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fixing. The world. Welcome.

1:02

To People Fixing the World from

1:04

the Bbc World Service with me

1:07

Myra A New Be Every week

1:09

I tell you about great ideas

1:11

that are changing our world for

1:13

the better. This week we're looking

1:15

at the amazing power of something

1:17

that's all around us. Music, Most.

1:21

Of us love music and we use it

1:23

in all sorts of ways. It helps me

1:25

get the kids up and out of the

1:27

house in the morning and I'm always listening

1:30

to music to give you that been stymied

1:32

on my way to work. But music can

1:34

also make us feel sad. Or

1:39

fighting. Or

1:41

it can make us one to dance. Music.

1:46

Can connect with people from all

1:48

walks of life in such a

1:51

d play both physically and emotionally

1:53

and it's also helping people feel

1:55

better. It's been used to support

1:57

premature babies, brains to develop. to

2:00

get patients to relax before surgery

2:02

or to get people to deal

2:04

with pain and depression, the list

2:06

is endless. And today, we're

2:08

going to look at some of the

2:10

latest ways that music is helping people

2:13

go through life, like people who've been

2:15

diagnosed with a lifelong condition. So

2:17

choose a hand, have a

2:19

look at it, and then

2:21

just start moving the fingers. This

2:24

is a music workshop for people

2:26

with Parkinson's, and Parkinson's is a disease

2:29

that affects the brain. People experience stiffness

2:31

and shaking, which makes it hard to

2:33

walk or just do everyday tasks. Symptoms

2:36

start slowly and then they get worse

2:38

over time. According to the

2:41

World Health Organization, there are over 8 million

2:44

people worldwide living with Parkinson's,

2:46

and it has no cure,

2:48

but many people have found

2:50

that music can help ease some of

2:52

the symptoms that people experience.

2:55

Now I went to a community hall in St

2:57

Albans, a city just north of London,

3:00

to find out more about a new

3:02

idea that's using music to improve

3:04

people's whole quality of life.

3:06

Okay, so we're going to start today

3:08

by thinking about imagining music. I'd like

3:11

you just to close your eyes and

3:13

hear a song in your head. I'm

3:15

sitting in a circle and there's a

3:17

small group of people around me, most

3:19

of whom have Parkinson's. Now we

3:21

start by being asked to think about songs

3:23

that make us feel good. Anyone happy to

3:26

share what songs they were hearing?

3:28

Morning Town Ride. Morning Town

3:30

Ride, fantastic, that's a favourite

3:32

isn't it? Another one back to the desk.

3:35

I did a song called

3:37

Happy by Pharrell Williams. Classic,

3:39

yeah, it's like classic, brilliant.

3:41

This is Maria's musical movers,

3:43

a fun music and movement

3:45

workshop that helps people living

3:48

with Parkinson's manage their symptoms.

3:50

Talking about music is one of the

3:52

key parts of this course. Maria

3:55

Thomas, who leads the group, explains that the idea is to

3:57

get people to think of songs that are not as good

3:59

as music. I can motivate

4:01

them throughout the day to hear it

4:03

sealed updates and then sickly so freezing.

4:06

Some people find guys who doorways quite

4:08

challenging. so funny. Com elsewhere like news

4:10

on a busy shopping. Center where

4:13

my feeling of exhausted to

4:15

pause. Think. Of the think of the songs and

4:17

that can help you. Get. Myself to be

4:19

like a particular song, less one that reminds

4:21

them of something, or just a song that

4:23

they can attach eventually to movements. Yeah, not

4:25

people find us on that. they were like

4:27

I think. The main thing is I have

4:29

this nice solid base rate and and that

4:31

time to get some is a don't want

4:34

anything snow nine yards. As

4:39

to a short while need to

4:42

stop moving and dancing around our

4:44

chance because with them is another

4:46

key elements that. Because

4:51

focuses impacts people's movements sickly lower

4:53

legs and said people's make thought

4:55

to sinful listening to something that

4:58

a is fully they encourages people

5:00

to pick up the sea and

5:02

be more conscious about that. Also

5:04

a ten impact of arms having

5:06

something with a nice on. It

5:08

they are marked making if he's

5:11

wrong. She

5:13

was diagnosed with parkinson's and Twenty

5:15

Seconds. On sluggish sometimes

5:18

movements and don't think as

5:20

a beating your and risen

5:22

in your. Stride

5:25

us with her. So

5:29

much a part of my

5:31

sister, Sarah and. As.

