The Importance Of Community Music

that challenged their music identity, sense-of-self, and zest for living. Overall, participants’ emotional wellness was viewed as personal benefits of participating in community music.

Second, the intellectual wellness dimension of human development explains higher brain processing of abstract thinking such as worldly ideas, humor, curiosity, learning and mastering music skills, which protected brain health. A common narrative was enjoyment of learning new, unfamiliar, diversified, and cognitively challenging repertories, which indicated music education, was a substantial motivator to protect against cognitive decline. For example, narratives indicated participants valued lifelong learning of music because participants believed being actively

Narratives were difficult to discern in terms of which came first: being physically healthy to age well, or physically fit for the love of performing music. These narratives reveal participants’ music identities, values, and beliefs of being committed to physical fitness for community music participation. Narratives strongly suggested there was a synergistic effect of health and music. That is, participants needed to be healthy to participate in music, and the corollary was that music provided the reason to be healthy. Participants that made adaptations to aging processes to continue music performances took daytime naps and changed mealtime schedules for late-night concerts, sat down during long concerts, and changed nutrition and exercise routines. Likewise, narratives suggested that despite sensory adaptations to hearing, vision, and muscular-skeletal symptoms, aging processes did not disrupt quality of life by participating in community music. Therefore, participants’ narratives evidenced their acceptance of the aging process, and when adaptations arose, they chose appropriate actions to ameliorate their conditions. Yet, a few narratives show personal benefits of physical wellness enhanced participants’ music competencies, sustained youthfulness, and maintenance of cognitive simulation. Overall, narratives provided evidence that physical fitness, healthy nutrition, and intellectual energy were personal benefits to performing