Songwriting pilot project makes positive impact on patients

The arts team at Royal Brompton Hospital has piloted a songwriting project with patients to help enhance their wellbeing. 

Heather McClelland, a resident musician with the team at the hospital, led 12 songwriting sessions for patients in their teens to their 70s.

Heather worked with several patients on wards at Royal Brompton, exploring their interests in music and their experiences of being in hospital, in either one single session or a short series of sessions.

She then supported them to form their thoughts into lyrics, and taught them approaches to creating melodies so they could complete the song together. Heather then created an arrangement and recording of the song, sometimes even adding the participants’ vocals.

Najay, 15, was one of the first patients to sign up for the project. As a long-term patient at Royal Brompton being treated for cystic fibrosis, Heather met Najay several times to help him write his song, called ‘How do I?’. It is about his hospital experience and finding comfort and safety there:

How do I find the words to say

When I know that you won’t change

How do I reach you

I don’t even know how

I find the words to say

When the story book will stay

And the pages go from night to day

How do we change

(How do I change)
 

Close your eyes

Go to bed

Have the sweet dreams that you need

Just go back to sleep

Have the sweet dreams that you need
 

The way you smiled

And the way you dressed

And the way your hair went down your neck

I remember the way you loved me

And the way that I loved you

As someone who loves music and creativity, Najay still says he surprised himself: “I’ve already done tiny little songs, but never on a scale like this, it’s really cool.

“When my mum played me the song in the morning to wake me up, it was the first time I had heard it and I was like ‘whoa’. The sun was shining through my window and I had tidied my room and it was a special moment.”

Heather arranged for Najay to perform the song with her on the ward, alongside champion beatboxer, Alex ABH, who works with the arts team on its Vocal Beats project.

Heather recalls: “We had to juggle the performance with Najay’s appointments, so when he finally came onto the ward to perform, everyone clapped – it was so special. Najay is well-loved here, all the staff who came were so moved to see him thrive.”

Another patient Heather worked with was a grandfather being treated for a lung condition. She helped him write a song for his granddaughter, whose 25^th birthday he was missing.

Heather says: “He told me how close they are as a family and how he’d almost never missed her birthday. He’d never done anything musical in his life, but he wrote a beautiful song about what she means to him, and she was so grateful to get a recording of it on her birthday.”

Heather also supported a retired GP, who wrote a song for his wife. She recalls: “He met her at church and their faith is a huge part of their lives. He loves music too, and writing poetry inspired by the Psalms, so we wrote a song with that in mind. He’s going to take it to his congregation so they can sing it in church.”

The arts team is now looking at ways to extend the project, not only to work with more patients but also to showcase the songs recorded as part of the pilot. 

“One of the best bits about this project has been the depth of conversations I’ve had with patients and the connections that music can help make," Heather adds. "One patient in her 20s wrote the most amazing song and told me she’d felt an emotional release just getting the words out. I think song writing can help alleviate some of the mental load that comes with being a ward patient.”

The rb&hArts team at Royal Brompton and Harefield runs an award-winning programme to help improve the clinical environment and the wellbeing of patients, visitors and staff. It includes live music performances, participatory workshops and exhibitions.