5:36

As well as a talking and

5:38

the dancing we also try to

5:40

make some music by banning on

5:42

instruments from all over the world

5:44

including the gym day, a colorful

5:46

decorated African drum and then clean

5:48

along to save my songs. Prophecies

5:52

struggle with tremors his

5:54

hands assigned. Seats And see

5:56

that is saying that when they're

5:58

suing the drumming on me. about

6:00

music it calms those. With

6:04

the session today what was the best part for you?

6:07

I had so many dreams about going

6:09

on the dance today I really got

6:11

into it. You caught

6:13

me really going for it today.

6:15

Petra has had Parkinson's for about

6:17

eight years now and she's surprised

6:20

by how music can give her

6:22

such a boost. Sometimes I can't

6:24

walk across the floor. I

6:26

think it's stuck to the floor and

6:28

almost falls over and then you think

6:31

you know you can do this and

6:33

jump around and it's really

6:35

good. And

6:37

how do the classes make you feel? Good.

6:40

It's uplifting. And for Margaret

6:42

she uses music all day long outside

6:44

the class as well. Because when you're

6:46

tired and you've got Parkinson's you

6:49

feel oh and

6:51

it's very depressing and

6:53

music is good to kind of pick

6:55

you up and keep you going. It

6:57

makes you feel more normal. I think that's a good way

6:59

for it. Getting people to

7:02

use music like this in their

7:04

everyday life is exactly what Maria

7:06

is here to do. Her workshop

7:08

is developed from a course called

7:10

Songlines devised by Dr. Dawn Rose,

7:13

a music psychologist at Lucerne University

7:15

in Switzerland. What we're trying to

7:17

give people is a kind of

7:19

musical toolbox or an

7:21

internalized jukebox of music that they

7:23

can draw upon as

7:25

the disease progresses. We really look at

7:28

all different things like how to use

7:30

music for relaxation, how to

7:32

use it for exercise, how to use

7:34

it for communication. She

7:36

found that people were using music in

7:38

all sorts of different ways. Sometimes

7:41

to remind them of a life

7:43

before Parkinson's or to keep inspiring

7:45

them. Some people had a kind

7:47

of personal anthem that was to

7:49

do with their Parkinson's and

7:51

so they might for example have latched

7:54

on to a song like I Will Survive

7:56

by Gloria Gaynor because one of the most

7:59

difficult aspects. It's living with

8:01

her. It's not about her.

8:03

It's her who needs it now. It's

8:06

the same part. People told me that

8:08

the music helped to make them feel free.

8:11

So one lady in particular, Becky, said

8:13

that with her Parkinson's, she sometimes felt like

8:15

a puppet with her strings all tangled up.

8:18

And as soon as she heard the music,

8:20

it was like they untangled them and the

8:23

music just helped her move much more freely.

8:25

The trials of song lines are still ongoing

8:27

in the UK and Switzerland. But

8:30

groups like Maria's Musical Movers show

8:32

that people with Parkinson's are benefiting

8:34

from music in all sorts of

8:37

ways. You're

8:41

listening to People Fixing the World from the BBC

8:43

World Service and today

8:45

we're talking about the power of music.

8:48

Now we've just heard how music can help people

8:50

with Parkinson's manage their sentence

8:52

and also how it made many of

8:54

them feel nostalgic. Certain

8:57

songs and sounds can bring

8:59

back happy memories, perhaps over

9:01

time before an illness like

9:03

dementia. Around the world, there

9:05

are over 50 million people

9:07

with dementia. It's a group

9:09

of symptoms that affect one's brain, causing

9:12

memory loss and confusion. As

9:14

people get older, these symptoms get worse,

9:16

making it hard to do simple tasks

9:19

around the house. But

9:21

an innovative project called Radiome is

9:23

hoping to use something that we

9:25

all know and love, the radio,

9:28

to help people living with dementia stay

9:30

in the comfort of their home. Our

9:33

reporter Richard Kenny wants to meet one

9:35

couple who've been using it. Hi,

9:43

Linda. Hi, I'm Richard. Nice to

9:45

meet you. Hi. Linda and

9:47

Jonathan and Galani live in a neat red

9:49

brick house in the town of Bedford in

9:52

south-east England. Jonathan was

9:54

diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the most

9:56

common form of dementia, two years ago. He's

10:00

reserved at first, but it's clear he has a

10:02

passion for music, and he's keen

10:04

to show me his CD collection. That's

10:06

dangerous. What song do you like,

10:08

my daros? She's

10:11

got so many. This love of

10:13

music makes him ideal to take part

10:15

in tests of Radio Me, a kind

10:17

of personalised radio station. It

10:20

uses music to tackle the confusion and

10:22

anxiety that people with dementia are often

10:24

affected by, when simple tasks like

10:26

making a cup of tea can become difficult.

