Unique Experiences

Item Description

Holiday Performance and Singalong at the Private Party or Senior Center of Your Choice

Details: One Hour “Party Music” plus a 45-minute Holiday Singalong, delivered before 12/31/16, subject to availability

Memory Makers Singalongs feature songs from the '20s, '30s and '40s (music from the teenage years for many) and beyond.

Fun, fellowship and enriching brain stimulation are benefits for all, including those with Alzheimer's, Parkinsonism and speech impairment due to stroke. These conditions are often the cause of sudden and chronic isolation. Teamed with an age peer accompanist (he’s 83!) and equipped with the words they have forgotten, the participants and others in attendance are the performers in their own lives again.

Britt brings his singalong books to pass out as requested with lyrics to over 370 songs. Britt will furnish each singer with a songbook with lyrics from 371 titles to choose from at each visit and retrieve the books at the end of the session. Also, if there is not a piano available that is tuned, Britt brings a high-quality keyboard.

Item Special Note

Artist Bio:

Britt Davis

Britt studied piano technique and sight reading from age 7, continuing with two years of rigorous daily music theory study at the Clara Rice Thompson Studio of Piano Pedagogy in Texas.  Already sight-reading advanced classical and jazz music, he was employed by the Bud Winters Dixieland Five to play area clubs and dances, where he learned to read band chord sheets and developed the facility for playing improvisationally by ear.  He also developed muscle memory that permits transposing songs from one key to another to accommodate elders’ lower voice range.

These capabilities have supported the compilation of an encyclopedic, mostly early-20th-century collection of 371 song lyrics*, the accompaniments to be played from memory and ear without the need of written music scores.  Any song can therefore be requested and performed ad lib.  This facilitates use by singers at any level of mental functioning.  Later-20th-century songs appealing to early-onset Alzheimer’s friends’ brain-formative years have been added.  Currently serving 14 facilities twice-monthly and 6 others in low-income underserved areas supported by ARTreach, serving these diverse cultural populations has required making appropriate additions to the songbook and learning new accompaniments.  Britt’s mission is simply to “Bring joy!”

Through ten years in working with memory care singers, Britt has learned to deal easily and kindly with the behaviors that their caretakers face hour-to-hour.  This friendly familiarity combines with the familiarity of the music they are singing to create an aura of fellowship.

*The playlist (titles) of this compilation is currently in use as their “Preferred List” by permission by two U.S. neuroscience studies of the use of music to move emotions of elders and dementia patients.