The Funny Moments you can't plan

You think you’re about to sing Let There Be Love… and suddenly someone confidently shouts “WOMEN!” instead of love.

And just like that, the whole room erupts.

That’s care home singing - you can be mid-song, perfectly poised, and one unexpected word from a resident completely changes the moment in the best possible way.

Recently, I had one of those sessions.

There were lots of little distractions and interruptions. Nothing wrong with that, just lots of things happening at once. It was one of those sessions where I was gently trying to bring everyone’s attention back into the moment before the next thing happened.

And then, on this particular day, a tambourine made an appearance.

One of the lovely carers was shaking it with such enthusiasm that it had, shall we say, developed its own interpretation of the rhythm. Now, musically speaking, it wasn’t exactly helping me keep everything together.

I made a very gentle joke about it being just a little bit out of time, very carefully, because the last thing I wanted to do was discourage this lovely lady from having such fun. So there was no way I was taking the tambourine away from her.

There were plenty of other little moments too, and the whole session was a bit more, shall we say, lively than usual. But it was fun.

I do like things to be organised. I like the music ready, the running order in my head and everyone knowing what we’re doing. But live music in care homes doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes the room has other ideas. And sometimes, right in the middle of all those distractions, you get a moment that makes everyone laugh.

You can have your plan, but you also have to leave a little room for whatever happens next. Even if that happens to be a very enthusiastic tambourine going at full speed. 😂

And perhaps that’s one of the things that makes care home entertainment so rewarding. You never quite know what is going to happen. But you do know that when the music starts, something is going to happen in that room, and the moments you couldn’t possibly have planned are the ones you’ll remember.