10:30

Linda, his wife, shows me how it works. She

10:33

has Jonathan to put on a smartwatch that's

10:35

linked to their computer. So

10:37

let's pop that up. Do you

10:39

want to do that, Jonathan? If, for

10:41

instance, Jonathan was to become agitated,

10:44

then the computer would pick that

10:46

up from the watch and

10:48

play a piece of music

10:50

that Jonathan's chosen. So

10:53

it measures part rate, movement, that sort of thing?

10:55

Yes, that's right. Absolutely. Once everything's linked up, Linda

10:57

puts the radio on through the computer. What are

10:59

we listening to on the radio? Do we know?

11:02

Yes, we're listening to BBC World Radio.

11:06

Fantastic. That's what I like to hear. We're listening to

11:08

the World Service. So

11:12

we listen to the radio and carry on with

11:14

our morning. But after a few

11:16

minutes, something a little bit strange happens. The

11:19

World Service fades out and

11:21

a hit-pop hit when the going gets

11:23

tough by Billy Ocean starts playing. And

11:26

Jonathan, who's been quiet and withdrawn, starts

11:29

smiling and having his fingers. Billy

11:34

Ocean has suddenly interrupted the radio. Jonathan?

11:39

You like this song? Yes, I do,

11:41

yes. That's

11:43

good, yes. Good

11:46

memories with this song, is that? Yes, yes,

11:48

definitely. So what's happened

11:50

here? The heart rate monitor on

11:52

the watch has detected that Jonathan's become a

11:55

bit agitated. Perhaps it was me being there

11:57

with my microphone. And this

11:59

triggers radio. The me to take over

12:01

from the normal radio a place. A

12:03

selection of music that he's chosen in

12:06

South Com same and brings back memories.

12:08

And Billie Ocean reminds him of a bit

12:11

sick Italy. Memorable moments there were no and

12:13

to see I had done swiss. Discounts

12:16

to Philly Ice and years at

12:18

a concert Simmons you're missing the

12:21

seasons. He really you got up

12:23

on stage little deeper tobacco do

12:25

instead. So I went to Dust

12:27

Is. The music's

12:29

making Jonathan more upbeat and engage the next

12:32

some list to get his by legendary South

12:34

African singer B C. Milan got it and

12:36

it brought back memories for him of Lies

12:38

in. Zimbabwe where he grew up

12:40

since their husbands coming back

12:43

to from law known to

12:45

get on the system in.

12:48

My ceiling is probably sound the

12:51

same things as name is an

12:53

absolutely sensitive to the piece of

12:55

music singing a nice memories. North

12:58

Korea. So it

13:00

triggers happiness I suppose. Is that what

13:02

it's It's not. It's during for you

13:04

said business years. And this

13:06

is the point is this and

13:08

me and music which is very

13:10

important for people with outside this

13:12

because a lot of things cease.

13:15

To has a meaning. That

13:17

thing. With animals have that

13:19

something the has a many then that's it.

13:21

A good thing. Too. Well

13:24

Also visiting is one of the people

13:27

behind Radio Me doctor Alec Street as

13:29

the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research.

13:31

He's been testing the system with Johnson

13:33

and a number of other participants over

13:36

the last year. there's the visible responses

13:38

people stop moving to the music stamps

13:40

and with Jonathan for example he taps

13:42

or long history because with his response

13:45

but also his heart rate went on

13:47

monitoring it starts to go up and

13:49

down a lot and that's not because

13:51

of the movement in. the things as

13:53

it's because of the change in arousal

13:56

level and as the other end of

13:58

the spencer mother costs and guests moving

14:00

around to the music. It's that

14:03

familiarity, it takes them from the

14:05

unfamiliarity, the loss of sort of

14:07

cohesion in processing things in daily

14:09

life and then that familiar music

14:11

comes on and takes them to

14:13

that familiar place. So get

14:15

a bit technical with me perhaps, why

14:17

does music have this effect on

14:19

people? When a piece of music

14:21

comes on, if you look at

14:23

a live image of what's happening to

14:25

the brain, you see the whole brain

14:27

is stimulated every part of it so

14:29

it's a global stimulant for the brain.

14:32

So it's activating memories, the motor

14:34

system because people want to move

14:36

to it and there's a reward

14:39

system as well that's activated from

14:41

listening to it. With the

14:43

huge cost of care for people with

14:45

dementia rising as cases increase around the

14:47

world, a system like this could help

14:49

reduce some of that burden. One

14:51

of the aims is that it helps people

14:54

to live with as much independence and the

14:56

best possible quality of life. For as long

14:58

as possible in their home and

15:00

that includes people who are living alone,

15:03

not only couples. Those people

15:05

perhaps have the radio on more

15:07

as well because it's kind of

15:09

company for them throughout the day.

