THE unusual sounds of ukelele playing and singing voices rang out at the October speaker meeting and what a happy occasion it was.
Janet Ayres, pictured on the right of the picture, is a natural voice practitioner who has been running a choir for six years. With her is club member Kathleen Durning, a singer in her choir.
Janet explained how the Alzheimer’s Society began Singing for the Brain sessions initially to help carers but had since extended the idea to dementia sufferers, allowing them to socialise with others in a fun, stimulating and supportive group.
After describing how the process worked – including exercises to help with breathing and even yawning to loosen the throat and warm up the voice – she had her audience singing.
She said singing was connected with emotion and that as emotional memory was preserved it was a good way to help dementia sufferers to communicate. Even when many memories are hard to retrieve, music was easy to recall.
The Portsmouth group was set up in July 2011 and they meet fortnightly at the city’s Buckland Centre.
“At first everyone was apprehensive but I’ve seen a fantastic change in the carers and sufferers,” said Janet.
A year ago the club gave the group £800, money raised during Pam Grosvenor’s year as president, by raffling a lovely patchwork quilt, hand-made by a small team of club members.
