Music and Senior Citizens: Research Findings and Considerations for Music Education
By Lisa J. Lehmberg, Ph.D., UMass Amherst This article is reprinted from the Massachusetts Music Educators Journal. Permission to reprint was granted by the author.
For many in the United States, the term music participation brings to mind music making during the K12 schooling years in a variety of settings inside and outside of schools. However, most people spend more years out of school than in school. What can the music participation of adults – particularly older adults – tell us about scaffolding musical involvement throughout life?
Research shows that as life expectancy increases, accompanied by an increased capability to maintain robust health well into older adulthood, many individuals choose to continue music participation through adulthood or even become involved in music for the first time as senior citizens (Fung & Lehmberg, 2016). The relatively new and growing body of research on the music participation of healthy independent older adults (most of which has been conducted in the last 20 years) has already uncovered much about the role of music participation throughout life. Some findings are what might be expected, but others are a bit surprising!
One major group of research findings from the field of music education concerns how senior citizens participate in music. As might be expected, research illuminates a strong relationship between music participation in earlier years and music participation later in life. A large majority of senior citizens who participate in music also did so in younger years. It also may not be surprising to learn that most participate in the same types of ensembles as in their earlier years:
primarily church and community choirs and bands (now via New Horizons ensembles for many), with choral groups being by far the most popular with the greatest ease of entry. Additionally, research shows that individuals who begin music participation for the first time as senior citizens tend to choose musical activities that have fluid entry points (welcome to join at any time; formal musical training not required), with choral ensembles again being the most popular. A perhaps more unexpected finding is that today’s senior citizens are also choosing to participate in alternative types of music- making opportunities that revolve around popular music, such as bluegrass or rock
groups and karaoke, as well as participatory music-making opportunities such as circle singing or drum circles, in which everyone present participates and there are no performer/audience distinctions. In addition, seniors enjoy engaged music listening activities, dancing to music, and/or serving as support personnel for musical groups, and consider these to be active forms of music participation even though they do not involve music making per se. Most importantly, research shows that senior citizens desire the opportunity to take music into their own hands by having many different choices available for music participation (Fung & Lehmberg, 2016).
A second, even larger group of findings (also from the field of music education) relates to why senior citizens choose to participate in music. It is logical that music plays a positive role in the quality of life of senior citizens who participate in it, and research clearly points out the enormous breadth and depth of its impact. Seniors who choose to involve themselves in music reap multiple physical, psychological, and social benefits on many levels, ranging from superficial (enjoyment of making music) to profound (music serving as a lifeline in times of adversity) (Fung & Lehmberg, 2016). Positive physical/ psychological impacts of music participation that frequently surface in research include (but are not limited to) the following:
l feelings of empowerment (Fung & Lehmberg, 2016) l brighter moods (Hays & Michiello, 2005) l enhanced cognitive functioning (Coffman & Adamek, 1999) l enjoyment of making music (Roulston, Jutras & Kim, 2015) l improved overall health (Gembris, 2008) l improvement of musical skills (Coffman & Adamek, 1999) l increased energy (Gembris, 2008) l increased self-esteem (Clift & Hancox, 2010)
58 October/November 2016
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