15:11

And Radio Me is also helping

15:13

to make people self-sufficient in other

15:15

ways. It can be programmed

15:17

to put in diary reminders. Hello this is

15:20

Radio Me, time to put the bin down.

15:22

Do you like the diary reminders

15:25

Jonathan? Oh yes I do. If

15:27

it's not me telling Jonathan to put them out at

15:29

four o'clock he's more likely to be happy doing it.

15:34

Richard who brought us that report joins me

15:36

now in studio and Richard I have to

15:38

stop by saying I think many wives will

15:41

agree that husbands listen to the radio more

15:43

than they listen to us. I couldn't possibly

15:45

comment. Oh gosh I mean anyway

15:47

back to the solution here. It

15:49

looks interesting, it sounds interesting but how

15:51

many other people are using it? Well

15:53

it's still in its testing phase with about 10

15:56

families at the moment. Alex says the

15:58

biggest problem they have to overcome with the next... version

16:00

is working out how the heart

16:02

rate monitor can recognise when someone's

16:04

confused or agitated. Instead of

16:06

just moving around too much perhaps, there's a

16:08

fine balance between the two readings and

16:11

at the moment sometimes the music can trigger too

16:13

easily, perhaps as we saw with Jonathan. And

16:16

what happens when you don't want the music to

16:18

interrupt? For example when you're listening to people fixing

16:20

the world? Exactly, you wouldn't want people to

16:22

fix the world to be interrupting. Or it could

16:24

be a political debate that you're really engaged with

16:26

and might get you agitated or something and

16:28

people involved in the trials, yeah they've suggested that

16:31

perhaps you need a temporary pause on Radio Me

16:33

for that. OK and I

16:35

mean are there any other similar things happening?

16:37

Yeah there are. As you mentioned earlier,

16:39

Mara, people are often using music to

16:41

calm down in medical settings. For example

16:44

going for an operation or a scan,

16:46

some familiar or calming music can help

16:48

to reduce our heart rate. But

16:50

there's one company that wants to go a step further

16:52

than that. Medi-Music believes they

16:55

can prescribe music specifically for you

16:57

that will relieve anxiety. And

16:59

just to be clear, this means potentially

17:01

using music as a kind of

17:04

medicine. Yeah that's the idea. They're working

17:06

on an app that can choose your

17:08

calming playlist for you just by getting

17:10

a few bits of information about you.

17:13

Gary Jones, the CEO, claims that

17:15

it can improve people's health. We've

17:17

created a bunch of algorithms, about

17:19

23 in total, that take different data points when

17:21

the piece of music, tempo, timbre,

17:24

frequency range, harmonics, all different sorts of

17:26

facets. So we combine them with the

17:28

objective of reducing the heart rate.

17:30

Well Mara, I got Gary to give

17:33

you and me a playlist just

17:35

by knowing our age and our gender and

17:37

where we're from and what did you think

17:39

of yours Mara? Well I mean I

17:41

did enjoy mine. It made me feel more

17:44

nostalgic because it was songs that reminded me

17:46

of home. But I also did feel quite

17:48

relaxed listening to it. I think

17:50

that's the point. Yeah my music was from a bit of

17:52

an older generation. Yeah I must say I now

17:55

know your age. You were a guest. So there

17:57

was things like the Beatles and Oasis and things

17:59

like that. It wasn't necessarily relaxing

18:01

sing with it songs are quite sad

18:03

but I enjoyed it and They

18:06

say that if you're connected to a smart

18:08

watch and maybe your heart rate is raised

18:10

because you don't like one of the tracks

18:12

You don't like Bob Dylan singing for example

18:14

might aggravate you Right and it can be

18:16

swapped out for something until you get that

18:18

perfect playlist that will relax But

18:21

why not for example just create your

18:23

own playlist? I mean does this actually

18:25

work Yeah, that's what a lot of

18:27

us do with music streaming services now, isn't it?

18:29

We create a relaxing playlist Well with

18:31

this idea they say it's all about that Personalization

18:34

so the playlist will pick music from

18:36

your era and the algorithms will make

18:38

one track flow into another So it

18:40

gradually lowers your heart rate and

18:43

they're still testing it one that trial though They

18:45

did with dementia patients in the north of England

18:48

They found that almost all of them their heart

18:50

rates were reduced somewhere as much as 25% Okay.

