Come Singing For People Of All Ages With Memory Loss

Everyone who has ever sung Happy Birthday, joined in a football chant, or sung a Christmas carol knows that singing makes you feel good!

If you have dementia, singing may also be something you can still do really well and with as much enjoyment as ever.

Come Singing groups offer a welcome break from the isolation which dementia can bring. You’ll find great songs of all kinds – favourites from the musicals, standards, folk and traditional – and musical activities to stimulate and make you feel alive.

Sessions are relaxed, sociable and a bit anarchic – not like school or hymn practice! Simply singing with other people is a great boost to self-confidence and well-being.

Groups are not just for those of us with dementia: family and carers are very welcome, and there are volunteers on hand to provide support.

All the groups are run under the auspices of a recognised charity, health provider and Norfolk Library Service.

Music is a gift beyond words, but if we live with dementia it can also be a vital lifeline to happiness.

Come Singing at Norwich Natwest Bank

Come Singing’s Keyhole Newsletter

We’re still also keeping in touch via regular newsletters by post or email. These include music-themed poems, quizzes, pictures and news items to raise spirits and ‘Keep your hopes alive’ (hence Keyhole!) Please click on the link below to open up and enjoy.

Come Singing at Earlham Library

We’ve loved being back in action at the Millennium Library in Norwich, and now Norfolk Library Service has kindly offered us a third monthly sing, at Earlham Library on Colman Road.

Sessions are held on the 3rd Friday of each month at 11.15 -12.15. There’s a bus stop nearby, good parking behind the library, ramped access and it’s a friendly welcoming place, with tea and coffee on hand at the end if you’d like!

The library only opens at 11.00, so be careful not to turn up too early (unless your library ticket has Open Access – easy to obtain.)

Everyone is welcome and of course it’s free – do come and join us if you’re in the neighbourhood!

Hope to see you there!

Exciting News!

We recently heard that we’d been awarded a one-off grant of £1,000 by the Utley Foundation Power of Music fund. The Foundation generously offered these grants to all singing groups open to people living with memory loss. The intention is that they should ‘create joy’ – what a lovely aim! In our case they want us to buy keyboards for the new Earlham Library session and the NNUH hospital, to create and print new songbooks with more of the songs you’d like to sing, and for endless tea and coffee!

But there’ll still be money left over… Now we’re asking you for ideas. What could make Come Singing more life-enhancing? Events, visits, more biscuits??? As well as the Millennium Library and Earlham Library sessions, we also go to the NNUH and Julian hospitals and care homes – could we do more for them?

Also, we’re collecting new, favourite songs to put in a special celebratory Utley songbook. So it’s over to you, to put your thinking caps on, and let us know your thoughts and ideas on how we can create Musical Moments of Joy. Please send to Heather at heatheredwards.music@gmail.com