The Well-Tempered Ear
Making music saves senior brains, studies find | January 30, 2024
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you are a senior and think that making music— even as a beginner — is for younger people, you couldn’t be more wrong.
A newly released British study offers convincing evidence that singing in a choir (below top, the now-defunct UW-Madison Choral Union) and playing an instrument (below bottom) helps to boost memory, and save the brains of older people, possibly averting or postponing cognitive decline, dementia and possibly Alzheimer’s disease.
Here are links, on Classic FM radio station’s website, to the stories about the two studies:
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/piano-choir-keeps-brain-memory-active/
https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/piano-lessons-older-age-delay-dementia/
How does your own experience measure up to findings in the studies?
The Ear wants to hear.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
As far as singing, I can only say that my voice is pretty rusty and I don’t think I’d be capable of singing the kinds of choral music I sang 20 years ago, much as I might like to. So for some of us at least, that option for warding off cognitive decline is not really open. Ann
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Comment by ANN C BOYER — January 30, 2024 @ 7:14 am
ABSOLUTELY!!!! At 87, I still practice every day, even finished a last hurrah CD in my 80s . Peabody just launched an opera of sorts with a focus on music and mental illness struggles. My son in law wrote about it. Thanks, once again, Jake, for your always insightful and relevant ear…. Best, Myrna
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Comment by diacon2 — January 30, 2024 @ 5:24 am
I enjoyed your blog about learning music at a late age. I am 75 and in my younger life had absolutely no musical training although I always liked listening to both classical and popular music. About four years ago I took up the ukulele and it changed my life. A year ago I began to fulfill a life-long dream of learning to play the piano. I don’t know for sure that either of these help my memory or cognition but they certainly can’t hurt. What I do know for sure is they enrich my life tremendously and make me very happy.
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Comment by Anne Marie Skye — January 30, 2024 @ 2:58 am