I attend a few meetings every week with other people with aphasia. The group on Thursday is called Education and Resource. This group originally started through the BU Aphasia Center after Covid restrictions were eased and anyone out of Massachusetts was not eligible to register anymore. BU ran the group for one semester and now we (people with aphasia-PWA) run it by ourselves. Pretty neat, huh? One of us volunteers to “host” each week and chooses the topic.
Last week, we had so much fun with the topic, songs and lyrics. Group members brought favorite somgs or songs they found interesting. The first song we listened to was Imagine. Imagine by Pentatonix
There was only little discussion. The same person said that her favorite song was Hallelujah by the same band so we played that. Hallelujah by Pentatonix
This is where the fun began. The version we played included the lyrics and I asked whether we could read the lyrics because what I thought was a song of praise, didn’t seem like it when I saw what the words are. I doubted that I understood because of my aphasia. Then we did read the lyrics out loud. We then took turns reading aloud.
As you may know because you follow my blog, aphasia is a language disorder that can affect not only speaking but reading, writing and sometimes understanding. It doesn’t affect intelligence. One of the best ways to improve is to read out loud and discuss what was read.
After we read the words, we decided that there is a lot more there in song. And then we talked about how many songs are like this - with music that sounds one way and lyrics which are different than you expect.
The other songs we listened to:
That's life by Frank Sinatra
The Minetto
Lovely day by Bill Winters (rendition with lyrics)
Because we all didn’t have the chance to share a song, we’ll continue the topic next week.
I hope you enjoy the music. Until next time….
Your love of music shows through the variety you've shared. You picked great ones I've never heard the variation of.