Brain Health is a unique series focused on how to help you age well. These stories have been created in cooperation with AARP and Word In Black.
In the 1970s, when disco and funk ruled the radio airwaves, Derek Menchan’s third-grade teachers introduced him to the cello. Although it wasn’t the first time the 8-year-old had made music — his mother had a piano, a zither and a recorder at home — learning to play something new was an adventure.
“I figured out the layout of the instrument,” he remembers. “I was able to make sounds that made sense on it. I was able to play musical phrases and whatnot because, of course, when I picked up all these other instruments, I picked them up by ear, so I learned to play the cello by ear as well.
“It was quite challenging at first. I surmounted the hill of figuring out how to make sensible sounds.”
By age 13, he was performing in orchestras. Now, at 58, he has established himself as a principal player and experimental music group leader in New York, Houston, and parts of Florida.
To Menchan, making music is a means of expressing himself through a challenge; a cerebral test of one’s ability to convert – in real time – written music into sounds for an audience, at a professional skill level.
But researchers say his decision to play music over his lifetime helps Menchan’s brain stay healthy and active as he ages, staving off a range of debilitating, potentially deadly diseases.
Several AARP surveys show links between music and strong cognitive functioning. In its Music on our Minds report, researchers from the Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH) find that those who make music or listen to it regularly feel a boost in self-esteem and social connection.
The study found that music-making activities, such as joining a choir or a music-writing group, can reduce feelings of isolation — an increasingly common problem among seniors that is linked to serious health issues like heart disease, stroke and dementia.
Dr. Suzanne Hanser, president of the International Association for Music & Medicine, says playing an instrument or writing songs helps stimulate important mind-body connections.
“Performing music is capable of activating a ‘flow’ response, in addition to enhancing motor abilities and coordination,” she says. “Making music and writing songs or music uses a vast creative vocabulary, and integrates diverse functions of our brains in the process.”
At the same time, “music provides an outlet for creative expression,” Hanser says, “filling us with a sense of meaning and purpose, while also communicating our essence and values, telling our stories, and increasing our capacity for expansiveness and spirituality.”
Mencham has experienced it first-hand, finding spiritual connection through his instrument.
“When we start thinking of history and how we connect to our individual relatives and/or ancestors, we find that music is the magical medium that glues everything else together,” he says. “The easiest way to send a story from one generation to another is through song. The easiest way to build a community of like-minded individuals is through them having a shared narrative which can be laid out in a song. So all of these things should be remembered as we are considering anything within the musical realm.”
Find more information from AARP about brain health, click here.