FIND YOUR LIFE SOUNDTRACK!
The Alive Inside APP makes it easy to discover the music that is our life soundtrack,
the music that links us to our pasts and to our earliest identity.
(Video tutorial here!)
We also created an online FREE course entitled Become an Empathy Music Detective!
This online course trains volunteers to find elders with dementia the music they love. This music has healing properties, it can awaken their memories and bring great joy to everyone involved!
STEP 1: GET SPOTIFY
You will need a Spotify account (Premium is better but the Free version is fine) -
Set this up on your tablet or computer.
You can easily download Spotify @ www.spotify.com
You can use both the web app or the desktop version. Both work, but we like the desktop version better!
STEP 2: INPUT INFO
Once you have Spotify all set up, you can sit down with your Elder!
We recommend you use a computer or tablet, and since you will be listening to music,
use two headphones with a splitter!
Open the App and click on "Create a Playlist".
- Type in your name and email!
- Then type in your Elder's Name and Birth Year.
We recommend using 01/01 for the day and month- all we want is the birth year.
Now you have completed all the required steps.
(If you are in a rush you can press QUICK LIST and it will take you to the last page!)
If you want to do the long version, press Next.
As you work through the questions you will learn a whole lot about your Elder.
Remember, you can put in more than one answer for any of the drop-down fields- they are the only ones that will contribute to your music list-
STEP 3: WHEN DONE, PRESS THE BIG BLUE “INTERVIEW IS DONE” BUTTON
STEP 4: NOW EDIT YOUR SONGS WITH YOUR ELDER
Here is your Elder's playlist.
- In the search bar above, you can add additional artists at any time.
Sometimes the artist you had included in the questionnaire might not show up- just re-enter them here!
- As you play the songs, your elder will remember new artists- enter them in the search bar!
- If you click on Speaker you can hear the song.
- If you click on +5 you will add five songs by the same artist.
- If your Elder doesn't like or respond to some songs, you can delete them from the list by pressing the “x” next to the song.
OR, if you play them one of the songs and they say “Oh wait! THAT’s the song I was thinking of!” - you can click the circular arrow button to make a new playlist from that song - however, this will erase your first list, so be sure that you want to do that!
STEP 5: ALL DONE!!! NOW SAVE TO SPOTIFY!
When your playlist looks good, press the button that says “Save Playlist to Spotify”
STEP 6: SIGN IN TO SPOTIFY
If you are not already signed in, a window will appear (if it doesn’t, turn off your ad blocking extension) to sign in to your Spotify Account.
STEP 7: ALL DONE!
Now your playlist is on Spotify!
Now you can go through and edit the list and add and delete songs.
You can also export your list to help you load your headphones!
To export your list, click on the three dots (...) to the right of the green Play/Pause button
Then press Copy Playlist Link or Copy Spotify URL and paste in a program like SongGrabber if you have a large music collection or KeepVid if you want to download songs for your Elder from YouTube
STEP 8: PRO ACCOUNT TRICK!
If you are using a phone with a Pro Spotify Account and you have WiFi- click the button that says “Make Available Offline”, and after a couple of minutes, you will be able to play all of these songs without internet!
