"Music is the
soundtrack of your life," said Dick Clark. When you hear a song, if you
are like me, it takes you back to that time in your life when you heard the
song for the first time or to the occasion where you heard it. That is
powerful. Can you imagine the music that our residents have heard in their
lifetime? Just like the world in general, they have experienced so much and it
is nice when we, as activities professionals, can take them back to the happier
days, with the soundtracks from their lives.
So, the question I pose
to you today is how do you find and present music to your residents? Of course,
the first thing that comes to mind is by way of hired professional performers.
That is a given in our jobs, so in this post, I'd like to focus on a few other
ways that you can bring music to your residents that they will recognize and
enjoy, along with theme music for your special events.
Pandora, Amazon, (search MP3 Download then search free songs) and
YouTube are places that I have personally used already. In doing research for
this post, I found a few helpful articles that deserve a good look if you just
starting to download music. Since I am not an expert in this field, and because
I want to give credit where credit is due, I will simple direct you to the
articles that I found relative to our use and hope that you will click the
links to read more:
- The Top 14 Places to Get
Free Music Downloads.
- Best free apps for
downloading music with an android device.
- If you prefer to
watch a video, here is one on how to load music or listen to it offline on
an android.
- How to
use ITunes
- How to Sync our Entire
ITunes Library to Spotify
And there are online
music players available for free:
- Spotify
- mp3skull.com
- Jango
- and more
So that is how to FIND
the music. Now that you have it what can you do with it? Just recently, I spoke
with the man who set up our sound system in the Auditorium, and asked about
connecting my IPhone to the system. He said "sure, it can be done." Shortly
after that, I received a new cord that has been one of the best items that I've
gotten for my job! It is an adapter cable that allows me to plug in my
phone to the system. I had a 50's theme party and I found music of the 50's on
Pandora. I used it for background music the night of the party. And then, we
had a Cinco de Mayo party and music from YouTube was played that was just right
for the evening.
As I sit here and write
this, I can visualize the 100's of CDs that I have in my office that I've
collected over the years of being an Activities Director. Just think how
much space I can save and how organized they can be if I can turn them into
mp3s, I can't wait to go back to work and find the right volunteer for this
job!
See, inspiration can
come at any time. LOL! I hope this article helps you add more music into
your community's programs. It shouldn't cost you much financially but may take
some time to get a nice library of music together. I truly believe that music
will add an extra touch to your programs in the future and will enhance
your resident’s journey on the "sound" track of their lives.
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