What to Expect
The Music Amusement Park
What is the Music Amusement Park, and who is it intended to serve or benefit?
The Music Amusement Park is a subscription-based membership website that contains a library of music activities geared toward adults over the age of 75. It was created as an online resource for families, individuals, professionals, and organizations who provide direct care including:
- Family caregivers for loved ones
- Professional in-home caregivers
- Respite care workers
- Hospice and home care nurses, home health aides, volunteers, chaplains, and social workers
- Senior center organizers
- Older adult day care staff
- Activity or life enrichment staff in geriatric residential communities designated as Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care, and Skilled Nursing Home settings
New activities are created and added to the Music Amusement Park on a weekly basis by a board-certified music therapist. The activities are designed to improve or maintain the cognitive, social, and emotional wellness of elderly adults through music-facilitated reminiscence, trivia, puzzles, learning, songwriting, journaling, relaxation exercises, and more.
Who created the activities in the Music Amusement Park?
Brenna Liebold, MT-BC, WMTR crafted all activities along with their visual design, interactive elements, printable PDF worksheets and props, lyrical adaptations, and music recordings available directly on the website (not through YouTube). After serving older adults for over 17 years in nursing home, assisted living, cancer and dementia support group, adult day care, and hospice settings, Brenna still enjoys tapping into the spirit of creativity to make music accessible to all ages and abilities. Her goal has always been to design therapeutic, yet irresistibly intriguing, musical experiences that challenge the mind while fostering positive emotional and social connections.
Learn more about Brenna's call to music therapy, clinical experience, writing, public speaking engagements, and interviews for local media sources on the Meet the Owner page.
What are the benefits of using music with older adults?
Music, especially preferred music, boasts a host of positive effects when used as a tool in targeted activities:
- Improved mood
- Increased cohesion within residential communities and households
- Development of alternate methods of self-expression and communication
- Establishment of empathy and trust between elder and caregiver
- Maintained cognitive function
- Increased stress and anxiety coping skills
- Reality orientation
- Increased life satisfaction
- Control over meaningful decisions with immediate gratification
- Regained confidence
- Maintained verbal communication skills
How will I know which activities are new?
In the Music Amusement Park library, you might notice activity cards, or menu items, sporting a big, gold star. This denotes a new activity added within the last month.
Even easier than hunting for gold stars, once you subscribe to a membership plan you'll get a weekly update delivered to the email address associated with your account. The email includes a run-down of the latest activities added to the Music Amusement Park with links that take you to them directly. No searching necessary. If you'd rather not receive these emails, you may opt out by clicking a link at the bottom of any of these messages.
Membership and Free Trial
How does the membership work? How do I sign up?
The membership is an exclusive online community of individuals who have subscribed to the Music Amusement Park by paying either a monthly or annual access fee. To subscribe, click the "Start Free Trial" button on the Membership Pricing page. You'll then see clickable options and specific instructions to either sign up for a new account or log in if you already set up an account. After providing the requested information, you'll gain entry into the online Music Amusement Park.
Can I try the activities in the Music Amusement Park before committing to a membership?
You bet! We offer a free, 3-day trial of the entire Music Amusement Park. Once you create an account, you will be prompted to enter payment information as a good-will gesture that you are genuinely interested in joining the membership and that you're not one of those automated web bots. Don't worry, though, you may cancel the membership from your account dashboard at any time before the trial period ends to avoid the subscription charge. Read on for detailed instructions.
How do I cancel my subscription membership or free trial?
Although we'd hate to see you go, you are free to cancel your membership at any time. You have complete control over your account activity including billing, and may stop recurring subscription charges from your account dashboard:
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Log into your account at the top of any page on the website (or from the mobile menu on your tablet or smartphone).
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Select the "My Subscriptions" option from your account menu.
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Click the arrow next to your subscription plan name to expand the menu.
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Click the "Cancel Subscription" link.
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Confirm cancellation by clicking the "Yes, Cancel" button.
Customer Satisfaction and Refunds
How do I know if the Music Amusement Park will be a good fit for my elder's needs and musical tastes?
