musical moments
the happiness business - since 2011
what we do
musical moments provides stimulating and interactive musical activities for your care setting. we work with over a thousand care homes across the UK providing a unique and engaging activity that you’ll have never experienced before - sessions that include live music performed by our musicians, safe and appropriate exercise and movement to music, interactive music activities with props, the opportunity for your residents to sing and perform with instruments and reminiscence to music in a carefully structured yet flexible activity.
we ensure to involve everyone in the group, no matter what their ability, through the use of interactive music, singing and movement.
established back in 2011, musical moments primarily specialises in activities for older people living with dementia but work with a variety of different community groups and abilities. we are working towards becoming a Dementia Friendly organisation and our team are fully trained in music making with older people. our sessions are accessible and affordable, meaning that your community group can benefit from the positive effects of music with us on a regular basis.
sessions for care homes
We provide your residents with something that they’ll have never experienced before – our award-winning sessions use music to help stimulate and engage, with the combination of music, movement, role play activities, reminiscence activities and live music.
Our sessions are lively, full of energy and fun. We work to involve and engage with every member of the group.
We have worked with many different groups over the years, mostly in care and nursing homes with people living with dementia but we can also tailor our sessions for active elderly groups, day care centres, and other specialist needs.
Our sessions are carefully planned to give your group music-based activities that benefit their well-being in several different ways, we’re no ordinary ‘entertainer’.
Every session contains a variety of different music to suit everyone’s taste; every resident has the opportunity to sing, move and play instruments in our sessions. We also do themes throughout the year and can deliver a themed session at your home any time for no extra charge.
- we tick all of the CQC meaningful activity boxes
- we deliver over 200 sessions a month, working with an average of 3,000 members of the community
why musical moments?
what we do for you
- a unique activity that combines live music, safe exercise, sensory activities, reminiscence and relaxation
- a budget-friendly and affordably priced activity, so that your residents can benefit from our sessions on a regular basis
- different sessions every time we visit, we have almost 200 different activities and are constantly adding more, so your session will always be fresh and varied
- every team member has full insurance, safeguarding training and DBS checks
what your residents get from us
- a friendly and professional musician to deliver your activity, we make meaningful relationships with your residents and genuinely care about every person in our group
- helping to improve your residents' happiness, well-being and social interaction through music
- movement through music, which can help to improve hand-eye coordination, flexibility and strength
- activities inspired by music therapy and the extremely important exposure to live music
- interaction, fun and contact with an outside organisation
about us
let's start at the very beginning... a very good place to start
Musical Moments™ provides Community Music Sessions for all groups in the community – aiming to bring joy, happiness and social inclusion to everyone that we work with. Starting back in 2011, Beckie Morley was just about to finish her final year at Leeds College of Music, studying her BA Hons in Music. She had a particular interest in music therapy, music psychology and mostly, how music affects people living with dementia, as her Nana at the time was living with dementia in a care home.
she noticed especially at how much her Nana and the residents responded to music-based activities and entertainment, but couldn’t help thinking that there didn’t seem to be enough musicians out there doing this important job. After completing a twelve-week placement at a dementia hospital, and graduating with a 2:1, she decided to move back to her home town in Congleton, Cheshire and to deliver some of her sessions to local care homes (including her Nana’s care home).
the sessions went down extremely well and were booked again with the care homes, after a few months Beckie found that the sessions were extremely popular and found that she was able to leave her part-time waitressing job and take on her sessions as a full-time job. After two years, Beckie was working with over 60 different care homes across Cheshire and Staffordshire and was also the winner of the East Cheshire Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Most Promising New Business Award’. This award helped to boost business even more, prompting more charities and other organisations to come forward and take advantage of the service that Musical Moments provides.
Beckie was getting busier with sessions and found she had a waiting list of three months before she could fit her bookings in. At this point, she decided that it was time to expand and take on other musicians to help her deliver the sessions. She took on Beth, a friend from the theatre who was looking for a new and flexible job, and together the two of them delivered the sessions to the care homes in the local area.
it was only months later when the team grew again, to further areas of Cheshire West, Chester and South Manchester. By 2016 the team had grown to the size of six and were delivering up to ten sessions a day in different care homes. It was also at this time that Beckie found that the demand was growing to other areas of the UK, enquiries were coming in from all areas and she realised that the work and our service needed to be delivered on a bigger scale. She took the decision to franchise the model that she created five years before to be able to provide more sessions to care homes, plus more jobs and careers for musicians out there.
after spending twelve months making a model that is ethical, fair and sustainable, Beckie launched the franchise opportunity in February 2017. We began recruiting from November 2017 and have taken on fifteen franchisees in just under two years. Musical Moments continues to grow, providing our essential work in care homes, charities, communities and anyone who wants more music in their community setting. We hope to continue this growth in the future and reach out to more communities across the UK.