Music makes us happy!
Don’t you just love hearing a favorite song that you haven’t heard in ages? I always crank the radio when a song comes on that I used to play over and over but had forgotten over the years. Our seniors feel the same way! As we all know, music can evoke a variety of emotions, but most often it makes us happy.
They spontaneously burst into song
When we are playing an active game with the seniors in the living room, I will find a playlist on YouTube and put on some old favorites. It’s always heartwarming to hear seniors spontaneously burst into song. Sometimes the song comes with an anecdote from their past which is an added bonus!
Playlists are your friends
When I talk with my activity director friends, some of them confide that they’re not very familiar with YouTube and they’re unsure how to use it. I get that! And, to be honest, YouTube can have some content that you need to watch out for. It is a huge website with over 80 million videos on it. So you’re bound to get some good and bad. But, if you just keep an eye on it, YouTube can be a huge benefit to your seniors during activities. Most of the playlists for songs that they enjoy will come with fantastic photos of the singers back in the day. We recently were playing old Pat Boone songs and there were photos of him as a teenager. The seniors were thrilled and the photos sparked great memories for them and remarks of, “Oh, I had forgotten how young he was!” Overall, YouTube is a terrific resource for helping seniors relieve memories through music. And it makes my administrator happy because it is essentially free!
Play YouTube through the TV
In order to use YouTube, you will need to have either a “Smart TV” or a computer with pretty good speakers in your activity space. The TV or the computer must be connected to the Internet. On your Smart TV, push the “Smart” button on the remote and it will launch a screen where you can arrow over to choose from several websites. Select YouTube. Once YouTube launches, type a genre of music such as “Classic Country” or “Big Band” in the search bar. Hit enter and let YouTube suggest a playlist for you. It’s that simple! Sometimes the playlists are so long they will play for hours if you want them to. So much better than having to switch CDs! YouTube does generate revenue by playing a short commercial now and then, but you can skip commercials too, so keep your remote handy!
Recently while my seniors were enjoying a game of golf putting, I put on a YouTube playlist of “Classic Country.” You should have heard them belting out the lyrics to Eddy Arnold’s “The Wayward Wind” and Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans.” The seniors were happy and began to sing louder and louder. Since we often have seniors join us for active games who just want to watch, it provided them with a way to participate too. Singing together is a great activity and an easy way to find the joy!
