![]() We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Īfter the session, Rachel Wallbank, of the long Covid rehab team at the Cardiff and Vale university health board, said Wales had a long tradition of using music as therapy. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. These techniques help you to come out the other side a bit quicker.” skip past newsletter promotion There are times you try to walk upstairs and you can’t breathe. It has also helped me control my breath better. That’s positive that I hear something coming back. “I get more sound when I sing than when I speak. ![]() My vocal cords don’t close when I speak but they do when I sing. “Medically I’ve got a team around me that’s been really helpful but it’s this sort of programme that has really made the difference. Now it comes and goes and I’ve been left with a permanent cough. It’s been amazing.”Ĭarolyn, who has trouble talking, said: “I haven’t spoken for 14 months with my own voice. “But I feel I’m towards the end of that horrendous, rough, muddy road. “This is the first really positive thing I have done for the last two years,” she said. One of the women, Dee, was close to tears as she explained how the sessions had helped. She played the piano and sang along – rounds of “doobie doobie doo” and to conclude, a folk song called Woyaya that ends: “But we’ll get there / Heaven knows how we will get there / But we know we will.” “You can breathe, hum along or just be,” Woolveridge told them.įinally came the singing. The group listened to a recording of the WNO performing the Humming Chorus from Madama Butterfly. She asked them to check how much air they had left – and most said they still had some breath, which they found comforting. Woolveridge asked one of the group to imagine what colour this bubble might be and she opted for “mushy pea green”.Īnother was asked to suggest a scent – she went for rose – and the group was asked to take in, then breathe out the imaginary fragrance. She invited them to stretch and notice the strength in their bodies before leading breathing exercises (or games as she preferred to call them) that included drawing a “status bubble” around themselves. Woolveridge first asked the six to plant their feet on the ground, picture the energy beneath the Earth’s surface and try to connect to it, enjoying the feeling of “groundedness”. There was joy, a lot of smiles and a few tears as she encouraged them to find their “inner opera singer”, a proud and powerful figure. The Guardian joined a session this week when Woolveridge worked with six women. Mezzo-soprano Kate Woolveridge, who is one of a team of singers and teachers running the long Covid sessions.
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