18:54

Well, I mean, I guess this is one to watch

18:56

out for maybe to listen out for before

18:58

what we've heard today Richard Thank you. Thanks

19:06

So clearly music is having

19:08

a lot of health benefits But

19:10

also it has a role to play

19:12

for people who've been through the most

19:14

traumatic of experiences like in

19:16

our next solution Let Me

19:21

take you to biddy biddy in Uganda

19:23

one of the largest refugee camps in

19:25

Africa. It's home to over 200,000

19:28

refugees mostly from the Civil

19:30

War over the border in South Sudan,

19:33

but even here music is helping

19:35

people heal Teaching

19:45

a group of children to play a

19:47

stringed instrument called an adungu He's

19:50

a teacher for the salam music program

19:52

set up by the refugee charity

19:54

Sina loketa Well,

19:56

our music is amazing to

19:58

the soul and music is

20:01

a universal language. We

20:03

are using it as a grid

20:05

to foster social change. The

20:08

reason as to why we have refugees in

20:10

Bilibidi is because of the civil war. And

20:13

the civil war really had a lot

20:15

to do with this

20:17

integration of normal

20:19

pattern of the community. So

20:22

we are doing music to

20:24

build cohesion and to

20:26

build peace among different communities. Victor

20:29

leads classes on the camp, teaching

20:31

both traditional and modern music. But

20:34

how is this helping to bring people

20:36

together? In the camp, we

20:38

have tribes who could not entomarry.

20:41

We have tribes who could literally not

20:44

buy from the same market, who

20:46

couldn't go into the same school.

20:49

So when we started the

20:51

music activities, it created a

20:54

social environment where different young

20:56

people started gathering together and realizing

20:59

one interest, which is music. So

21:01

as time went by, we

21:04

realized actually the element of

21:06

hatred started vanishing. Many

21:14

of the people here have fled from

21:16

a violent and bloody conflict. So

21:19

how does Victor use music to help them

21:21

deal with this trauma? One

21:23

of the ways actually music really

21:25

helped to make people shield their

21:27

traumatic conditions and depression and stress

21:30

has been involved in the activity.

21:33

Young people started getting engaged in

21:36

learning different instruments, in

21:38

singing, learning vocals. So this

21:40

kept young people busy. And

21:43

their minds started creating a path

21:46

of recovery other than getting

21:48

the tight ground or other than getting

21:50

into drug abuse. And then also coming

21:52

up with songs that bring

21:55

about positive energy. There's

22:00

one of the artists who recorded

22:03

a song called Anina Del Salaam,

22:05

meaning we need peace. And

22:08

this song talks about how terrible war can

22:10

be and then how coming

22:12

together and to speak against

22:14

discrimination and speak against conflict

22:17

and fighting could actually

22:19

help bring people together and

22:21

have peaceful cohesion. Victor

22:24

has been teaching music at the camp for over

22:26

three years now and has nearly 200 people

22:29

in his classes every week. The

22:31

greatest impact of singing is peace.

22:34

People have connected and they have loved

22:36

each other, kind of

22:38

forming together and attending classes together.

22:41

And another change of singing

22:43

is young people getting high

22:46

self-esteem, forgetting the

22:48

traumatic conditions and memories

22:51

and getting reawakened from the

22:53

activities. Victor

22:55

alone is on the power of

22:57

music to change lives and some

22:59

lovely music from the Biddy Biddy

23:01

Resugy Camp in Uganda. That

23:04

brings us to the end of today's

23:06

programme. But before we finish, do you

23:08

use music to help you in some

23:10

way? Is there a particular

23:12

song that inspires you? Do

23:14

let me know what that is and why on

23:17

people fixing the world at

23:19

bbc.co.uk. I'd

23:22

like to leave you with a song that I listen to

23:25

almost every morning, one that makes me remember

23:27

home and inspires me to get started with

23:29

my day. It's Salty Souls,

23:31

Susannah. Until next week,

23:33

thanks for listening. Where

23:54

to Be a Woman is the podcast celebrating

23:56

the best of women's wellbeing. I'm

23:58

Sophia Smith Galer. And I'm Saachi Cole.

24:01

And we're on a quest to find out where

24:03

in the world women are living their best lives.

24:06

We're hearing from some incredible women about what

24:08

their countries are getting right. And

24:10

picking the best bits from our female fantasy land.

24:13

Because you can't build it if you can't imagine

24:15

it first. Let's be

24:17

a woman from the BBC World Service.

24:19

Listen now wherever you get your BBC

24:21

podcasts.