She's "A Good Hearted Woman"... because of her music

Credit: Facebook profile of author

Dorothy LeBlanc is more than a musician--try an angel in disguise. She claims she is not a music therapist because she is not certified. Regardless, Laura approached her without any awareness of the story behind it all for Dorothy. We thank Dorothy for submitting her piece for our spring 2025 newsletter's focus on "All Things Sensory"--a sampling of the secret menu of sensory perks by individuals, organizations, and businesses found in the Baton Rouge area. Like previously mentioned, Dorothy is not a certified music therapist, however, her music changes lives each time she plays for an audience. I, Laura, first met Dorothy years ago as I was a college student and volunteered doing activities with older adults affected by dementia. I have since heard her countless times strum a guitar, play a piano, and sing aloud. I reached out to Dorothy when Johanna and I as co-editors of the Connections newsletter decided to embrace the “All Things Sensory” part of the spring 2025 newsletter and go deeper on the level of “Making Sense of Sensory.”  I, Laura, am a believer that Autism and dementia are a lot alike–both are spectrum disorders. In conclusion, after reading Dorothy’s submission, I wholeheartedly agree that Dorothy is/has been an angel to many through her music.

Everyday Music Therapy

by Dorothy C. LeBlanc

I have always loved music. I began on piano when I was 5, moving to flute and guitar, and on to a myriad of other stringed instruments as an adult. I know the power of music in my life, having worked as a songwriter and performer for the majority of my last 22 years (post-breast cancer). But even before my musical career began, I had a life-changing music therapy experience while caring for my terminally ill mother. She had advanced stage breast cancer, which had settled in her bones. I would sit with her from 9 to noon most days to give my caregiver dad a chance to rest and recharge. The pain of bone cancer was excruciating for my mom. My job was to put a drop of morphine on her tongue at 9:00am and to entertain her until noon, when she could have

more pain medicine. It broke my heart when, each morning at 9:15, she asked me if it had been 3 hours yet. That morphine did not relieve my mom's pain in the least. But one day, everything changed…

One morning I arrived at her home with 2 Willie Nelson CDs, filled with pop standards that she knew from her youth. As soon as the music started to play, she began to sing along. Stories flowed about her dating days with my dad, about dances she had attended, about the performers who had originally performed these epic songs. As long as the music flowed, she did not once ask for more medicine. These CDs offered my mom more relief than morphine ever did. That was my first hands-on experience with music as Therapy.

In 2003, after my treatment for breast cancer, I decided to make music a career. I began as a children's musician, offering interactive music to preschoolers. I had a wonderful opportunity to interact with children who had different learning styles. I was soon asked to work with the children at a special preschool on the LSU campus for children with speech delays.

I found several techniques that benefited these special learners, including one 3-year- old child with autism who had yet to speak. I began a fill-in-the-blanks music game. I made eye contact with him to make sure he was with me, and then I began to sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider, very slowly. At the end of each line, I paused to give him a chance to sing the next word. This works very well with rhyming words. I sang: “The itsy bitsy spider went up the water” _____, and right on cue, he said “spout”. The speech therapy students who were working in the preschool were stunned!

I went on to the next line:

“Down came the rain and washed the spider” _____, and again he responded, with “out”. I will never forget that moment in time. Music can open doors for people who don't respond to other stimuli. Time and again, it is a game-changer.

A few years later, I received an inquiry about performing for senior citizens with dementia and Alzheimer's. Very similar to my experience with my mother, I embraced the opportunity to share the tunes of their youth in an interactive, sing-along posture. The songs of the 1920s through the 1950s made up my set list, ranging from It Had To Be You to Hey Good Looking to This Land is Your Land to You Are My Sunshine, and so many more! In many respects, music empowered these precious seniors.

Within my groups who assembled, some were basically unaware of their surroundings. Once I began to play and sing You Are My Sunshine and Let Me Call You Sweetheart, I noticed members in the audience start to tap their toes to the beat as they sang along! One woman did not recognize her own son when he arrived at a performance, yet she sang every word to the songs Yes Sir, That's My Baby and Ain't She Sweet. Music was pure joy to her at that moment.

I often conducted these performances late in the day. That's the time of day when some suffer from more agitation and restlessness. I found that jazz voicings and smoother tunes were the answer to performing when these conditions were present. But in a more lethargic setting, standard tuning and more playful tunes worked wonders. I have a simple personal theory to answer the question, “How can someone remember songs that they knew 50 years ago, yet they cannot remember what they did 5 minutes ago?” I remember my parents telling me how important a radio was in imparting information and providing entertainment during their own early years. These were days before the invention of the television. Active listening involved focusing on the words with no visual accompaniment (like a TV would one day provide). It allowed the listener to envision for themselves what was happening in the broadcast. I think this needed level of concentration in those days made a lasting impression on those who listened.

Universities now offer wonderful programs in Music Therapy. I was not a student of the

School of Music at LSU, as I studied Home Economics, Consumerism, and Family Life and

Environment, graduating in 1978. These stories and musings come not from a licensed

music therapist, but from one who has observed that music can enhance lives in amazingways.

Reference

Jennings, W., & Nelson, W. (1972).Good hearted woman [Performed by Willie Nelson]. On The Words Don't Fit the Picture. RCA.