'Tremors vs Tremors' creates music to provide relief for people with Parkinson's

We all understand the power of music. What do you think of this informative five-minute footage, which charts the creation of tracks designed to help people with Parkinson's? Is it inspiring, do you want to learn more? More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s, a number expected to double over the next twenty years. The “Tremors vs. Tremors” project focuses on the individual nature of Parkinson’s and how it affects each person differently. There are over 40 symptoms to the condition, many of them hidden from view such as anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and apathy, that have a big impact on an individual’s day-to-day life and can make the condition harder to treat. Exploring the intersection of music, mood and movement, the project team measured the tremor of five people with Parkinson’s and composed unique songs with their tremor data embedded into the song’s core. The project was led by Neurologist Dr. Christian Lambert, a Principal Investigator at UCL who interviewed individuals affected by Parkinson’s and took recordings of their tremors. This was then sent to DaHouse, where the raw data of each participant’s tremor was transformed into a musical element and used to affect the instruments and melodies of the tracks. To ensure that each participant saw themselves in the song, the lyrics were based on their individual journey with Parkinson’s and the melody on their favourite music genre. The songs had a positive impact on the participants. The reactions were as individual as their condition. “I feel a physical change in my symptoms when I have an emotional reaction to things. And, there's nothing more emotional than music that's based on me”, said Kuhan, the participant whose song is called “The Greatest Day”. Clare, whose encouraging song “Starlight Keeper” is about acceptance said, "It made me consciously let go of my hands, instead of holding my hand to stop my tremor", and added, "I just want to share it with everybody. Listen to this. This is me, this is my tempo, this is my tremor."

Keywords: Tremors vs Tremors, University College London, Parkinson's relief, music and neurology, neurologist Dr. Christian Lambert, Lucas Mayer, DaHouse, Innocean Berlin