeat.

Albert Camus, a French Nobel Prize winning author once said “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”

That goes for caregivers as well. At least for me.

Although Terry is quiet, even more quiet than she used to be, she can still communicate. There will be a time in the not so distant future where that will no longer be the case. But my reading tells me that music can be a powerful bridge helping caregivers like myself to reach their loved ones when Terry is no longer able to communicate with words.

I’ve read how Alzheimer’s can create strangers out of loved ones. I refuse to ever let that happen.  I have read that studies have been made where Alzheimer’s patients who listened to music three hours a week over a 10-month period actually had improved cognitive test scores.

I’m not asking for miracles. I just want Terry to be happy and to have as many good memories as possible. And to be able to retrieve those memories, even without the help of her hindered hippocampus.

Nostalgic memories involve the hippocampus, but listening to music involves the auditory pathways, auditory cortex and sensory association cortex.

Slowly, inevitably, Alzheimer’s robs people of profound memories, like the names and faces of loved ones. There are those who believe that using music we can mitigate the effects of Alzheimer’s.

Somebody once said “Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.”

I’m not sure what I feel when I listen to music, but I know I feel great when Terry hears a familiar song and has a positive memory associated with it.

These days I am trying to create more positive memories associated with music, like playing the Kenny Chesney game at home or in the car with Terry.

It turns out that, like Kiki Dee, Terry has the music in her too. 

Like Bob Marley said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

Until next time, keep the music playing and feel no pain.

Bud