Creating a personal music playlist to help treat dementia.

Abstract

A hushed silence fell over the lecture theatre as Andy Lowndes, deputy chair of the Playlist for Life charity, searched for a track via the music streaming service on his mobile phone. As the notes of Oscar Peterson's C Jam Blues filled the auditorium, toes began to tap. “What made you pick that song?” Lowndes asked the member of the audience who had selected the track. “It's happy music”, came the reply. “It was the first time I realised how complex jazz could be.” Lowndes asked other members of the audience to select songs, with the strains of first Gioachino Rossini's The Thieving Magpie Overture and then Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing gaining murmurs of approval.