Sharing the brain-healing power of song

If Dr Alison Talmage had a magic wand, therapeutic choirs for people with brain conditions would sing in every town.

As a step towards realising that vision, Talmage has written a handbook for people wanting to run choirs to help people after strokes or brain injuries and those with Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and other neurological disorders.

The handbook is the fruit of her PhD from the University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain Research and School of Creative Arts. Talmage graduated on 7 May.

“I wanted to help resource people, so they can establish and sustain a therapeutic choir.

“If I had a magic wand, there would be a choir in every town and suburb, so people don’t have to pay for expensive taxis or rely on family members to drive them – they can just take themselves to a choir close to home,” says

Talmage, who works part-time as research assistant at the University’s Centre for Co-Created Ageing Research.

She intended the handbook to provide relevant guidance for New Zealanders, but music therapists, musicians and speech-language therapists from around the world are already asking for copies.

Talmage has spent many years fine-tuning her own understanding of how choirs can best help people recover from strokes, or stay well for longer with degenerative brain diseases.

In 2009, she co-founded the Centre for Brain Research’s CeleBRation choir and in 2017, she started a similar therapeutic choir, Sing Up Rodney.

The choirs aim to improve people’s ability to communicate and interact socially.

“Neurological conditions often impair people’s communication.

“For example, with Parkinson’s disease, people’s speech is not well articulated and they can have difficulty breathing adequately to project their voice.”

After stroke or brain injury, people can suffer aphasia and struggle to find the words to express their thoughts and to process other people’s speech, she says.

“It’s extremely challenging – it undermines people’s sense of identity and confidence, but they’re still people and it doesn’t affect their intelligence,”

Singing gives them an opportunity to practice vocalising in an upbeat setting.

Songs with repeated choruses allow everyone to join in with the chorus, while those who are up for a challenge can sing more complex verses.

Struggles with mobility and low energy leave many people with brain conditions socially isolated, Talmage says.

“Singing is a great way to bring people together. They know they’re in a supportive space and the focus is on the music, not the diagnosis.”

For people with dementia, singing taps into their emotional and autobiographical memory, so familiar songs frequently spark conversations, she says.

Over the years, she has watched choir members gain confidence in singing and talking.

“I’ve seen the choirs help people with Parkinson’s to develop clearer speech and louder voices and to participate more socially.

“People who have had strokes can often still sing familiar songs more fluently than they can speak. For them, it’s a safe space to use their voice.”

Earlier research Talmage was involved in showed singing helps people with aphasia to have better prosody, or expressiveness.

Singing in harmony with others is also good for the spirit, she says.

“All the feel-good hormones are released when people sing together – endorphins and oxytocin, which is a bonding hormone.

“The same way you get runner’s high, you get singer’s high.”

The choirs regularly perform and offer singalongs at aged care homes, giving members a chance to shine and to lift others.

Some of their songs have been composed by Talmage, while others were collectively created by the choirs. Three songs have been written to convey experiences of Parkinson’s, aphasia, and dementia.

Having grown up with a father who was a high school music teacher and church organist, Talmage developed her skills composing and performing on violin, viola and piano during a bachelors degree in music in the 1980s.

She followed that with teacher training and a masters in education.

While working as a primary school teacher, she discovered the power of music to help children with disabilities to learn. That inspired her to gain a masters in musicology in 2006.

Initially, her work as a musicologist focused on children, but one day a man with Parkinson’s disease sought her help, changing the course of her career.

His name was Don Copeland and Talmage has dedicated The VOCCAL Handbook for Neurological Choirs to him and others who have played pivotal roles in shaping her path.

Grants for her PhD were provided by Hope Foundation, Music Therapy New Zealand, Graduate Women New Zealand, and Fehl Charitable Trust.

For copies of the handbook, email alison.talmage@auckland.ac.nz.