Start a choir
Resources
If you work in a care home, a faith group or local community centre, would you like to set up a choir for people living with dementia?
It can bring people together, build bridges between generations, and help address key societal issues like loneliness and social isolation. You don’t need to be a musical expert – you just need passion and the right resources to get started.
We’ve been following the journey of The Prime Timers from Runwood Care Homes, who are aming to secure the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the World’s Oldest Choir. With an average age of 94, they’ve shown it really is never too late to try something new!
The choir was set up by care home manager Jasmine Kessey with the support of Runwood’s Head of Dementia Services Paul Gaskell. Runwood’s first care home choir was created in 2022 by Cathy Sehadavan, the Activities Coordinator in Runwood’s Wickford home in Essex.
Neither Jasmine or Cathy would call themselves particularly musical but they saw the power of music to bring residents to life and decided they wanted to give a choir a go. Jasmine says:
“Music is one of the things our residents love most and setting up a choir in the home seemed an obvious thing to do. We meet every week for rehearsals and join up with other homes online. It’s been quite a lot of work but it’s something to look forward and a lovely way for everyone to join together”
Jasmine’s top tips for setting up a choir are:
- Involve your group in thinking about what songs to sing. It can open up whole new conversations.
- Don’t worry if you can’t afford a professional musician to support your choir. You can get backing tracks online and playing them through a speaker helps everyone carry the tune.
- Think about signing up with an organisation that helps people set up choirs. They can help with all the things you might not have thought of, such as safeguarding and logistics.
If setting up a choir or singing group sounds like something you’d like to do in 2025, we’ve listed below some of the support available to get you started.
Intergenerational Music Making Resource Hub
IMM helped get Runwood’s World’s Oldest Choir off the ground and ran a workshop with residents to write the Christmas song that was released as a single. Sign up to the IMM Resources Hub to access:
1. Choir Hubs and Projects: Access information on how to set up and sustain choirs in your local area, whether in schools, care homes, or community spaces.
2. Skills and Techniques: Our teacher training song packs and playlist curriculum cards provide a structured approach for those looking to lead choirs or songwriting workshops.
3. Playlist Recommendations: Explore our curated playlists for dementia care, inter-generational singalongs, and more.
4. Guidance and Support: From songbooks to online singalongs, our resources offer everything you need to facilitate and grow a choir that makes a difference.
Shared Harmonies Songbook
Shared Harmonies is a charity and dementia singing group that has members from all different cultures and backgrounds. They produced this lovely songbook with songs from around the world and tips and ideas on how to use music as a way to explore culture and heritage together. They have made it free to download to help anyone who is setting up their own choir or singing group.
Singing for the Brain
Singing for the Brain is the Alzheimer’s Society network of singing groups that brings people affected by dementia together. Each group is independent but has signed up to the network standards after completing Alzheimer’s Society training. In return you get the trusted and well-known brand and backing of the Alzheimer’s Society, custom designed marketing tools specifically for Singing For The Brain, access to an online platform to store all your resources and data, plus membership of the community forum so you can connect with other volunteer delivery partners.
Live Music Now
Live Music Now started the original campaign to get A Choir In Every Care Home, now know as Live Music In Care. They operate UK-wide and offer a huge range of needs based live music experiences and training to support people facing challenges across the life course, including those living with dementia . They also offer a fantastic toolkit of online resources to support group singing, setting up a choir and live music activity in your care home, including five free training videos.
ChoirCommunity
ChoirCommunity has a library with a huge bank of resources which includes learning tracks, sheet music and arrangements to help your choir run smoothly. Browse their library to get started.