The Hand-in-Hand Music Program

Down in Canberra, the capital of Australia, Professor Susan West has created a remarkable music program that raises life energy. The community outreach program Hand-in-Hand, focuses on the altruistic and social use of music as a positive force for life enhancement. Children are encouraged to use music as a means of heart-felt communication between themselves and others, particularly the elderly, disabled and disadvantaged in the community.

Hand-in-Hand benefits participating children by encouraging:

• A broad appreciation for music's altruistic purpose and therapeutic function
• The children's ability to communicate effectively through their music
• An appreciation for the needs of others and the common bonds of humanity
• A positive self-image based on a meaningful contribution and the non-judgmental acceptance of others.
• The children's natural love of music and singing

The Hand-in-Hand program reaches out into communities, particularly through visits to elderly and special needs facilities, enhancing:

• Alertness and involvement in life
• Sociability with staff members and other residents
• Thought-processing and memory functioning
• Overall mood and outlook

Other benefits accrue to participating school and family systems with children developing musically, socially and educationally in ways which cannot be easily quantified but which are enthusiastically experienced at all levels of involvement.

For more information on the Hand-in-Hand program, please read The Canberra Hand-in-Hand Program by Dr. Peter Muir.

Mining Tin Pan Alley

In the following article, Susan West explains how children are encouraged to use music as a means of heartfelt communication between themselves and others, particularly the elderly, disabled and disadvantaged in the community. The songs of Tin Pan Alley can be used as a social, musical and educational resource in the development of music making based on a community-focused social and altruistic philosophy. Susan West is a Lecturer in Music Education at the School of Music at the Australian National University in Canberra.

This article describes a study into the use of popular music in a music education program for children, focussing particularly on the use of Tin Pan Alley repertoire. The philosophy of the program revolves around the practical use of music as an altruistic activity to benefit the community at large. The program Hand-in-Hand brings together classes of children (aged between 6 and 11) with groups of the elderly, disabled and/or disadvantaged in the community with the aim of altruistically sharing music-making as a means of life enhancement. The songs of Tin Pan Alley are used as a communicative ‘bridge’ between young and old focussing on active participation and shared musical experiences. The aim is not to provide choral groups that sing for nursing home residents but to share music one-on-one; to make music with the residents. The children engage individually with the residents through singing, movement, conversation and physical contact with a clear intent to encourage their musical participation. They aim to effect a positive change in the resident’s level of physical activity, mental acuity and emotional state.

The music of Tin Pan Alley was the obvious choice of material given that the initial target group for the Hand-in-Hand program was residents of aged-care nursing homes. The Tin Pan Alley era, which influenced the songs heard and written in Australia at the time, is generally considered to span roughly the first half of the twentieth century—1900-1950—ushered in by an article in the New York Times and brought to a close with the first performance of Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock.

...read the entire article

About Susan West, Founder of the Hand-in-Hand Program

Susan West trained in music performance at the Melbourne University Conservatorium of Music and the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia and obtained a post-graduate degree in music education from the Kodaly Institute of Hungary. After working as a professional musician with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra she was invited to the Canberra School of Music in 1984 to help establish the Music Education Program. Recognizing a need for different and more successful forms of music education, she continued her studies, first at Charles Sturt University and later with the Institute for Music and Health, New York. This work led to the establishment of the Music in Schools Program and the Hand-in-Hand outreach program that focuses on uniting children and the community in shared, altruistic music making. Ms. West’s work has attracted both national and international interest and the impact and benefits of her programs are being studied by students from Australia and abroad. Her work is also being documented in a range of short films from Ronin Films, Australian.

Her philosophy centers on the idea that music-making is our birthright and that the role of music education is simply to support the natural wish for musical involvement.

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