You may trial the all of the activities, music, and downloads in the Music Amusement Park for 3 days before being charged your choice of a monthly or annual subscription fee. The 5-Minute Music Preference Quiz is also helpful in determining whether the music, upon which the activities are based, match your elder's music preferences. Don't take the quiz for your elder…his or her answers may surprise you!
Can I give feedback on the activities?
Yes, please! Either use the yellow chat box on the website or email us at info@livingmelodies.com. You can also click the email button or link at the top of any page. On occasion, you might also see links to surveys in our weekly email asking you to tell us what you love, what you’d change, and what kind of activities or themes you’re interested in.
What is the Music Amusement Park refund policy?
We offer a free, 3-day trial with full access to the entire Music Amusement Park before charging any membership fee to give you time to assess the quality and relevance of the music activities to your needs. Since some of the activities also include printable items that cannot be returned or recalled, we maintain a strict NO REFUNDS policy.
If you cancel an active subscription, we do not pro-rate the rest of the month or year for which you paid. You will continue to have access to all activities in the Music Amusement Park, including new ones as they are added, until the end of your membership billing period.
Using the Music Activities
How do I access the Music Amusement Park activities?
You must first create an account, and either sign up for a free, 3-day trial or have an active subscription to access the activities in the Music Amusement Park. You may use our 5-Minute Music Preference Quiz and browse each section of the library to see activity descriptions without logging in or creating an account.
How do I use the music activities in the Music Amusement Park with older adults?
Ample instructions, hints, hands outs, and interactive elements are provided to guide you through each activity. Looking for extra direction in initiating or choosing appropriate activities for your elder? Check out the "10 Tips to Engage Elders with Music" article in the Welcome section of the Music Amusement Park.
Can the activities be used in group settings?
Absolutely! The reminiscence activities, for example, provide great prompts for discussion. Many of the games and puzzles also work well in groups of various sizes. One of the best parts about rallying together members of a group to a common task is the sense of community it builds. Music adds an element of comfort through familiarity and establishes positive emotions that participants associate with the group experience.
Consider your particular setting with regards to copyright obligations when playing music recordings in a group setting. Every senior living community is unique in size, resident engagement, accessibility by the public, and use of music for leisure. How you deliver musical experiences constitutes one part of a set of conditions that determine when licensing should be obtained for "public" presentations of music. Plenty of educational resources However, they do not replace the expert advice of a qualified legal professional.
Can the activities be used by caregivers or professionals with elders individually?
Yes! The music-based activities in the Music Amusement Park provide ways to engage older adults in one-to-one interaction. Eliminate awkward lulls in conversation and ease transitions from caregiving to leisure socialization with ready-made discussion prompts and questions, trivia, games, puzzles, and music available both online and off.
Why do some activities include a recording of the music therapist, while others link to YouTube?
The quick and simple answer is whether or not a song's copyright permits it. Songs that are in the public domain may be performed or otherwise used without permission from the song's "owner." In order to record, publicly perform, broadcast, etc. a copyrighted song requires locating, requesting permission from, and paying the lawful copyright holder. For every recording played directly from the Living Melodies website, we either ensured that the song's copyright is expired or we paid a licensing fee to use it.
When we provide a link to a copyrighted song on YouTube, we still take great care to use only music that appears to have obtained the proper copyright licensing to the best of our knowledge. This maintains ethical use of the music. It also ensures that links in the Music Amusement Park won’t “go bad,” because YouTube took down a video for violating copyright law.
Another reason we direct you to YouTube is to provide the familiar voices and faces of the singers who made the songs famous. This brings about many positive memories for our elders. One thing to note, though. Be prepared for questions about whether singers are still alive or not. ;)
What if I find something in the Music Amusement Park that isn’t working properly?
We would greatly appreciate you letting us know if any aspect of the website or an activity is broken, glitchy, or unavailable. Email info@livingmelodies.com with the link, or web address, of the activity page giving you trouble along with a description of the problem. Alternatively, click the email button at the top of any page, the link from the menu bar, or using the chat box.