Bell Choirs for Care
A bell choir is a collaborative, social program that can be used to improve health and wellness outcomes.
Watch Promo
Why is this course important?
This course is important because a bell choir is a group musical experience that can be facilitated with minimal formal music training and still have maximal therapeutic impact. A bell choir is a collaborative, social program that can be used to improve health and wellness outcomes.
After this course students will be prepared to:
- Demonstrate bell playing ability and capacity to teach others
- Understand music fundamentals of melody and harmony and how they relate to bell choirs
- Define appropriate goals, outcomes and planning strategies for a bell choir in your care context
- Analyze leadership techniques and practices that can be used to support participants (of different capacities) to participate in the bell choir
- Demonstrate clear communication strategies while leading a bell choir
6-10 key topic areas that will be covered in 10 modules
- Introduction: What is a bell choir?
- How do you take care of bells
- Music Fundamentals
- Participating (in a bell choir)
- Leading (a bell choir)
- Planning (for your bell choir)
- Warm-up, drills and skills
- Program Ideas
- Warm-up, drills and skills
Supporting Materials
Students will be provided with a handbook that includes a:
- Buyer’s guide
- Song book
- Bell choir planning template
- Links page of other resources (youtube videos, websites, etc)
Your Instructor
Chelsea Mackinnon is a music and health educator and researcher with extensive experience integrating music into the long-term care context. Chelsea holds a master’s degree in music and health sciences, a master’s degree in innovation, entrepreneurship and management in healthcare, and an undergraduate degree in health sciences.
Brad Haalboom is a recreation therapist who completed his undergraduate degree at Wilfrid Laurier University majoring in Psychology. He has been using music as a primary care tool in his recreation therapy practice for many years.
Chelsea and Brad co-created IMHope, which is a social enterprise whose goal is connecting communities and improving the quality of life of community members using music and intergenerational programs. Chelsea and Brad are also sessional instructors at McMaster University where they teach on the topic of music and health within the faculty of health sciences.