Bedside Performances – Share Your Musical Talent With Our Hospice Patients

If you have been gifted with the ability to play guitar, sing, or play any musical instrument that can be featured solo and carried from room to room, please consider sharing your talent with our patients.

Many of those who we serve can no longer interact with their environment in a coherent way, but music can still reach them as evidenced by their attempts to sing, or a new smile on their face, or by their slight wiggling of their feet.

We welcome musicians to casually perform at the bedside of our patients. This is meant to be a one-to-one situation where live music is shared intimately to maybe reminisce, or maybe to sooth feelings, but mostly just to connect two people in a moment.

We are thinking of a guitarist (with or without signing), but we are open to what you can offer: ukulele, violin, and/or harp have been done, too. It should be acoustic. And if you want to sing for them without any accompaniment that has been done before, too.

You should have a level of proficiency with your instrument that you are comfortable playing Infront of another.Having the ability (and interest) to play a wide array of songs is beneficial, as we serve a wide array of people all with different backgrounds, but if your focus is specific, like Gospel or Country we can target opportunities with known interest in your genera.

One thing to keep in mind is that the majority of our patients are in their 80’s and 90’s, so the music that they grew up with during their formative years is from the 40’s and 50’s, and maybe early 60’s.

This is not meant to be therapy, but a different way for patients to be kept company and supported. (Ascend Hospice does employ several Music Therapists for the purpose of therapy.)

If you respond to this post, declaring your interest in serving in this way, the Volunteer Supervisor will email you more information about the onboarding process so you can make an informed decision about getting involved. In short, however, there is a training obligation, and some health checks (including the annual flu shot) and a background check needed before you can be assigned to visit patients. This is true for all Hospice Volunteers no matter how they serve.

You do need to be 18 years old, or older. You should have reliable transportation to be able to get to where our patients are. And, most importantly, you need to have time to give. If this is you, please reply to this post.